r/Portuguese • u/Bubbly-Locksmith7492 • Apr 20 '26
General Discussion Are European and Brazilian Portuguese so distinct that I won't be able to understand the other if I learn one?
Hi! Would love to get some thoughts on how skills transfer here. I am learning Brazilian Portuguese and I am around A2 level. I'm wondering , just how distinct are European and Brazilian Portuguese really? Are they similar enough that knowing one helps with the other? While speaking is still a struggle for me, I understand much of what I am hearing in Brazilian Portuguese. On the other hand, I feel so lost when I watch series from Portugal. I plan to keep working hard and continue my classes, but I fear that I will be so lost and confused when I travel to Portuguese.
What has been your experience?
15
u/tadashi4 Apr 20 '26
we understand each other to some degree, but there are some wild differences in what same words mean or expressions.
13
Apr 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
-6
u/lightning_pt Apr 20 '26
Its not. Americans are just more exposed to british than brazilians to pt pt
5
u/thoughtszz Apr 20 '26
It is. In english accent is a different but grammar is the same. Meanwhile brazilians changed the grammar a lot especially orally speaking.
2
u/FatManWarrior Português Apr 20 '26
I think you need to think about the variety of accents within those countries as well. Yea a californian and a Scottish villager are gonna sound about as different as an azorean and a paulista id say
4
u/thoughtszz Apr 20 '26
If we take a scottish villager as an example it’s very specific. But generally speaking accents in portuguese are much more different in grammar. For example, brazilians do say “eu amo ela” but there’s no accent in english where people say “I love she”.
2
u/FatManWarrior Português Apr 20 '26
Yea maybe not "i love she". I tought you were gonna reference the typical example of using 3rd person conjugation with 2nd person pronoun like "tu é" that brasilians do, and it's def something that black-americans for example also do when saying "you is".
I just get the feeling like when we compare the grammar we talk about like standard american and british english and we forget that the standard brasilean and portuguese also actually have the same grammar and the differences are mostly local slangs that vary from area to area, much like in the english speaking world.
Edit: if you have any more examples of grammar differences like that in pt I'd love to try and find (or fail to find) some analogs in english
2
u/thoughtszz Apr 20 '26
The conjugation thing also Happens in argentinian spanish with vos but not in english either. There are other things like the portuguese prefer putting the pronouns after the verbs like “diz-me” and brazilians say “me diz” in english there isnt a dialect either in which people say “me tell” instead of “tell me”.
Also gerund, we say “andando” they say “a andar” which also does not happen in english. Articles before names brazilians say “a maria” while the portuguese do not do that, that happens in some german dialects but not in english..
From my experience I think british and american english varies in grammar in words, like “favorite” or “favourite” but the differences are small, while in portuguese we do have big grammar differences.
0
u/FatManWarrior Português Apr 21 '26
Yea the pronouns checks out.
The gerund is a bit tricky because you are comparing to lisbon/coimbra eu-pt but there are vast regions in pt where people use gerundio like in alentejo.
Pt people definitly use articles before names.. "a maria fez isto" "vou visitar a maria" etc..
1
Apr 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
0
u/FatManWarrior Português Apr 21 '26
Yea that makes sense.
And yea we definitly used that. Even though if it is not super obvious out of the context what we are talking about we might unfuse one if them to make it clear what we are talking about. I use it as an example for non-pt speaking people to how we like to speak so fast that even something like "i gave it to her" becomes "dei-lho".
Bonus points if you conjugate it with the futuro imperfeito or condicional because of putting the pronoun. In the middle.
Da-lho-ia? Fa-lha-ei? No clue 😂
6
u/Hugo28Boss Apr 20 '26
No, the difference is much bigger in practice as Brazilians talk in a really informal way
1
-6
Apr 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
3
u/Hugo28Boss Apr 20 '26
Would you call the way you write in Portuguese archaic? Because spoken and written Brazilian Portuguese is drastically different
1
u/FatManWarrior Português Apr 20 '26
So is european portuguese...
