Comparison of Portuguese and Spanish

Semantic change

• Spanish diseñar means 'to design' in Spanish, while its Portuguese cognate desenhar means 'to draw'.
• Similarly, Spanish dibujo for 'drawing', with an archaic Portuguese equivalent debuxo meaning 'sketch' and was displaced by rascunho; in turn the cf. Spanish rasguño means 'scratch'.
• Spanish largo means 'long', while ancho means 'wide'. In Portuguese largo means 'wide' and longo like in English 'long'.
• Spanish extrañar can mean 'to find strange' or 'to miss'. Portuguese estranhar means 'to find strange', or to lock horns.
• Spanish raro can mean 'rare' or 'strange'. In Portuguese, it just means 'rare'.
• Spanish aún can mean 'yet/still' and todavía can mean both 'yet/still' or 'however/nevertheless'. Portuguese todavia means 'however/nevertheless'. In Portuguese, 'yet/still' is ainda.
• Spanish embarazada means ' pregnant'. Portuguese embaraçada means ' embarrassed' or ' entangled'. However, Spanish does have the term embarazoso/a meaning 'embarrassing'. 'Pregnant' in Portuguese is grávida. The Portuguese prenhe and Spanish preñada are used mainly for pregnant animals but rarely for women, in both languages
• Spanish exquisito means 'exquisite/sophisticated'. Portuguese esquisito means 'strange/weird'.
• Experto means 'expert' in both Spanish and Portuguese, but in Portuguese it should not be confused with its homophone esperto, which means 'smart/intelligent'. 'Expert' in Portuguese may also be perito, especialista, or exímio, which are the same in Spanish.
• Spanish escoba is 'broom'. Portuguese escova is 'brush'. However, in some varieties of Spanish, escobilla or escobeta means 'toilet brush'.
• Spanish apellido 'surname' is apelido in European Portuguese, and sobrenome in both Brazilian and European Portuguese. Spanish sobrenombre/apodo 'nickname' is apelido/alcunha/codinome in Brazilian Portuguese, and alcunha in European Portuguese.
• Spanish rojo is 'red'. Portuguese roxo is 'purple'. 'Red' in Portuguese is vermelho. In European Portuguese the word encarnado is also used as synonym of 'red' even though vermelho is more frequent.
• Spanish rubio means 'blond hair'. Portuguese ruivo or ruço means 'red hair'.
• Spanish apenas means 'hardly'. Portuguese apenas is 'only'. Thus the Spanish phrase él apenas pudo dormir means 'he could not even/hardly sleep', or 'he was just barely able to sleep', whereas the Portuguese phrase ele pôde apenas dormir means 'all he did was to sleep'.
• Spanish vaso means 'drinking glass ', while Portuguese vaso means flower pot or toilet. A 'drinking glass' in Portuguese is copo, while Spanish copa is a wine glass. A wine glass in Portuguese is copo, taça is a champagne glass or dessert cup while Spanish taza is a 'coffee cup or teacup'; Spanish taza also refers to the bathroom bowl. 'Coffee cup' in Portuguese is xícara de café/chávena.
• Spanish cachorro means puppy, while in Brazilian Portuguese, it can refer to a dog of any age.

  Frequent function words

Spanish ''todo'', Portuguese ''tudo''

Relative and interrogative pronouns

Spanish ''muy'' and ''mucho'', Portuguese ''muito''

Cardinal numbers

Conjunctions

''Se'', ''si'', ''sí'', and ''sim''

Indirect object pronouns

Dissimilar words

French influence

Arabic influence

Influences from other languages

Days of the week

Grammar

Gender

Use of the definite article

Possessives

Pronouns

Object pronouns

Clitic personal pronouns

• In Spanish, clitic pronouns normally come before the verb, except with the imperative, the infinitive, and the gerund. In verbal periphrases, they precede the auxiliary verb.
• In spoken Brazilian Portuguese, clitic pronouns normally come before the main verb. In verbal periphrases, they come between the auxiliary verb and the main verb. This occurs even with the imperative, the infinitive, the gerund, and the past participle.
• In European Portuguese, clitic pronouns may come before or after the verb, depending on the type of clause. In verbal periphrases, they may precede or follow the auxiliary verb, or follow the main verb.

