{"id":2347,"date":"2021-08-04T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T07:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/blog\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/"},"modified":"2024-01-23T12:25:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T11:25:20","slug":"how-different-portuguese-spanish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/","title":{"rendered":"How different is Spanish from Portuguese?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The differences between Spanish and Portuguese may seem obvious to an untrained ear, but there are plenty of <strong>important phonetic, graphic and grammatical differences<\/strong>, too, even though both are <strong>romance languages<\/strong> with <strong>Latin<\/strong> roots. But where do these differences come from and why have similar languages spoken in two neighbouring countries become increasingly distinct over time?<\/p>\n<h2>The international influences underlying the origins of Spanish and Portuguese<\/h2>\n<p>Before revealing more about the languages and cultures that have influenced the development of Spanish and Portuguese, it is worth clarifying something: <strong>Spain is home to many languages<\/strong>, in addition to the official Spanish language. The national language of Spain is <strong>Castilian Spanish<\/strong>, which has been spoken by the country\u2019s political and cultural elite for many centuries.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Castilian speakers, Spain is also home to <strong>Basque<\/strong>, <strong>Catalan<\/strong> and <strong>Galician<\/strong> communities. When examining the differences between Spanish and Portuguese, however, we\u2019re referring to the <strong>differences between Castilian Spanish and Portuguese<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Castilian Spanish<\/strong> has been profoundly influenced by <strong>Arabic<\/strong>, from which it has inherited many terms. This influence is owed to the <strong>trade relations<\/strong> Spain historically entertained with Arab countries and the <strong>prolonged Arab rule over Spain<\/strong>. During this rule, which lasted nearly 800 years, the Arab world greatly influenced Spanish culture in general and not just the language.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to <strong>pronunciation<\/strong>, <strong>Spanish is more similar to Italian<\/strong>, which is why Italians have less difficulty understanding the language. Given the similarities between Italian and Spanish, some people think it is not always necessary to request professional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/spanish-translation-services\/\">Spanish-Italian translation<\/a>\u00a0 services. This couldn\u2019t be further from the truth, especially when people need official or important documents translating.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Portuguese<\/strong> on the other hand has been profoundly <strong>influenced by French<\/strong>, from which it has borrowed several terms and the pronunciation of many words. That being said, Portuguese has also been influenced by <strong>African languages<\/strong> spoken by slaves in Portugal\u2019s overseas colonies.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also worth emphasising that <strong>differences between Spanish and Portuguese<\/strong> are often more apparent in <strong>spoken language<\/strong> as certain words (despite being written the same way) are pronounced very differently.<\/p>\n<h2>Why is Portuguese spoken in Brazil while Spanish is spoken in the rest of Latin America?<\/h2>\n<p>In <strong>1494<\/strong> \u2013 just two years after Christopher Columbus\u2019 voyage \u2013 <strong>Spain and Portugal<\/strong> (the leading naval powers of the Western world) made an agreement in the presence of the Pope: the world would be divided into two halves along the <strong>Raya<\/strong> meridian, which passes west of the Cape Verde Islands into the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Tordesillas Agreement<\/strong> allowed <strong>Spain<\/strong> to import <strong>Christianity<\/strong> into <strong>all lands to the west<\/strong> of the Raya and <strong>Portugal<\/strong> into <strong>all lands to the east<\/strong>. This explains why Spanish is spoken in much of South America, except for Brazil. That being said, the Portuguese repeatedly ignored the Tordesillas division and conquered many territories, and in 1750, Spain was forced to recognise <strong>Portuguese rule over Brazil<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The differences between Spanish and Portuguese may seem obvious to an untrained ear, but there are plenty of important phonetic, graphic and grammatical differences, too, even though both are romance languages with Latin roots. But where do these differences come from and why have similar languages spoken in two neighbouring countries become increasingly distinct over time? The international influences underlying the origins of Spanish and Portuguese Before revealing more about the languages and cultures that have influenced the development of Spanish and Portuguese, it is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How different is Portuguese from Spanish? | EuroTrad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Spanish and Portuguese are similar, but they also present some significant differences, such as pronunciation. Discover more on EuroTrad&#039;s Blog.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How different is Portuguese from Spanish? | EuroTrad\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Spanish and Portuguese are similar, but they also present some significant differences, such as pronunciation. Discover more on EuroTrad&#039;s Blog.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eurotrad: Agenzia di Traduzioni\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-04T07:00:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-23T11:25:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/differenze-spagnolo-portoghese_immagine-testo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Redazione Eurotrad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Redazione Eurotrad\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Redazione Eurotrad\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4bf8140ef38680af40179d65fae3d143\"},\"headline\":\"How different is Spanish from Portuguese?