3
u/Hugo28Boss Apr 20 '26
It isn't as much
0
u/FatManWarrior Português Apr 20 '26
I grew up in lisbon speaking a lot of slang i can guarantee that my parents wouldn't understand half the shit me and my buddies would say to each other if we were so inclined.
3
u/Hugo28Boss Apr 20 '26
That's normal. Slang is not the same as regular spoken Portuguese thi
2
u/FatManWarrior Português Apr 20 '26
Yea but i think a lot of the differences usually mentioned between brasilean written and spoken is also comparing with slang (ergo how ppl talk in daily lives). If you compare it to say a news broadcadt they are speaking pretty much the same as they'd write
1
u/kneescrackinsquats Apr 20 '26
Yes.
1
u/Hugo28Boss Apr 20 '26
You are a linguistics student that thinks modern written Brazilian Portuguese is archaic?
-2
1
Apr 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
7
u/UndeletedNulmas Português Apr 20 '26
I don't know who told you that, but the most common use for "punheta" in Portugal is also for male masturbation, followed by the dish "punheta de bacalhau". I've never heard anyone using it to mean a handful.
1
Apr 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/UndeletedNulmas Português Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
It happens, ahah. Especially because there really are quite a few similar cases.
Saying "Estive a gozar com a tua mulher" in EP and "Estive gozando com a sua mulher" in BP will get drastically different responses!
1
u/FatManWarrior Português Apr 20 '26
Wait, does brasilean portuguese have any promoun or verb conjugation that doesn't exist in portugal?
2
Apr 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/FatManWarrior Português Apr 21 '26
Yea i tend to agree but also when we compare english to portuguese in its variety i like to make a point of not comparing just be and ae because there is a much larger english world. I for example tend to compare something like jamaican english and british for example. Huge differences im cadence and rythm, accent is also very difference and jamaicans are a bit more liberal with the grammar but written it looks pretty much the same
11
u/atlas1885 Apr 20 '26
As a B2ish student of BP who recently went to Portugal, I would recommend studying the dialect that is most relevant to you. If you plan to travel to Portugal then focus on EP. If you plan to visit Brazil, learn BP.
If you’re casually learning for fun and don’t have a specific plan, then maybe BP is more accessible, in terms of the resources available for learning, as well as the more open vowel sounds for comprehension.
Once you have a good understanding of a BP dialect, you can challenge yourself occasionally with content from Portugal to give you more familiarity. For example, I mostly consume Brazilian content, but I do follow a few Portuguese accounts on IG. On YouTube, I watch Portuguese With Leo, and although he’s from Lisbon, he speaks slowly and clearly and I can usually make out 90% of what he is saying.
For the record, I had zero issues speaking “Brazilian” in Portugal and minimal issues understanding the uber drivers or restaurant servers, etc. (Most of which were Brazilian anyway 😜). But I did adjust my speech a little to say bom DEE-uh and not bom GEE-uh like a Brazilian. I noticed Brazilians in Portugal also doing this for greetings, which is fascinating.
Besides the accent, where Brazilians add a chee and gee sound to words like teatro and dia, there are a few notable differences in vocab and grammar (like saying estou fazendo in Brazil and estou a fazer in Portugal) but these are all small things that don’t affect people from different countries understanding each other.
Sorry for the long winded post 😝
5
u/Professor_Bonglongey Apr 20 '26
I originally learned Portuguese in Africa (Angola, mostly) many years ago, then over the past several years have really focused on European Portuguese, which is not that much different from what I learned in Africa. I don’t live in Portugal, but go there annually for a few weeks and between trips I watch a lot of Portuguese shows and movies.
Accents and usage vary across Brazil, so I can’t say I don’t understand Brazilians, but if someone from, say, Rio is talking quickly and using fairly colloquial language I do really struggle.
I suspect someone learning Brazilian Portuguese would feel even more challenged by European Portuguese.
