Portuguese is ranked as the fifth most spoken language internationally. So, the assumption that many make is that it’s spoken in only Brazil or Portugal is incorrect. Portuguese is spoken by Brazilians, and the people of Mozambique, Sao Tome, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, etc. In East Timor’s Tetum region and Macau, it’s the co-official language alongside Chinese. It is for this reason that Portuguese has an array of grammar rules, vocabulary, variations in intonation and pronunciation for each country.
The importance of Brazilian Portuguese
As of late Brazilian Portuguese has sort of leveled the playing field thanks to its music, soap operas, and novelas. Brazilian Portuguese has been exported to most of the other Portuguese speaking countries via these mediums similar to the way Hollywood movies have made American English mainstream or had an impact on the English language as a whole.
What’s the difference between Brazilian Portuguese and the Portuguese in Portugal?
The significant difference between the two types of Portuguese is in the way pronouns tu and você. While both mean singular you in 2nd person, in Brazil ‘tu’ is not common. As a matter of fact, você is widely used everywhere from official texts to media communication. Though ‘tu’ is used in a couple of states towards the North and usually in the Gaucho dialect spoken in the southern states of the country.
The other big difference is in the way words are pronounced. Many European Portuguese speakers often find it hard at first to understand what Brazilian speakers of the languages are saying. Take for instance words that end with ‘s’, like ‘doysh’ (pronounced in Portugal) is dois in Brazil. Then there are words which end in ‘te’ which are pronounced as ‘kenchy’ and in Portugal it’s ‘kent’. Also, a lot of the vowels sound the same, and some aren’t even pronounced. Take for instance ‘costeleta’ (pork chop) which is pronounced as ‘kostehlehtah,’ and sounds like chustluhtuh.
Forms of addressing people
Another rather exasperating difference is the ways in which people are addressed. Take for instance informal settings across regions where European Portuguese is spoken, ‘Ana’ which is a friendly way of talking to people who are of equal standing. However, it refers to you in the third person and in Brazil, you’d never refer to anyone in the third person especially if they are right in front of you. So, it’s not out of place to find yourself being addressed in a Portuguese café by a waiter who says something like “A Ana quer mais café?”
Finally the spelling
As of late there have been spelling reforms which have removed non-essential differences. Take for instance, the Portuguese spelling in Europe is ‘acto’ while in Brazil it’s ‘ato’ which means act. But the ‘c’ was never pronounced in either dialect. The latest reformation has declared ‘ato’ to be the official spelling across Portuguese speaking countries. People in Brazil still make use of accent words such as ‘idéia’ which means idea in English. ‘Fact’ in Portugal is spelled as ‘facto,’ and ‘fato’ in Brazil where the ‘c’ isn’t pronounced.