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-04T07:00:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-23T11:25:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/\"},\"wordCount\":487,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/differenze-spagnolo-portoghese_immagine-testo.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Curiosities\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/\",\"name\":\"How different is Portuguese from Spanish? | EuroTrad\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/differenze-spagnolo-portoghese_immagine-testo.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-04T07:00:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-23T11:25:20+00:00\",\"description\":\"Spanish and Portuguese are similar, but they also present some significant differences, such as pronunciation. Discover more on EuroTrad's Blog.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/differenze-spagnolo-portoghese_immagine-testo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/differenze-spagnolo-portoghese_immagine-testo.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Magazine\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Curiosities\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/curiosities\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"How different is Spanish from Portuguese?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Eurotrad\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"EUROTRAD SRL\",\"alternateName\":\"Eurotrad\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/eurotrad-logo-2024.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/eurotrad-logo-2024.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":106,\"caption\":\"EUROTRAD SRL\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/eurotrad-interpreti-e-traduttori-snc\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4bf8140ef38680af40179d65fae3d143\",\"name\":\"Redazione Eurotrad\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f137db53a67f2d79ce99bd128d906d1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f137db53a67f2d79ce99bd128d906d1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Redazione Eurotrad\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How different is Portuguese from Spanish? | EuroTrad","description":"Spanish and Portuguese are similar, but they also present some significant differences, such as pronunciation. Discover more on EuroTrad's Blog.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How different is Portuguese from Spanish? | EuroTrad","og_description":"Spanish and Portuguese are similar, but they also present some significant differences, such as pronunciation. Discover more on EuroTrad's Blog.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/","og_site_name":"Eurotrad: Agenzia di Traduzioni","article_published_time":"2021-08-04T07:00:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-01-23T11:25:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/differenze-spagnolo-portoghese_immagine-testo.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Redazione Eurotrad","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Redazione Eurotrad","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/"},"author":{"name":"Redazione Eurotrad","@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4bf8140ef38680af40179d65fae3d143"},"headline":"How different is Spanish from Portuguese?","datePublished":"2021-08-04T07:00:33+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-23T11:25:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/"},"wordCount":487,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/differenze-spagnolo-portoghese_immagine-testo.jpg","articleSection":["Curiosities"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/","url":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/","name":"How different is Portuguese from Spanish? | EuroTrad","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/differenze-spagnolo-portoghese_immagine-testo.jpg","datePublished":"2021-08-04T07:00:33+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-23T11:25:20+00:00","description":"Spanish and Portuguese are similar, but they also present some significant differences, such as pronunciation. Discover more on EuroTrad's Blog.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/differenze-spagnolo-portoghese_immagine-testo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/differenze-spagnolo-portoghese_immagine-testo.jpg","width":900,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-different-portuguese-spanish\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Magazine","item":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Curiosities","item":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/curiosities\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"How different is Spanish from Portuguese?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/","name":"Eurotrad","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#organization","name":"EUROTRAD SRL","alternateName":"Eurotrad","url":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/eurotrad-logo-2024.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/eurotrad-logo-2024.png","width":500,"height":106,"caption":"EUROTRAD SRL"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/eurotrad-interpreti-e-traduttori-snc\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4bf8140ef38680af40179d65fae3d143","name":"Redazione Eurotrad","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f137db53a67f2d79ce99bd128d906d1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7f137db53a67f2d79ce99bd128d906d1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Redazione Eurotrad"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6564,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2347\/revisions\/6564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}