Spanish and Portuguese: What to Know Before You Travel

Heading to Latin America and hoping that one of these languages will carry you through the other? It will, partly. The rest of the time it will land you in an awkward conversation with a waiter. Below, I explain how the two languages are alike and where they let you down. You will also find a mini-glossary and a few study tips.

Related, but not twins

Both languages grew out of the vernacular Latin spoken in neighboring parts of the Iberian Peninsula at roughly the same time. They share 89 to 90 percent of their vocabulary, so speakers understand each other better than many neighbors within the same language family. A Spaniard can read Portuguese on the page with almost no trouble. Signs, menus and headlines are usually clear.

Speech is harder. European Portuguese swallows its unstressed vowels, and many words end in a soft "sh" sound. The Brazilian variety sounds open and lilting, and Spanish speakers find it easier to follow. It is like distant cousins: writing to each other is easy, but around the same dinner table you keep asking, "Sorry, what was that?"

The practical rule is simple. Mexico, Argentina and Colombia speak Spanish. Brazil speaks Portuguese. The line "Spanish will do there" works far less well than people promise. As a political analyst, I have often seen this same temptation, mistaking the similar for the identical, trip up tourists and diplomats alike. Neighbors in the region hear the difference instantly, and they take offense at it far more often than we imagine.

Sounds and accents

My main advice is to start with your ears, not your eyes. Spanish vowels are steady and almost always sound the same. Portuguese does not trust them. Its vowels can be open, closed or nasal, and they shift from word to word. That is why the language sounds softer and more sing-song. Nasal sounds such as "ão" are completely foreign to Spanish speakers, and they are what trips people up most often.

The alphabets differ too. The Spanish letter Ñ does not exist in Portuguese. Portuguese, for its part, favors Ç and the tilde over vowels, as in pão, "bread." For a traveler, that is enough to tell from the first sign which language is being spoken.

One more practical point. Fewer than 5 percent of Brazilians speak English, and only about 1 percent speak it fluently. Counting on English in Brazil is risky, so learn at least ten phrases before you go. Brazilians, incidentally, will happily chat with a visitor in "incomplete" Portuguese if they can see the effort. That willingness saves more nerves than any phrasebook.

The next trap follows from the first: "Spanish" and "Portuguese" are not single, uniform languages. European and Brazilian Portuguese differ noticeably, in both pronunciation and rhythm. Spanish in Mexico, Argentina and Colombia also sounds different in each place. Speed, intonation and sometimes vocabulary change from country to country.

What does that mean for you? Do not expect the textbook version to work the same way everywhere. If you are going to one country, look for recordings of its own people: podcasts, interviews, voice messages. A few evenings with real speech will do more than a week with tables. If your route crosses several countries, choose a neutral variety and accept that people will sometimes ask you to repeat yourself, just as you will ask them.

Pay attention, too, to how you address people. Both languages have formal and familiar forms, and the choice depends on age, situation and country. When in doubt, go with the more polite option. An extra "please" is always safer than coming across as brusque.

False friends

The similarity between the languages breeds a dangerous confidence. You think you understand, and at some point you do understand, but wrongly. Linguists call these words false friends. Here are the best-known pairs.

Two words share first place. The Spanish embarazada means "pregnant," while the Portuguese embaraçada means "embarrassed." A Brazilian woman who says "Estou embaraçada" is telling you she feels awkward, nothing more. The Portuguese word for pregnant is grávida. If you remember only one word from this article, make it that one. It is where conversations end most often.

Second: the Spanish escoba means "broom," while the Portuguese escova means "brush." Third: the Spanish escritorio is a writing desk, while the Portuguese escritório is an office. So asking to see the "escritório" in a Spanish hotel will cause confusion, because you are asking to see a desk.

Teachers love the fourth example. The Spanish exquisito is a compliment, meaning "exquisite" or "delicious." The Portuguese esquisito means "strange." Telling your hostess at dinner that her dish is esquisito is close to a diplomatic incident.

Why does this happen? The words in both languages descend from common Latin roots, but over the centuries they drifted apart, and each language shifted their meanings in its own way. Similar spelling therefore guarantees nothing, a point worth remembering in any conversation. The easiest approach is to treat every "familiar" word as a new acquaintance: nice to meet you, but worth checking out.

Mini-glossary

A few words for your first day. I give the translations of simple expressions according to generally accepted usage.

• Thank you: gracias in Spanish; obrigado in Portuguese if the speaker is a man, obrigada if a woman.
• Yes: sí in Spanish; sim in Portuguese.
• And: y in Spanish; e in Portuguese.
• How much: ¿cuánto? in Spanish; quanto in Portuguese.
• Pregnant: embarazada in Spanish; grávida in Portuguese.
• Embarrassed: avergonzada in Spanish; embaraçada in Portuguese.

Note the Portuguese "thank you." It changes with the gender of the person speaking, not the person being thanked. Brazilians notice this small slip and forgive it, but they will smile.

Study tips

1. Decide where you are going and pick one language. Trying to learn both at once produces "portuñol," a hybrid that only its inventors understand.
2. Train your ear before your tongue. Similar words on paper are deceptive, and intonation is best learned from living people. Films, podcasts and voice messages show how words sound, not how they look.
3. Build a personal list of false friends, and keep it short. Twenty words is enough; two hundred is too many. Start with the five I gave above, then add the ones that trip you up. Ready-made lists are available for this, including some with twenty pairs.
4. If you already know one of the languages, put it to use. Many words can be guessed, and learning the second language is easier than learning the first. But don't get carried away. Guesswork is fine for reading, but at the dinner table it should not be trusted.
5. Practice dialogues, not word lists. On the road you will need ready-made sequences: greeting someone, asking for something, checking a price, saying thanks and leaving politely. Learn them whole, intonation included, and when the moment comes you won't have to assemble a sentence from separate bricks.
6. Don't be afraid to make mistakes out loud. It is better to speak with an accent and imprecisely than to stay silent and point at the menu. People in these countries value the attempt to speak their language, and it usually opens more doors than flawless grammar.

Treat your slip-ups with humor. A mistake like embaraçada instead of grávida will make your listener laugh, and he or she will probably then speak more slowly and simply. Laughter works as an interpreter when you talk with a foreigner: it eases tension and invites you to go on. Remember that on a trip the goal is not perfect language but real contact.