Currently Spanish is ranked around the second or third most spoken language in the word, it is estimated that approximately 425 million people speak it daily, it is also the most popular foreign language for English speakers to learn. However, another language, Portuguese, is extremely similar to Spanish – more so than Italian or French, even Catalan.. So much so that they have often been described as different variants of the same language, as opposed to two separate languages.
Technically it is impossible to measure how similar Portuguese and Spanish are, as each language is continually changing. However, anybody with a basic knowledge of Spanish will find that they are capable of understanding a small level of written Portuguese, and with very little practice they can pick up the pronunciation of the language.
However, there are also some differences between the languages, otherwise they wouldn’t be independently classified. The biggest difference between the two is the pronunciation, where Spanish has the easiest pronunciation of all the Latin languages, Portuguese has by far the most difficult. As you start learning Portuguese you will instantly find that the pronunciation is not only difficult, but it is also unnatural. However, it only takes a few weeks of practice to adjust to it and from then on it’ll seem like the easiest, most natural thing in the world.
Fortunately each difference poses a benefit as well as a disadvantage. For example, the difficult pronunciation of Portuguese words means that although they are extremely similar to Spanish, and are often spelled almost the same, it is near impossible to accidentally mix the words between the two languages as the pronunciation is so different.
Another beneficial difference between the two is the days of the week, this poses a problem for most learners who want to learn Spanish and French/Italian as the days of the week are very similar, yet different enough for them not to have a meaning in the opposite language. This problem doesn’t exist between Portuguese and Spanish as the Portuguese days of the week follow a completely different pattern.
I have labeled just a few of the similarities and differences between Spanish and Portuguese – there are, of course, many, many more of them. But each time there is a difference there is a similarity. The days of the week and the pronunciation differences being perfect examples. Therefore I strongly advise that you use your Spanish knowledge to begin learning Portuguese.
Max Webb.
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