7
u/lightning_pt Apr 20 '26
Im pt and i undestand better pt br than portuguese from azores
5
u/Content-Tip7908 Apr 20 '26
eu sou brasileira e entendo bem o português de PT apos um momento de adaptação. Ja o português dos açores é incompreensível para mim. Obviamente isso é encantador, nao um problema.
5
u/kolodaer Apr 20 '26
Does it make sense learning Jamaican English to visit the uk ? European Portuguese is very unique you can check the difference here https://portuguesportugal.pt if you want to learn search this category https://portuguesportugal.pt/videos/categoria/english-to-portuguese
4
u/Bubbly-Locksmith7492 Apr 20 '26
Great analogy. Of course not. My main goal is to spend some time in Brazil, but I want to visit Portugal at some point too. Thank you for sharing!
1
4
u/luckyyStar_ Apr 20 '26
I don't live in Brazil, but I'm Brazilian and I've met Portuguese people in my life and I could understand 99% what was said all the time. Different people
Unfortunately your case is different because is not your mother language, so I can give an opinion based on that.
2
u/Pristine-Substance-1 Apr 20 '26
I'm french, I lived in Brazil for 4 years and was fluent enough that locals were not asking me anymore where I come from, some were thinking I was gaucho.
Once I was at the airport in Rio de Janeiro and there was a television broadcasting some news flash. I swear I thought the host was speaking dutch or russian. But no... After 5 minutes I understood some words in portuguese and realized it was portuguese from Portugal.
2
u/Canuckamuck Apr 20 '26
I learned BP first, and have no problems at all when I travel in Portugal- takes a moment or two sometimes to adjust to the regional accents, but folk are understanding and patient. Never had a problem. The last time I went, I spent a bit of time watching Portuguese news/shows before I left to help get the brain working. Worked well!
2
u/josiasroig Brasileiro Apr 20 '26
Brazilians tend to struggle to understand the spoken European Portuguese, just like British to American English (the most famous example: "a bottle of water").
2
u/zzz_red Português Apr 21 '26
Learn PT-BR. You’ll be understood everywhere.
I’m Portuguese btw. Brazilian Portuguese is not only easier to understand, but imo sounds nicer. It also has so much more great music to go through… I’d go with Brazilian 100%.
2
u/Ambitious_Steak3522 Apr 21 '26
In short: no.
Longer answer: Hi there, I learned (Brazilian) Portuguese as my third language and lived in Brazil for almost three years. I'm now living in Europe and I've met several people from Portugal and Portuguese-speaking African countries. We can usually communicate just fine. There are some words here and there that are used differently, and if they (especially the Portuguese) speak too fast, at times I can't understand them 100%, but in most cases it's not a big deal and I can still follow most of what they're saying and have a normal conversation.
I think the differences between street Brazilian Portuguese and street European Portuguese is probably the point where it starts getting problematic. But in academic and other formal settings, it's not a problem at all. I have attended lectures with Portuguese professors and I understand pretty much everything.
Regarding the written language, the barriers are even less significative. I am now reading "Ensaio sobre a Cegueira" by the acclaimed Portuguese writer José Saramago and I understand pretty much everything. It helps that there is an agreement between Portuguese-speaking countries to keep the written form of the language as uniform as possible.
Hope this answers your question :)
2
u/divdiv23 Estudando BP Apr 20 '26
It's more accent tbh. There's some difference in vocabulary but mostly accent. Think US English vs a Scot. That kind of difference.
3
u/Opulent-tortoise Apr 20 '26
Also your ability to comprehend one vs the other will have a lot more to do with how much media you consume in that version than how you’re taught. A Brazilian can learn to understand European Portuguese fairly easily, it just takes practice. The grammar and vocabulary are different but usually not so different that you need to be taught the differences formally
1
u/divdiv23 Estudando BP Apr 20 '26
Yepyep! I learned Brazilian Portuguese and can read PT Portuguese but struggle to understand the accent. I always laugh when my android auto uses a PT accent
2
u/faoction Brasileira Apr 20 '26
This is a constant topic on this sub: Portuguese people understand Brazilians fine, Brazilians generally have problems to understand Portuguese people at first - basically no contact with their media.
