Question for anyone who speaks Portuguese fluently...

[battleknight24]

I am currently learning Brazilian Portuguese using the Pimsleur program... its a lot of fun, Pimsleur is the best program I have ever used... anywho, I would like to visit both Brazil and Portugal someday... Do Brazilian and Portuguese have trouble communicating with each other? Is the portuguese I am learning know going to be useful If I ever visit Lisbon?




Peace,

[Maine-i-acs]

1. About 90+%

Similar to Quebec French vs. European French I believe.

[adriennel]

2. I believe they are slightly different

I knew Brazilian Portuguese but not European Portuguse.
I can tell you that I did get made fun of in Spain for speaking Mexican Spanish : ) but they still understood me.

[battleknight24]

3. I'm hispanic, but I learned Spanish in Spain...

(sorry about that)

... when I came back, my accent and some of the things I said sounded funny to my family... likewise, some of the things my family said sounded a little strange to me... we're of Mexican heritage...


In England, everyone laughed at me when I said I wanted fries with my burger instead of chips...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Differences among the various Spanishes and Englishes

are much less severe than those among the Portugueses. When I talk with people from Spanish-speaking countries other than Spain, I have no trouble understanding them. In fact, I can't detect differences in accent, although they flag me as "Español" about 1 millisecond after I open my mouth.

One big exception: Argentinians. They speak the double-L "LL" wrong, like "sh". The correct way is like the "J" in "jersey". I'm told Uruguayans speak like that too, although I've never met one.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. Lots

Accent is wildly different. We love vowels, they hate vowels.

Names for trivial things (substantives) are oddly different too: http://www.malhanga.com/curiosidades/diferencas.html

For instance: the name they use for female underwear is the one we use for MALE underwear!

On edit: another site for differences: http://www.ac-amiens.fr/college60/afrance_montataire/alexlarena.html

[Sandpiper]

6. Pronunciation is somewhat different

As is some of the slang, but if you speak one, you can understand the other. I lived in Sao Paulo for 2 years and met quite a few Portugal expats while I was there, and never had a problem communicating with them.

The biggest difference I noticed was in the pronunciation of consonants especially the letters d and t. Portuguesas give d and t a hard sound, Brasileiros a soft sound. Portuguesas also slur their S's. Some Brasileiros do that also, but not all. Depends on the region you're in.

[aQuArius]

7. Which mission were you and what years? Sorry...

I "know" what "I lived in such and such place for 2 years" means, lol. I had tons of friend who served there.

[Sandpiper]

8. Sao Paulo East

1998-2000

[aQuArius]

11. you MUST be close to my age...

Most of my friends serve 1997-1999, but none of them in Sao Paulo East :( Oh well.

[Sandpiper]

12. Probably

I was actually a little older than most of the others when I went. Most go at age 19. I was a month shy of 22 when I left.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

9. You mean

White shirts, ties, black pants and backpacks?

[Sandpiper]

10. Nah

I usually wore khakis. Black pants were too hot. ;-)