Portuguese vs. Spanish: How Similar Are They Actually?

Portuguese and Spanish are Romance languages that share a common root: they both stem from Vulgar Latin. But how similar are they?

Portuguese and Spanish are different enough to be considered separate languages. They have nonetheless a similar grammar and lexicon that makes them closely related and, to some extent, mutually intelligible. The aspect that differs the most between these languages is their pronunciation.

Now, can native Portuguese speakers understand Spanish native speakers?

Yes, it is relatively easy for native Portuguese speakers to understand Spanish, even speak it. But this is not entirely reciprocal.

Native Spanish speakers seem to have a harder time following along with native Portuguese speakers. This imbalance is mainly due to differences in pronunciation between the two languages (we’ll soon look at them in more detail)

Mutual intelligence between native speakers apart, from a language learning perspective, Knowing either language will help you to learn the other.

In what follows, we’ll look at the similarities and differences between Portuguese and Spanish in greater detail. Read on.

First impressions

Let’s take a glance at what Portuguese and Spanish look and sound like in the written and spoken forms respectively:

Portuguese	Spanish
O nosso mundo atual apresenta problemas muito complexos e difíceis de resolver. Entre eles estão as alterações climáticas, a desflorestação, o esgotamento dos recursos naturais, a perda de biodiversidade, fortes desigualdades socioeconómicas e centenas de milhares de pessoas a viver sob pobreza extrema.	Nuestro mundo actual presenta problemas muy complejos y difíciles de resolver. Entre ellos se encuentran el cambio climático, la deforestación, el agotamiento de los recursos naturales, la pérdida de biodiversidad, las fuertes desigualdades socioeconómicas y cientos de millones de personas que viven en extrema pobreza.

Our current world presents very complex problems that are difficult to solve. Among them are climate change, deforestation, depletion of natural resources, biodiversity loss, strong socio-economic inequalities and hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty.

As you can see, Portuguese and Spanish are pretty similar in written form.

In the text snippets above, it becomes apparent that almost all verbs and nouns look alike on either side, which means that native speakers of either language can easily read the other tongue.

On the other hand, you’d probably agree that the differences in pronunciation are greater than the differences in text. Spoken Portuguese and Spanish, while still relatable, are less mutually intelligible compared to their written forms.

Now, native Portuguese speakers are more likely to understand Spanish than otherwise. Why? Well, we are more intelligent! Just joking.

It has to do with this: the Portuguese sound system is more complex than the Spanish. We’ll get there in a while. But first, let’s take a look at the similarities and differences in vocabulary between the languages.  

Lexicon

Portuguese-Spanish cognates

Cognates are words that share a common origin and thus look and mean nearly the same. Since both languages originate from Vulgar Latin, cognate words between Portuguese and Spanish are in the thousands. 

Indeed, Portuguese and Spanish share nearly 90% of their vocabularies. This means that most words have either a cognate or an equivalent in the other language. 

Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that 90% of the words used in daily life in Portuguese and Spanish will be the same. See, many high-frequency words won’t find a cognate in the other language.

But even if the 90% figure is a bit overrated in practice, it is undeniable that Spanish-Portuguese cognates make these languages mutually intelligible to a high degree, at least in the written form.

Here are a few examples of Portuguese-Spanish noun cognates: 

	Portuguese	Spanish
life	vida	vida
exit	saída	salida
food	comida	comida
table	mesa	mesa
travel	viagem	viaje
eyes	olhos	ojos
city	cidade	ciudad
	. . .	. . .

A few more cognate examples concerning verbs and adjectives: 

	Portuguese	Spanish
eat	comer	comer
wash	lavar	lavar
sleep	dormir	dormir
ugly	feio	feo
dark	escuro	oscuro
cold	frio	frío
happy	contente	contento
	. . .	. . .

Let’s now take a look at personal pronouns. Except for the formal 2-person singular, they also look similar on both sides: 

	Portuguese	Spanish
I	Eu	Yo
You	Tu/você (formal)	Tú/usted (formal)
She/he	Ela/ele	Ella/él
We	Nós	Nosotros
You	Vós (vocês)	Vosotros
They	Elas/Eles	Ellas/Ellos

The same goes for demonstrative pronouns (Portuguese demonstratives on top): 

	Masc sing.	fem. sing.	masc. pl.	fem. pl.
this	este éste	esta ésta	estes éstos	estas éstas
that	esse ése	essa ésa	esses ésos	essas ésas
that over there	aquele aquél	aquela aquélla	aqueles aquéllos	aquelas aquéllas

! Sometimes, the gender of cognate words might be different on either side. For instance, Portuguese words ending with –agem are normally feminine, whereas their Spanish cognates, ending with –aje, tend to be masculine (e.g. a viagem vs. el viaje).

