If I learn Spanish, will I understand Portuguese?
By Mert Yerekapan · Updated
Partly. If you know Spanish, you can usually read Portuguese and get the gist with little effort, but understanding spoken Portuguese is much harder. The languages share a lot of vocabulary and grammar, but Portuguese pronunciation is quite different, with nasal vowels and reduced sounds that Spanish doesn't have.
Why they look so similar
Spanish and Portuguese both come from Latin and developed side by side on the Iberian Peninsula. They share a huge amount of vocabulary and similar grammar, such as gendered nouns, verb conjugations and many of the same tenses.
Compare:
| English | Spanish | Portuguese |
|---|---|---|
| thank you | gracias | obrigado / obrigada |
| house | casa | casa |
| I have | tengo | tenho |
| night | noche | noite |
| to speak | hablar | falar |
Reading a Portuguese sentence, a Spanish speaker usually recognizes a good part of it.
Why listening is harder
Portuguese sounds very different from Spanish. Three things in particular:
- Nasal vowels. Words like não and pão use nasal sounds Spanish doesn't have.
- Reduced vowels. Unstressed vowels get weak or disappear, especially in European Portuguese.
- Different consonants. Sounds like sh in many contexts and the way d and t change before certain vowels in Brazilian Portuguese.
Spanish has clear, consistent vowels. Portuguese does not, so your ear has to retrain. European Portuguese is generally considered harder for Spanish speakers to understand than Brazilian Portuguese.
False friends and traps
Some words look the same and mean different things. Examples: exquisito means "exquisite" in Spanish, but esquisito in Portuguese means "weird". Embarazada means "pregnant" in Spanish, but embaraçada in Portuguese is "embarrassed". Look out for these, as with Spanish false friends generally.
Will you get a head start?
Yes, a big one. Many people say that Spanish speakers can become comfortable with Portuguese faster than English speakers can. You already know a lot of the vocabulary and the verb system.
But there's a danger: "Portuñol", a mix of both. If you're not careful, you'll speak Spanish with Portuguese words, and neither speaker will be happy. Give Portuguese its own study time and practice its sounds separately.
Should you learn both?
Be careful about starting two similar languages at once, because they interfere with each other. I think it's better to reach a solid level in Spanish before starting Portuguese. More on that in learning two languages at once.
The practical answer
You'll be able to read signs, menus and simple texts in Portuguese right away. You'll struggle to follow speech until you've listened to a good amount of it. For Spanish listening, slowed-down stories with subtitles help your ear get used to the sounds, which is what I built Langtok for, so I'm biased. Treat it as a bonus that makes learning Portuguese easier, not as free understanding.