Spanish? Portuguese? Que?

At a distance, you could mistake Spanish for Portuguese – many words are spelt similarly with the same translation, but there are some false friends (words that would logically translate into the same thing, but do not) and some specific details that through translation can point you in the right direction! Read more about Interpreting Agency.

Here are just a few differences between Spanish and Portuguese that you can look for in translation:

False Friends

Some of the false friends that don’t translate from Spanish to Portuguese directly despite them sounding and being written similarly. Some examples include the terms disenar – to design (Spanish) and desenhar – to draw (Portuguese).

Days of the Week

Unlike Spanish and other Romance languages, Portuguese days run in terms of cardinal numbers rather than Roman planetary days. For example, they would translate things in terms of first “feira”, second “feira” and so on (Feira derived from the Latin Feria – a religious Roman Catholic celebration day). So for example:

Monday – Lunes (sp) – segunda-feira

Tuesday – Martes (sp) – terca-feira

Wednesday - Miercoles (sp) – quarta- feira

Thursday – Jueves (sp) – quinta-feira

Friday – Viernes (sp) – sexta-feira

Sabado and Domingo (Saturday and Sunday) remain the same in both languages.

The 3 Ms – Mucho/Muy/Muito

The ways of saying ‘very’ in Spanish are not translated the same way as Portuguese. Mucho (Spanish) is actually muito in Portuguese, similar to that of the difference between todo and tudo (Spanish and Portuguese respectively) meaning all.

Conjunctions

The words that connect two sentences together also differ albeit slightly between Spanish and Portuguese. Here are some examples - whilst Spanish uses y for and, Portuguese uses the letter e. Also, when describing or, Spanish uses o and Portuguese uses ou.

There are many more examples, such as cardinal numbers and pronouns, as well of course of distinguishing between Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, but here’s a mini tip to get you started when it comes to Spanish interpreting and differentiating between the two! Search for Spanish translation and Spanish interpreting services for more information.

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