Further reading. Dive deeper into Spanish-Portuguese cognates: Portuguese-Spanish Cognates and False Friends.

Portuguese-Spanish false friends 

False friends – or false cognates if you will – are words that look the same in either language but mean different things, potentially leading to misunderstandings. Let’s take a look at a few examples:

PT–SP False Friends	PT equiv. of SP	SP equiv. of PT
acordar waking up acordarse recall	lembrar-se	despertarse
barata cockroach barata cheap	barata*	cucaracha
cadeira chair cadera hip	anca	silla
cena scene cena dinner	jantar	escena
embaraçada embarrassed embarazada pregnant	grávida	desconcertado
escova brush escoba broom	vassoura	cepillo
escritório office escritorio desk	secretária	oficina
esquisito weird  exquisito exquisite	requintado	raro
largo large largo long	comprido	amplio
oficina workshop oficina office	escritório	taller
polvo octopus polvo dust	pó	pulpo
propina** tuition fee propina tip	gorjeta	cuota
rato mouse rato a little while (time)	momento	ratón
roxo purple rojo red	vermelho	púrpura
ruivo redhead rubio blond	loiro	pelirojo
trair betray traer bring	trazer	traicionar

* barato/a in Portuguese also means cheap.
** propina means bribery in Brazilian Portuguese, whereas in Portugal bribery is suborno. Read the following article to learn more about how these two standards of Portuguese compare: European vs. Brazilian Portuguese – How Different Are They, Really?

Portuguese-Spanish dissimilar words

Portuguese-Spanish dissimilar words mean the same thing but look and sound differently on either side. Here are a few examples of high-frequency, dissimilar words:

	Portuguese	Spanish
tap	torneira	grifo
window	janela	ventana
pen	caneta	bolígrafo
neck	pescoço	cuello
office	escritório	oficina
store	loja	tienda
pregnant	grávida	embarazada
knee	joelho	rodilla
	. . .	. . .

Another instance of commonly used dissimilar words is weekdays. Unlike other Romance languages, Portuguese weekdays don’t allude to celestial bodies or old mythologies. Instead, they are ranked from the second (segunda) through the sixth day (sexta), with sábado and domingo standing for the seventh and first days respectively:   

	Portuguese	Spanish
Monday	segunda-feira (2)	lunes (moon)
Tuesday	terça-feira (3)	martes (Mars)
Wednesday	quarta-feira (4)	miercoles (Mercury)
Thursday	quinta-feira (5)	jueves (Jupiter)
Friday	sexta-feira (6)	viernes (Venus)
Saturday	sábado (7)	sabado
Sunday	domingo (1)	domingo

Portuguese vs. Spanish pronunciation

Portuguese and Spanish languages are least similar in their spoken form. This is mainly because Portuguese has more complex phonology* compared to Spanish – there are more language sounds in Portuguese than in Spanish.  

This is also why native Portuguese speakers have an easier time speaking and understanding Spanish than otherwise.

Below, we will look in greater detail at how Portuguese and Spanish differ in pronunciation.

* Note that the Portuguese language sounds mentioned in this section refer to the European standard. Dive deeper into European Portuguese phonology: Portuguese Pronunciation: A Helpful Guide to Portuguese Basic Sounds and Spelling Patterns.

Consonants

Consonants are, in opposition to vowel sounds, speech sounds articulated with partial or total obstruction caused by the tongue, lips, teeth, or any other speech articulator.

Let’s look at some cases where Portuguese consonant sounds differ from Spanish. 

A softer Spanish

The Spanish b, d, and g sounds are pronounced more softly than in Portuguese. 

In Spanish, you’d pronounce the b without completely closing your lips. The differences are subtle but still noticeable. Here are a few cognate words where you can observe these nuances: 

	Portuguese	Spanish
know	saber	saber
life	vida	vida
cat	gato	gato

Different r-sounds

In Spanish, as in Portuguese, there are two r-sounds.

One of them, the so-called voiced alveolar tap, is present in both languages, namely when the r occurs in between two vowels, as in the Portuguese-Spanish cognate caro (expensive). This sound is similar to the sound produced in the words lettuce or subtle (American pronunciation).