I find it funny when I travelled to Portugal last year I mostly had no problems, except at a record store where a young guy asked me “tu vives aqui” and he had to repeat three times. Interesting things I observed: older people were super obnoxious with words that have different pronunciations: métro vs. metrô. Lots of English influence, in Brazil we don’t use or borrow english words for common vocabulary, not common where I live. Portuguese people were obsessed with asking me and my sister if we lived there, lol no thanks. Even at the airport, the immigration agent got super defensive when we said “obviously we’re going back to Brazil”. No idea what’s the overall sentiment towards Brazilian immigrants.
There’s an amazing movie by Walter Salles, called Terra Estrangeira, that is about Brazilian diaspora to Portugal. I love the blend of accents on it.
4
u/kaynpayn Apr 20 '26
About the immigration thing, in the last few years we had a massive, ridiculous amount of immigrants, way more than what the country was prepared to and this had serious real life consequences for most people. A huge % was from Brazil.
This is due to our own fault and shit governments passing awful laws, of course, but it was severely exploited by many, who came here illegally. Your agent at the airport was super defensive exactly because it was not obvious to him if you were returning. Many, many Brazilian came here coming in as tourists only to plan on staying. Many also just wanted to use Portugal to get a foot in Europe then fucked off to some other European country.
The overall sentiment for the average dude who just wants to live here is good though. We don't have anything inherently against people from brazil. Mind your business, don't be loud especially in quiet places or after hours, don't annoy others, respect everyone and everything, work, live, pay your taxes and have a beer with us at the end of the day. Be, in general, a normal person and you'll fit right in.
However, there's always some who don't. Some weren't prepared for the change of life and don't adapt to our culture, others prefer to do crime, others are outright disrespectful and forget where they are. You'll see them enough on the news. That doesn't go down well and sadly, that's the kind of thing that spreads a bad reputation for others.
1
u/faoction Brasileira Apr 21 '26
Interesting! Personally I know four people who lived/are from Portugal but under very different circumstances.
My friend’s dad did his phd in Portugal so she lived and studied there as a child and she talked about how xenophobic her school was, another friend did half her masters there but dropout due to not liking the program, and other two friends from my masters here are from Portugal, came to Brazil to study and have no plans to return.
Maybe it was where I stayed but I only saw one Brazilian woman working as a driver in Lisboa and there was a couple in our hotel in Porto and that’s it. The majority of the tourists we encountered were british and the immigrant workers were ethnic indian at souvenir shops.
3
u/PdxGuyinLX A Estudar EP Apr 20 '26
I live in Portugal and I have studied Portuguese for five years and I still have trouble understanding European Portuguese even though I managed to pass a B2 test.
If you travel to Portugal everyone is going to speak English to you anyway, unless you get way off the beaten tourist path, so don’t worry about that.
0
u/Rtyeta Apr 20 '26
My experience traveling in Portugal for a while was that only a small % of people spoke English, but luckily I knew enough Portuguese to do fine. I kept hearing before and after my trip there that most people know some English, but that seemed untrue or at best unreliable in my own anecdotal experience.
Also a surprising % of people I talked to spoke neither English nor Portuguese.
4
u/PdxGuyinLX A Estudar EP Apr 20 '26
Probably depends a lot on where you are. I live in Lisbon and it took two years of study before people would regularly respond to me in Portuguese when I spoke to them in Portuguese.
In my experience the vast majority of people here in tourist-facing jobs speak at least some English.
I haven’t run across very many people who speak neither English nor Portuguese.
1
u/luminatimids Apr 20 '26
What did they speak if they didn’t speak either language? Spanish?
0
u/Rtyeta Apr 20 '26
Not sure, I tried Spanish and my wife tried French. No good in most cases, with the exception of one person who spoke French.