Mesoclisis

Combining pronouns in Spanish

• Latin: → →
• Spanish: dio lli lo → dio ge lo → diógelo → dióselo → se lo dio
• Portuguese: deu lli o → deu lhe o → deu-lho

Use of stressed pronouns for inanimate subjects

Second-person pronouns

Verbs

"To be"

Reflexive verbs

"To like"

Auxiliary verbs with the perfect

Imperfect subjunctive versus pluperfect indicative

Present perfect

Personal infinitive

Future subjunctive

Irregular verbs

Prepositions

Contractions

Personal "''a''"

''Ir a'' versus ''ir para''

''Hacia'' and ''para''

"Going to" future

Other differences in preposition usage

Orthography

Alphabet

Question and exclamation marks

Different spellings for similar sounds

Correspondences between word endings

• Spanish -n corresponds to Portuguese -m when in word-final position. In Portuguese, word- or syllable-final ⟨m⟩ and ⟨n⟩ indicate nasalization of the previous vowel; e.g., som 'sound'. In the plural, ⟨m⟩ is replaced with an ⟨n⟩, that is because in these cases the ⟨m⟩ is not in word-final position anymore. Notice, some rare learned words in Portuguese and Spanish may also have a word final -n, and -m, respectively.
• Common exceptions to the above rule concern the Spanish noun endings:
• * -án and -ano, which normally correspond to -ão or -ã in Portuguese /Irã ;
• *-ana, which corresponds to -ã ;
• * -ón / -ción or -cción / -sión, which usually correspond to -ão / -ção or -ção / -são or -ssão ;
• *-on or -an, which corresponds to -ão in most monosyllables ;
• The singular noun or adjective endings -án and -ón in Spanish both usually correspond to Portuguese -ão, and likewise the Spanish ending -ano often corresponds to Portuguese -ão. The plurals of the Portuguese words in -ão, however, generally preserve the historical distinctions: Portuguese -ãos, -ães, and -ões generally correspond to Spanish -anos, -anes, and -ones, respectively:
• * -ãos, as in mão/mãos ;
• * -ães, as in capitão/capitães ;
• * -ões, as in melão/melões.
• Notable exceptions to the above rule:
• * verão/verões , English 'summer;
• * vulcão/vulcões ;
• * ancião, which allows the three plural forms: anciãos, anciães and anciões , English 'elder.
• * guardião, which allows the three plural forms: guardiãos, guardiães and guardiões ;
• * vilão, which allows the three plural forms: vilãos, vilães and vilões ;
• * João/Joões. This plural can be seen in words such as joão-de-barro/joões-de-barro.
• The 3rd person plural endings of the preterite indicative tense are spelled with -on in Spanish, but with -am in Portuguese.
• In Portuguese words ending in -l form their plurals by dropping ⟨l⟩ and adding -is : caracol/caracóis , English 'snail, fácil/fáceis.
• In Spanish, adjectives and nouns ending in -z form their plurals by replacing ⟨z⟩ with ⟨c⟩ ; e.g., feroz/feroces, vez/veces English 'time.
• Another conspicuous difference is the use of -z in Spanish versus -s in Portuguese at the end of unstressed syllables, especially when the consonant is the last letter in a word. A few examples:
• Other correspondences between word endings are:
• *-dad or -tad and -dade, as in bondad vs bondade 'goodness' and libertad vs liberdade 'liberty/ies'. The word ending -zade is also found in Portuguese, e.g., amizade , English 'friendship;
• *-ud and -ude, as in virtud vs virtude 'virtue';
• *-ble and -vel/eis, as in amable vs amável/amáveis 'amiable';
• *-je and -gem/ns, as in lenguaje vs linguagem/linguagens 'language';
• *-aso and -asso, as in escaso vs escasso 'scarce';
• *-eso and -esso, as in espeso vs espesso 'thick';
• *-esa and -essa or -esa, as in condesa vs condessa 'countess' and inglesa vs inglesa 'Englishwoman';
• *-eza and -iça or -eza, as in pereza vs preguiça 'laziness' and naturaleza vs natureza 'nature';
• *-ez and -ice and -ez, as in idiotez vs idiotice 'idiocy' and timidez vs timidez 'shyness';
• *-izar and -izar or -isar, as in realizar vs realizar 'to realize/realise' and analizar vs analisar 'to analize/analise' Brazilian Portuguese uses an alternative word ending in -issar in some exceptional cases; e.g., aterrissar, alunissar ;
• *-azar and -açar, amenazar vs ameaçar 'threaten';
• *-anza and -ança, esperanza vs esperança 'hope';
• *-encia and -ença or -ência, as in diferencia vs diferença 'difference' and ocurrencia vs ocorrência 'occurrence' ;
• *-icia and -iça or -ícia, as in justicia vs justiça 'justice' and malicia vs malícia 'malice';
• *-izo and -iço, as in movedizo vs movediço 'moveable';
• *-miento or -mento and -mento, as in sentimiento vs sentimento 'feeling, sentiment' and reglamento vs regulamento 'rules, regulations';
• *-ísimo and -íssimo, as in fidelísimo vs fidelíssimo or even fidelissíssimo'' 'most loyal'.