The r-sound rendered in words initialized by an r will differ between the languages.

Accordingly, the Portuguese word rio (river) is pronounced with a throaty, guttural r-sound. In contrast, the Spanish cognate río is produced at the front of the mouth and renders a fluttering r-sound, so-called voiced alveolar trill:

	Portuguese	Spanish
river	rio	río
fast	rápido	rápido

Portuguese is more fricative

Fricatives consist of hushing and hissing sounds. Fricative sounds are more frequent and more varied in Portuguese than in Spanish. 

For instance, the voiced and voiceless postalveolar fricatives –  as in share and measure respectively –  are non-existent in Spanish. 

Thus, whenever a Portuguese word renders any of these sounds, the corresponding Spanish cognate replaces it with another sound, usually a palatal approximant spelled with ll or a velar fricative (spelled with g or j):

	Portuguese	Spanish
arrive	chegar	llegar
agent	agente	agente
John	João	Juan

Hushing sounds are one of the reasons why people say that Portuguese sounds like Russian. Learn more about it: Here’s Why Portuguese Sounds Like Russian (or Polish).

What’s more, the z-sound, as in zebra, is common in Portuguese and rare in Spanish. 

In Portuguese, when an s shows between two vowels, it produces the z-sound. In Spanish, in a similar situation, the letter s will render the s-sound instead, as in soup: 

	Portuguese	Spanish
house; home	casa	casa
table	mesa	mesa

B&V

In Portuguese, both b– and v-sounds are frequent and match the corresponding letters. In Spanish, however, only the b-sound exists regardless of if the word is spelled with b or v.

	Portuguese	Spanish
cow	vaca	vaca
visit	visitar	visitar

Same sound, alternative spelling

The Portuguese nh-sound, the so-called voiced palatal nasal, is also present in Spanish though with a different spelling, namely ñ: 

Portuguese	Spanish
ninho (nest) carinho (affection)	niño (child) cariño (darling)

Portuguese “lh” vs. Spanish “ll” and “j”

Portuguese words spelled with the digraph lh, for instance, telhado,  produce a sound called palatal lateral approximant. 

This same sound is found in a few dialects of Spanish, although it is coded with a different spelling, the double l as in llamo. 

In most Spanish dialects of today, however, the ll–spelling produces a more y-like sound (as in yes):

Portuguese	Spanish
telha (roof tile) malha (mesh)	ladrillo (brick) rodilla (knee)

Also, you will often encounter Portuguese words spelled with lh whose Spanish cognates take a j instead, thus producing a distinct sound:

	Portuguese	Spanish
wet	molhado	mojado
garlic	alho	ajo

Vowels

Vowel sounds are produced when the air freely flows out of the mouth or nose. 

There are a few more vowel sounds in Portuguese than in Spanish. That alone makes Portuguese pronunciation more challenging than Spanish for those learning the language. 

So, Portuguese has 14 vowel sounds, 9 oral and 5 nasalized. Spanish has only 5, none of which are nasal. 

Accordingly, Spanish has a one-to-one matching between the 5 vowel letters – a, e, i, o, u – and the sounds they stand for. In Portuguese, however, one vowel letter can render several vowel sounds:

Vowel letters	PT vowel sounds	SP vowel sounds
a	/a/ casa /ɐ/ casa	/a/ casa
e	/ɛ/ anel /e/ comer /i/  eficaz /ɨ/ parte	/e/ enero
i	/i/ rir	/i/ sí
o	/ɔ/ obra /o/ aspirador /u/ ato	/o/ loco
u	/u/ mudo	/u/ mucho

Stress-timed languages and vowel reduction

Portuguese, like English, is a stress-timed language, while Spanish is a syllable-timed language. This explains, at least partly, why there are more vowel sounds in the former than in the latter.

See, stress-timed languages clearly stress one syllable per word. This stressed syllable is likely to render an open vowel sound.

On the other hand, the vowel sounds of the remaining unstressed syllables are reduced, thus producing closed sounds.

This is why the word casa (see table above) has two a‘s, each rendering a distinct vowel sound – the first a is stressed and thus open, whereas the second a is unstressed and therefore reduced (producing a closed sound).

Conversely, being Spanish a syllable-timed language, it doesn’t have this stress-vs-unstressed-syllable clear dichotomy. That means that the vowels in Spanish are more consistent insofar as the sounds they stand for. 

