Brazilian and European Portuguese

This course teaches Brazilian Portuguese, more precisely the neutral standard of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has more than 200 million speakers, about twenty times as many as Portugal. Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde and the other Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa and Asia generally follow the European standard in writing.

The differences are a bit like those between American and British English. The grammar is essentially the same and educated speakers understand each other, although Brazilians often need a little time to get used to the European accent. What changes is mostly pronunciation, the way people say “you”, where small pronouns go, some spellings and everyday vocabulary.

The biggest difference is in the vowels. Brazilians pronounce every syllable fairly clearly. In Portugal unstressed vowels are much weaker and an unstressed e often disappears, so telefone sounds almost like “tlfón”. This makes European Portuguese sound faster and full of consonants.

Several Brazilian sounds taught in this course are not used in Portugal: t and d before an “i” sound stay plain (dia, noite), and a final -l is a real “l” (Brasil).

In Brazil você is the everyday “you” for one person, with the same verb form as ele and ela: você fala. In Portugal friends, family and young people say tu, with its own verb form: tu falas, tu és. Você exists in Portugal too, but it can sound distant or even rude, so people often use the person's name or just the verb: Quer um café? (Would you like a coffee?)

Vós, the old plural “you”, is found only in prayers, old texts and a few rural dialects. Both countries use vocês for more than one person. Tu is also used in parts of Brazil, especially the South, but often with the ele form of the verb: tu vai.

What you're doing now. Brazil uses estar + the gerund (the -ndo form): estou fazendo. Portugal uses estar a + infinitive: estou a fazer. Both mean “I'm doing”.

Where small pronouns go. Brazilians put me, te, se before the verb: Me chamo Ana. In Portugal, and in formal Brazilian writing, they go after the verb, joined with a hyphen: Chamo-me Ana. Brazilians also often say ele or ela for “him” and “her” (vi ele), which is not used in Portugal (vi-o).

Articles and possessives. In Portugal the article before a possessive is normal: o meu carro. In Brazil it's optional: meu carro or o meu carro. Portugal also uses a gente (we) less than Brazil and prefers nós.

The spelling agreement of 1990, in force since the 2010s, brought the two spellings much closer. Some differences remain, mostly because the words are pronounced differently: Portugal writes an acute accent where the vowel is open, Brazil a circumflex where it is closed.

Watch out for fato: in Brazil it means “fact”, in Portugal it means “suit”, and “fact” is facto.

Most words are the same, but some everyday ones differ. Brazilians know many of the European words, and the Portuguese know the Brazilian ones from TV series and music.

Take care with rapariga: in Portugal it simply means “girl”, but in much of Brazil it's an insult. Brazilians say moça or menina.