Flags of Portugal, Brazil and Spain.
Portuguese and Spanish are so similar. Portugal is next door to Spain in Europe and Portuguese speaking Brazil is surrounded by Spanish speaking countries in South America. It makes sense to learn to recognize a few words of both languages, especially if you are travelling from one to another. I always try to learn a few words in the month or six months before my next trip.
You find Portuguese words in South America (Brazil - population more than two hundred million), Europe (Portugal - population more than ten million), the island of Madeira in the Atlantic, Asia (Macau and East Timor) and Africa.
Map of the world showing Portuguese speaking countries. Source: Wikipedia.
Rio De Janeiro
You may think you don't know a single word of Portuguese, but actually you know three. You know the name of the city Rio de Janeiro? Right? That's river of January.De is of.
Let's see if we can compile a list of instantly recognizable Portuguese and Spanish words.
I went into Google translate and typed out a lot of everyday words. I deleted those translations which were too hard to remember and left only those which were instantly recognizable
1) ENGLISH WORDS - Portuguese
river - rio
January - Janeiro
water - água
tea - chá
wine - vinho
5 words
garden - jardim
sea - mar
street - rua
king - rei (with an e as in regal)
sandwich - sanduiche
Another 5. That's 10
pizza - pizza
hamburger - Hamburger
meat - carne
cheese - queijo
pork - carne de porco
15 words.
salmon - salmão
smoked salmon - salmão fumado
salad - salada
glass of water -copo de água - cup or glass of water, (agua sounds like aquarium filled with water)
cup of tea - copo de chá
20 words
white coffee - café branco
sugar - açúcar (Remember the c with the cedilla or tail underneath sounds lik an s or sh)
brown sugar -açúcar mascavo - ( Muscovado sugar gets its name from here)
cocktail - coquetel
bar - barra
25 words
restaurant - restaurante
toilet - banheiro
ladies - senhoras
gentlemen - cavalheiros
girls - meninas
30 words
shoes - sapatos (memory aid: footwear to separate your toes)
sandals - sandália (notice the accent on the a)
jacket - jaqueta
blouse - blusa
flower - flor
35 words
flowers - flores
pretty - bonita
good - boa
beach - de praia
sea - mar
40 words
good morning - bom dia
good afternoon - boa tarde
good evening - boa noite
good night - boa noite
goodbye -Tchau
hello - Olá
46 words
Not bad for day one.
Let's get to 50 words.
Pick colours - just the ones which are easy to remember.
pink - rosa
green - verde
48 words
Some essentials:
passport - passaporte (keep the double s, just add an e in Portuguese)
immigration - imigração
That's 50! Here are the translations into Portuguese
2) PORTUGUESE - ENGLISH
rio - river
Janeiro - January
água - water
chá - tea
vinho - wine
jardim - garden
mar - sea
rua - street
rei - king
sanduíche - sandwich
pizza - pizza
Hamburger - hamburger
carne (meat - like our English word carnivore meaning meat-eater)
queijo - cheese (c/ch/qu and ee/ei = cheese)
carne de porco (meat of pork)
salmão - salmon
salmão fumado - smoked salmon (think of salmon left in the fumes of smoke)
salada - salad
copo de água - cup or glass of water, (agua sounds like aquarium filled with water)
copo de chá (cup of tea, we used to say cha and the char lady did chores and served tea)
café branco - white coffee
açúcar - sugar (Remember the c with the cedilla or tail underneath sounds lik an s or sh)
açúcar mascavo - sugar Muscovado)
coquetel - cocktail
Barra - bar
restaurante - restaurant
banheiro - toilet, bathroom
senhoras - ladies
cavalheiros - men (cavaliers, horseback riders, chivalry)
meninas (Like the painting Las Meninas)
sapatos - shoes
sandálias (sandals)
jaqueta - jacket
blusa - blouse
flor - flower
flores - flowers
bonita - pretty
Boa - good
de praia - beach
mar - sea
bom Dia - good day/good morning
boa tarde - good afternoon (tarde, tardy, late)
boa noite - good evening or night
boa noite - good night
Tchau - goodbye
Olá - hello! (like 'allo backwards)
rosa - pink
verde - green
Then I did the translation Spanish into Englsih
Rio - river
enero - January
Agua - water
te - tea
vino - wine
jardin - garden
mar - sea
Calle - street
Rey - king
sandwich - sandwich
pizza - pizza
Hamburguesa - hamburger
carne - meat
queso - cheese
carne de puerco - pork
salmón - salmon
salmón ahumado - smoked salmon
ensalada - salad
vaso de agua - glass of water
taza de te - cup of tea
cafe blanco - white coffee
azucar - sugar
azúcar moreno - brown sugar
cóctel - cocktail
Bar - bar
restaurante - restaurant
baño - bathoom
señoras - gentlemen
señores - ladies
chicas
zapatos - shoes
sandalias - sandals
Chaqueta - jacket
camisa - blouse (remember, top, like the word camisole)
flor - flower
flores - flowers
hermosa - pretty
Bueno - good
de playa - beach, like the French plage, think of playing on the beach
mar - like the English word marine and French word mer)
Buen día - good day/god morning
buenas tardes -
buenas noches - good evening
buenas noches - good night
Adios - goodbye
Hola - hello
1b) More English to Portuguese
English - Portuguese
river - rio
pink - rosa
green - verde
2b) Back to Portuguese to English
Portuguese - English
rio - river
rosa - pink
verde - green
3 ) Now English to Spanish
English - Spanish
river -
pink
green
4) Spanish - English
Finally, compare the Spanish and the Portuguese
Spanish - Portuguese
5) English - Portuguese - Spanish
river - rio -rio
January - Janeiro - Enero
wine - vinho - vino (add an h for the Portuguese)
garden - jardim - jardin (Spanish is closer to French and English, ending in n. Portuguese uses m.)
sea - mar - mar (the same sea, same in both languages)
street - rua - calle (the Portuguese is easier, closer to the French word rue)
king - rei - rey (Spanish for king is with a y, like the English regal; Portugese just the quick i)
meat - carne - carne (the same in both languages)
Useful Websites
Languages
translate google
duolingo
duolingo.com
https://www.visitbrasil.com/key-information/language.html
memrise
memrise.com
https://www.mezzoguild.com/portuguese-and-brazilian/
Travel
https://www.visitportugal.com/en
https://www.visitbrasil.com/
About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, speaker, author, and teacher of languages.
Latest book: An ebook Improve Your English. Several books by different authors have that title. Make sure to add the name Angela Lansbury.
I have written a post about the Spanish restaurant in Melaka, called Salud which means cheers.
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About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a trave writer and phtographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.
Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a langauge evaluator or grammarian. We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.
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