Thus, the Spanish word casa, contrary to its Portuguese cognate, produces approximately the same a-sound on both syllables. 

Let’s take another example. The last o in the Portuguese word livro is unstressed and produces a reduced /u/-sound. 

Conversely, its Spanish cognate – libro – produces a more open /o/-sound by simply not having its last syllable reduced. You get the idea…

In conclusion, all vowels are, in Spanish, clearly pronounced. That’s not the case in Portuguese where unstressed vowels are reduced, thus producing closed sounds.

The fact that Portuguese is a stress-timed language makes its word-stress patterns all the more relevant for accurate pronunciation. Learn more about it in this article: Portuguese Word Stress and Accent Marks.

Portuguese nasal vowels

Contrarily to Spanish, Portuguese also has nasal vowels, 5 of them. These nasalized sounds occur when the air flows, at least partially, out of your nose. 

Portuguese words render nasal vowel sounds whenever a vowel is followed by an n or an m, and when these, in turn, are followed by other consonants:

	Portuguese (nasal)	Spanish (non-nasal)
sing	cantar	cantar
intention	intenção	intención
impossible	impossível	imposible

Also, all Portuguese words with a tilde over an a or an o, for instance, irmã (sister) or limões (lemons), produce a nasalized vowel sound.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs are gliding vowel sounds – a vowel sound gliding into another one. As it is, Portuguese has a wider assemblage of them than Spanish.

For instance, diphthongs such as ei, ai, oi or ou are common in Portuguese and rare in Spanish. Conversely, the diphthongs ue and ie abound in Spanish and are unusual in Portuguese:

Portuguese	Spanish
feira (market)	vuelo (flight)
ouro (gold)	puede (can)
oito (eight)	mientras (while)
ainda (still)	piedra (stone)

Spelling patterns

There are a few spelling-pronunciation patterns between Portuguese and Spanish worth taking notice of. 

For instance, Portuguese words with an open e tend to have Spanish cognates with the ie instead: 

	Portuguese	Spanish
stone	pedra	piedra
government	governo	gobierno

Conversely, Portuguese cognates with the diphthong ei are normally spelled with an e in Spanish: 

	Portuguese	Spanish
market	feira	feria
right	direita	derecha
accept	aceitar	aceptar

Usually, Portuguese words containing an o on their stressed syllable (open o-sound) have Spanish cognates with a ue-diphthong instead: 

	Portuguese	Spanish
school	escola	escuela
door	porta	puerta
proposal	proposta	propuesta

Nasal diphthongs

Nasal diphthongs are in Portuguese but not in Spanish. Accordingly, all nouns that end with –ão – and their plural forms (-ãos, –ães, and –ões) – will produce nasal diphthongs. 

The Spanish cognates of those Portuguese words tend to take the –ión ending:

	Portuguese (nasal diphthongs)	Spanish
admiration	admiração	admiración
information	informação	información
attention	atenção	atención

Portuguese vs. Spanish grammar

Overall, Portuguese and Spanish grammars are similar. There are, nonetheless, a few differences. Let’s take a look at it.

If you’re a beginner, I recommend this brief introduction to Portuguese grammar: Dabbling in Portuguese Grammar – First Impressions for Beginners.

Articles

Both Portuguese and Spanish have four definite articles agreeing in number and genus. Additionally, Spanish has a distinct form for its neuter article:

	Portuguese	Spanish
masc. singular	o	el
fem. singular	a	la
masc. plural	os	los
fem. plural	as	las
neuter	(o)	lo

The Spanish neuter lo is used in conjunction with adjectives. In Portuguese, it is the masculine singular o that is used:

(SP) Lo importante es dormir bien
(PT) O importante é dormir bem 
(The important thing is to sleep well)

Prepositions

In general, Spanish prepositions won’t contract with other words. The exception is prepositions de and a contracting with the masculine singular article el:

• de + el= del 
•  a + el = al

Portuguese prepositions, on the other hand, are more prone to contracting. For instance, see how Portuguese prepositions will contract with articles:

prepositions	Contractions with the definite articles (o, a, os , as)	Contractions with the indefinite articles (um, uma, uns, umas)
em	em + o = no em + a = na em + os = nos em + as = nas	em + um = num em + uma = numa em + uns = nuns em + umas = numas
de	de + o = do de + a = da de + os = dos de + as =das	de + um = dum de + uma = duma de + uns = duns de + umas = dumas
a	a + o = ao a + a =à a + os = aos a + as = às	–
por	por + o = pelo por + a = pela por + os = pelos por + as = pelas	–

Learn the ABC of Portuguese prepositions: Basic Portuguese Prepositions and Contractions: An Inclusive Usage Rundown

Verbs

In general, Portuguese and Spanish verbs and tenses are analogous.