  Accentuation and nasalization

• Initial and middle: vowel + ⟨n⟩ + consonant : antecedente, geringonça, mundo, ênfase
• Initial and middle: vowel + ⟨m⟩ + bilabial consonant : caçamba, emprego, supimpa, pomba, penumbra
• Final: vowel + ⟨m⟩: fizeram, em, ruim, bom, algum

• a + a = à.
• a + aquele, aquela = àquele, àquela—underlined stressed syllable—.
• a + aquilo = àquilo.

• emergencia, emergência 'emergency'
• tolerancia, tolerância 'tolerance'
• audacia, audácia 'audace'
• ocio, ócio 'leisure'
• continuo, contínuo 'continuous'
• continúo, continuo 'I continue'

• democracia, democracia 'democracy'
• policía, polícia 'police'

  Phonology

Early phonetic divergence

Vowels

Unstressed vowels

Consonants

• When single, they were retained in Spanish but elided in Portuguese. Often, the loss of the consonant was followed by the merger of the two surrounding vowels, or by the insertion of an epenthetic vowel between them.
• When double, they developed into the Spanish palatals ⟨ll⟩ and ⟨ñ⟩. Indeed, the Spanish letter ⟨ñ⟩ was originally a shorthand for. In Portuguese, -- and -- just became single, ⟨l⟩ and ⟨n⟩, respectively.
• When followed by the semivowel, coalesced with it into a ⟨j⟩ in Spanish. In Portuguese, and followed by semivowel were palatalized into ⟨lh⟩ and ⟨nh⟩, respectively.

1. Other phonological processes at work in old Spanish and old Portuguese, which interfered with these.
2. Later regularization by analogy with related words.
3. Later borrowing of learned words directly from Latin, especially since the Renaissance, which did not respect the original sound laws.
4. Mutual borrowing, from Spanish to Portuguese or vice versa.

   Synaeresis

Different sounds with the same spelling

Sibilants

• Devoicing in Spanish: the voiced sibilants written ⟨-s-⟩, ⟨z⟩ and ⟨j/g⟩ became voiceless, merging with ⟨s-/-ss-⟩, ⟨c/ç⟩ and ⟨x⟩, respectively. In many modern Spanish dialects, ⟨c/z⟩ is also indistinguishable from ⟨s⟩ . Later, the palato-alveolar fricative ⟨x⟩ changed into the velar fricative, while ⟨ch⟩ stay unchanged. Spanish spelling has been updated according to these sound changes.
• Deaffrication in Portuguese: the affricates written ⟨c/ç⟩, ⟨z⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ became plain fricatives, merging with the sibilants ⟨s-/-ss-⟩, ⟨-s-⟩ and ⟨x⟩ in most dialects, respectively. In spite of this, modern Portuguese has for the most part kept the medieval spelling.
• Deaffrication in Portuguese: some rural hinterland northern Portuguese dialects as well the Mirandese language preserved the medieval distinction, still indicated by the spelling, with the former affricates being voiceless laminal, voiced laminal and still voiceless post-alveolar affricate, respectively, and the sibilants being voiceless apical, voiced apical and voiceless palato-alveolar. As much of Brazilian Portuguese, these dialects have alveolar coda sibilants, though a voiceless apico-alveolar fricative has a hushing-like sound, more similar to.

  Other pronunciation differences

• Compare for example Spanish gobierno, haber, libro with Portuguese governo, haver, livro.
• The endings of the imperfect indicative tense of 1st. conjugation verbs are spelled with ⟨b⟩ in Spanish, but with ⟨v⟩ in Portuguese
• The Spanish adjectival suffix -ble, as in posible, corresponds to -vel in Portuguese: possível.

Contact forms

• Galician language shares its origin with Portuguese in Galician-Portuguese but has been subject to later Spanish influence.
• *Castrapo is a pejorative for Spanish-influenced Galician.
• Fala language a Galician-Portuguese language spoken in the Spanish autonomous community of Extremadura.
• Barranquenho a transitional Spanish–Portuguese dialect with Southern Spanish traits spoken in the Portuguese municipality of Barrancos.
• Portuñol/Portunhol is the name for the mixed languages spoken in the borders of Brazil with Spanish-speaking countries.
• Papiamento is a creole language with Spanish and Portuguese influences.
• Judaeo-Spanish language is derived from medieval Castilian language, but has been influenced by Judaeo-Portuguese.
• Fala d'Ambo is a creole language derived from Portuguese but influenced by the rulers of Spanish Guinea.