Portuguese - Português

Why learn Portuguese?

Portuguese is the sixth most widely spoken language in the world for number of L1 (native language) speakers, and it is the official language in ten countries. Although the majority of speakers live in Brazil, Portuguese originated from Latin in Portugal, the oldest nation state in Europe.

Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese differ in a similar way to American and British English - in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary - but are essentially the same language.

Portuguese will be easier to learn if you have knowledge of other Romance languages like French, Italian or Spanish, and it will be equally helpful if you are thinking of studying one of those languages in future. Interesting fact: a bookshop in Porto, northern Portugal, and its imposing staircase, is thought to have inspired author J K Rowling, who lived in the city for two years, to develop ideas for the first Harry Potter book she was writing at the time.

What are some key phrases?

Are there any words I might recognise?

You may have heard of the Portuguese words “fado”, whose traditional meaning is “fate” and is a traditional form of music, or “janeiro”, for ‘January’. Also, in many cases you can easily create the Portuguese equivalent, for example of English words ending in “-ty” by replacing the suffix with “-dade”, as in: city -> cidade, velocity -> velocidade, simplicity -> simplicidade and so on.