Simple tenses

Simple tenses are conjugated similarly in either language. Let’s take the regular verb beber (drink) as an example:

	Portuguese	Spanish
Present tense	bebo (eu) bebes (tu) bebe (ele) bebemos (nós) bebeis (vós)* bebem (eles)	bebo (yo) bebes (tú) bebe (él) bebemos (nosotros) bebéis (vosotros) beben (ellos)
Past tense	bebi bebeste bebeu bebemos bebestes* beberam	bebi bebiste bebió bebimos bebisteis bebieron
Future tense	beberei beberás beberá beberemos bebereis* beberão	beberé beberás beberá beberemos beberéis beberán

*Notice that, in modern Portuguese, the 2-person plural (vós) is outdated and thus rarely used. Instead, our de-facto-you-plural is vocês + 3-person plural. For instance, vós bebeis becomes vocês bebem.

Also, the be-going-to-future is identical in both languages and uses the same auxiliary verb:

(PT) Eu vou beber vinho
(SP) Eu voy a beber vino
I am going to drink wine

Perfect tenses

Portuguese and Spanish use different auxiliary verbs to form Perfect tenses: ter and haber respectively. Both verbs are the equivalent of the verb have which also plays the same auxiliary role in English. 

Look at these two sentences:

(PT) Eu tenho bebido muita água
(SP) Yo he bebido mucha agua 

As you see above, the auxiliary verb of either language is conjugated in the Present tense and precedes the past participle of the main verb (beber).

Although these sentences are similar in structure, they convey different time-flow qualities. Let’s translate each sentence into English:

(PT) Eu tenho bebido muita água
I have been drinking a lot of water

(SP) Yo he bebido mucha agua 
I have drunk a lot of water

As you can see, you’d use the English Present Perfect Continuous tense to translate the Portuguese sentence – the action is still ongoing. 

The translation of the Spanish sentence, however, uses the Present Perfect tense – the action is concluded.

There are other instances of perfect tenses usage among the two languages when structure and meaning coincide:

(PT) Eu tinha bebido muita água
I had drunk a lot of water

(SP) Yo había bebido mucha agua 
I had drunk a lot of water

Now both sentences have the auxiliary verbs inflected in the same tense (Past tense Imperfect), and express the same time aspect (equivalent to the English Past Perfect). 

Confused by all the tenses and verb structures in Portuguese? Here’s something for you: Portuguese Verb Tenses and Moods Explained: A Usage Rundown Anchored to English

Personal infinitive

Contrarily to Spanish and other Romance languages, Portuguese has a conjugable Infinitive, the so-called Personal Infinitive. Let’s look at the verb ir (go):

Impersonal infinitive (Por/Spa)	Personal infinitive (Portuguese only)
ir	ir (eu) ires (tu) ir (ele) irmos (nós) irem (vocês) irem (eles)

Here is an example:

(PT) Não comas antes de ires para a cama
(SP) No comas antes de ir a la cama
Don’t eat before you go to bed

Learn more about the Personal Infinitive: Portuguese Personal Infinitive: What Is It and When to Use It.

Word order

Portuguese and Spanish are both SVO languages by default:

Subject ► Verb ► Object.

Accordingly, the word order is generally similar in either language. Let’s then look at what is different.

Yes/no questions

Contrary to English, neither language uses an auxiliary verb in yes/no questions. In Portuguese, however, you wouldn’t place the verb before the subject as you would in Spanish:

(PT) Ela fala Inglês?
(SP) Habla ella inglés?
Does she speak English?

Placement of object pronouns

In Spanish, you’d place the object pronoun before the verb. Often, that’s also the case in Brazilian Portuguese. In European Portuguese, however, the object pronoun follows the verb by default:

(PT) Ele deu-me um livro
(SP) Él me dio un libro
He gave me a book

However, in the presence of certain adverbs, prepositions, or conjunctions, the object pronoun in Portuguese will also precede the verb:

(PT) Ela também me deu um livro
(SP) Ella también me dio un libro
She also gave me a book

Further reading! Learn more about object pronouns and their placement patterns: Portuguese Object Pronouns: What Are They for and Where to Place Them.