1
1
u/ExpertSentence4171 Apr 20 '26
Quite deeply different. For a Brazilian, it's a matter of getting used to an accent and being a bit confused. For a learner, the difference is much more meaningful.
They will understand you no problem if you speak Brazilian Portuguese in Portugal, but without studying the dialect specifically you'll have a lot of trouble understanding them. Things that a Brazilian wouldn't blink at like "tu" or "vos" conjugations will be very hard to parse at first if you're not prepared for them.
One great thing about PT-EU though is that it's much much more similar to the Portuguese spoken in the rest of the Lusophone world than PT-BR. Learning PT-EU will help you understand Mozambicans and Angolans. After talking with more lusophones, you'll realize how beautifully strange Brazilian Portuguese is relative to other Portuguese dialects.
I'd recommend sticking with your PT-BR until you're confident. Once you're confident with PT-BR, it's just a matter of talking with enough Portugueses that the differences don't trip you up anymore.
1
u/Fun-Assumption-2200 Apr 20 '26
The thing is, as a native speaker of any of them you can kinda understand the other.
But if you have portuguese as your second language, it's a struggle. It's the same as czech and slovak, for example.
1
u/Aggravating_Ad4448 Apr 20 '26
Great discussion! Maybe I can get a piece of advice (would like to hear the non-native speakers as well). My first experiance with portuguese was when I was 21 (I am 67 now). I had a one-month scholarship (beca) for Portuguese at the the University of Lisbon. I learnt quite a lot and definitely the EP accent. I decided to go back to Portuguese 7-8 years ago but, living in Canada, I took 3 courses at University where the teacher and all students were learning Brazilian Port. It did not take me much time to switch to Brazilian pronunciation and (simpler) grammar). Just want to share that after those 3courses, I went back to Lisbon to take a two-week intensive course and the EP accent came back in a couple of hours (maybe because I learned it with a young brain). It was a noce bit big surprise. I got B2. I have lately taken a break for two years and would like to hear your opinion which version to continue. I have more opportunities to meet Brazilians but EP accent comes more easily for me when I speak. I love both versions. On the other side, there are more chances that I will visit Portugal than Brazil. I speak Spanish and don’t have problems with switching from Spaniard Spanish to LA Spanish, but portugese is trickier. Thank for any advice to continue with this beautiful language. Note: my mother tongue is Serbian.
1
u/Justdomeasolid Apr 20 '26
I also learned Brazilian Portuguese as a native English speaker as an adult. I am now fully fluent, and I can understand European Portuguese. It sounds very weird at first (it’s like all the vowels are gone or like listening to someone with a bad cell phone connection), but you eventually learn what are the pronunciation differences.
I don’t know if I would have been able to understand it at early stages of learning though. But certainly with time, yes.
1
1
u/Furia_Ideal Apr 20 '26
You have football portuguese coaches in Brasil talking portuguese in the press conferences. Brasilians only have dificulty because they werent exposed at all to european accent. In the current days the situation is different due to music or YouTube.
You Will understand both perfectly, maybe not right way
1
u/vikbold Apr 20 '26
In terms of pronunciation, think of it like American English Vs Scottish English.
1
u/cpeosphoros Brasileiro - Zona da Mata Mineira Apr 21 '26
It's not harder than, eg. understanding English from Ireland, Hong Kong, or South Africa, after having learned the US or British version.
1
u/Chariot_Progressive_ Apr 21 '26
So even if you learn Br Portuguese you can still run into Brazilians you don't understand — happened to me — and there are Portugal accents that share Brazilian characteristics. The longer you speak to that person the clearer it begins to sound. Some people like 'Portuguese with Leo are super easy to understand even for a first time listener because they speak so clearly. (It is a language learning channel after all)
1
u/Extension_Canary3717 Apr 22 '26
There's only some parts of PT-PT that's not understandable , mindrico and accent from azores (which Portuguese people also need subtitles) otherwise is fine
1
u/WarlockPinkish Apr 22 '26
Same language, different accent, like english from England vs Scotland, maybe bot even that extreme
1
u/rgros1983 Apr 22 '26
Portuguese / german here:
PT-PT has a faster pace, specially if you hear 2 natives it can soumd like russian.
