Portuguese Mix Up Portuguese With Spanish?

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DanSwe Wednesday 19th of October 2005 06:08:36 AM
Mix up portuguese with spanish? - Hi!
I have fallen in love with romance languages I think. I speak spanish and also wants to learn french and maybe portuguese.
Will it be hard to master, will i mix up everything with spanish and french? They seem almost too relative with each other.

Duffie Wednesday 19th of October 2005 06:48:02 AM
- Most people who cross over into other Romance languages will have lots of trouble at first; even though it seems easy, each language is tad bit different. The little tiny mixups are what confuse more people.

My Spanish teacher learned Spanish, French and Portuguese in that order. She talked to us about this same situation. She said most problems come in verbs. You can get the conjugation correctly, but maybe use the Spanish infinitive instead of the French infinitive.

Practice is Key in this case. Only with experience will you truly be able to distinguish.

delia Thursday 20th of October 2005 05:20:48 PM
- I also mix Spanish and Portuguese many times...and I hate this.

DanSwe Thursday 20th of October 2005 09:39:07 PM
- Seems to be problem for everyone who learns it... But it would have been cool learn all 4 big romance languages, because i love the romance cultures and their language. But im afraid i will even mix up french and spanish...

SilentRick015 Saturday 05th of November 2005 02:13:17 AM
- I wonder, though... would native speakers of the Romance languages be able to understand you if you used (example) a Spanish verb in a Portugese sentence?

xeon3d Sunday 22nd of January 2006 10:03:02 AM
- Most portuguese people (from portugal) can understand spanish.

Speaking is another different thing.

jrcls Sunday 19th of February 2006 10:44:01 AM
- Yeap, agree 100%.

Regarding spanish language, brazilian and portuguese people are in the same (although "specular") situation: on one side, spanish speaking people (Spain, for Portugal; and a cluster of bordering countries, for Brazil); on the other side, the Atlantic Ocean! Thus we have no choice: we need to understand spanish if we want to get along fine with our neighbours :-)

It isn´t a problem to me, however. A part of my family came from Spain, and I appreciate spanish literature a lot. I can read a book in spanish with very little help from the dictionary. About hearing and understanding spanish speakers, it´s usually easy. But when it comes to speaking, I´m clueless... It happens to many people I know...

To our pals abroad who mix up portuguese with spanish: it´s ok, because the two languages are close enough to be mutually understandable. Just relax. My piece of advice is: don´t worry about the words, the two languages have great many words in common; the difference between portuguese (specially brazilian portuguese) and spanish has much more to do with rhythm, expressions and pronunciation details. If you use, now and then, a spanish word when trying to speak portuguese, I think portuguese or brazilian people can survive it :-)

Isabel Thursday 02nd of March 2006 05:44:07 AM
- It's funny to be Portuguese and try to learn Spanish. I'm having Spanish classes at a language institute and whenever I try to speak in class, I always try to use words that I believe exist in Spanish but they don't... A Portuguese tourist is not really much understood by a Spanish, mostly because of the accent. But if he tries to speak Portuguese with a Spanish intonation and some Spanish words, he is finally understood. We call that most of the times "portiñol" - a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish. And I am still very fluent in that, I'm afraid...

Phrasebase Archive
	DanSwe	Wednesday 19th of October 2005 06:08:36 AM
	Mix up portuguese with spanish? - Hi! I have fallen in love with romance languages I think. I speak spanish and also wants to learn french and maybe portuguese. Will it be hard to master, will i mix up everything with spanish and french? They seem almost too relative with each other.
	Duffie	Wednesday 19th of October 2005 06:48:02 AM
	- Most people who cross over into other Romance languages will have lots of trouble at first; even though it seems easy, each language is tad bit different. The little tiny mixups are what confuse more people. My Spanish teacher learned Spanish, French and Portuguese in that order. She talked to us about this same situation. She said most problems come in verbs. You can get the conjugation correctly, but maybe use the Spanish infinitive instead of the French infinitive. Practice is Key in this case. Only with experience will you truly be able to distinguish.
	delia	Thursday 20th of October 2005 05:20:48 PM
	- I also mix Spanish and Portuguese many times...and I hate this.
	DanSwe	Thursday 20th of October 2005 09:39:07 PM
	- Seems to be problem for everyone who learns it... But it would have been cool learn all 4 big romance languages, because i love the romance cultures and their language. But im afraid i will even mix up french and spanish...
	SilentRick015	Saturday 05th of November 2005 02:13:17 AM
	- I wonder, though... would native speakers of the Romance languages be able to understand you if you used (example) a Spanish verb in a Portugese sentence?
	xeon3d	Sunday 22nd of January 2006 10:03:02 AM
	- Most portuguese people (from portugal) can understand spanish. Speaking is another different thing.
	jrcls	Sunday 19th of February 2006 10:44:01 AM
	- Yeap, agree 100%. Regarding spanish language, brazilian and portuguese people are in the same (although "specular") situation: on one side, spanish speaking people (Spain, for Portugal; and a cluster of bordering countries, for Brazil); on the other side, the Atlantic Ocean! Thus we have no choice: we need to understand spanish if we want to get along fine with our neighbours :-) It isn´t a problem to me, however. A part of my family came from Spain, and I appreciate spanish literature a lot. I can read a book in spanish with very little help from the dictionary. About hearing and understanding spanish speakers, it´s usually easy. But when it comes to speaking, I´m clueless... It happens to many people I know... To our pals abroad who mix up portuguese with spanish: it´s ok, because the two languages are close enough to be mutually understandable. Just relax. My piece of advice is: don´t worry about the words, the two languages have great many words in common; the difference between portuguese (specially brazilian portuguese) and spanish has much more to do with rhythm, expressions and pronunciation details. If you use, now and then, a spanish word when trying to speak portuguese, I think portuguese or brazilian people can survive it :-)
	Isabel	Thursday 02nd of March 2006 05:44:07 AM
	- It's funny to be Portuguese and try to learn Spanish. I'm having Spanish classes at a language institute and whenever I try to speak in class, I always try to use words that I believe exist in Spanish but they don't... A Portuguese tourist is not really much understood by a Spanish, mostly because of the accent. But if he tries to speak Portuguese with a Spanish intonation and some Spanish words, he is finally understood. We call that most of the times "portiñol" - a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish. And I am still very fluent in that, I'm afraid...