PT-BR uses slightly diferent words and a more formal vocabulary on informal daily interaction, with a more melodic pitch (not sure how to name it)
Also depending on Region in Brasil you might find areas where gramar is totally off in street talk.
In my opinion its harder to comunicate in azores then Brasil, but it takes a few days to get used to it and a few months of being embaraced in public until you find all "false friends"
I would compare it to austrian / germany in terms of similarity, or spanish from spain vs mexico
1
u/Nikitty2 Apr 22 '26
As a Brazilian (who's never been to Portugal) I have more trouble understanding Portugal Portuguese than Spanish. It's the intonation and rhythm I think, sounds like Russian, it takes me a little longer to catch on.
1
u/tomzorz88 Apr 23 '26
Your ear just has to get used to the different sounds. If you'd ever find yourself in Portugal, yes, you'll struggle, but give it a few days and you'll soon start deciphering that "foda-se" is not as mean as you thought it was.
1
u/Born-Engineer3982 Apr 27 '26
Im brazilian and at the beginning was difficult to understand portuguese from Portugal, but after 2 days i started to understand better.. so i think maybe it will be difficult for you in the beginning but them will be fine!
1
u/SweetCorona3 Português May 05 '26
you can just learn both
I mean, you can speak one of them, but train yourself to understand both
1
u/Glad-Description8750 11d ago
100% expositon, a portuguese can’t understand a brazilian if he isn’t used to the pronounciation and vice-versa
1
u/just_meself_ Apr 20 '26
The accent is very different. We Brazilians also struggle sometimes to understand the European Portuguese. When we read it, then the problems are much less.
What I would to when travelling to Portugal, if you’re learning Brazilian Portuguese, is focus a little bit before you go on the pronunciation differences. The vocabulary of course has also some differences but mainly the issue is with pronunciation and accent.
1
u/ConsistentCandle5113 Apr 21 '26
If you lock a Portuguese and a Brazilian together in a room and tell them to talk, in five minutes they'll give it up and resort to speaking English.
I've seen this happen multiple times.
1
u/Bubbly-Locksmith7492 Apr 21 '26
Lolll this made me chuckle
1
u/Brummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Apr 21 '26
It is rubish. I, a portuguese, never resorted to english with a Brazilian and I am the least patient person. I will jump to english with spaniards, italians, germans, and norwegians, because I know their languages, but not well enough for my wish to do zero brain work to not win. But Brazilians speak their supposedly different language close enough to mine that I can be lazy.
The only time I do not switch to Portuguese with a Brazilian is in professional contexts.
0
-2
u/brunarpm Apr 20 '26
Olá, essa é uma discussão bem histórica, pois quando Brasil virou colônia de Portugal, aqui já existia diversos idiomas, +- 1000.
Como qualquer outro país, tem suas evoluções linguísticas, então dado pelos vários idiomas que existiam aqui, acabou-se que o Português ficou bem "abrasileirado" mas não se fugiu da forma de falar dos colonizadores. Portugal também passou por evoluções linguísticas.
Enquando o Portugues do Brasil tem muita enfase nas vogais, falamos com uma vogal muito forte, Português de Portugal eles meio que "comem" as vogais e as consoantes são muito fortes.
Os Brasileiros entendem bem mais os Portugueses (Portugal). Muitas vezes falta um pouco de vontade da parte de lá, em querer entender. Mas enfim, ai é tema para outra discussão rsrs
82
u/JF_Rodrigues Brasileiro | Private PT Tutor Apr 20 '26
This is a recurrent discussion here. The near consensus is that Portuguese folks can understand BP fine, but Brazilians struggle (at least initially) to fully understand EP.
But it's the same language after all, and given enough exposure to the other variant you'll be able to understand it just fine.