Two Worlds, One Language: Unveiling the Differences Between European and Brazilian Portuguese

You are probably aware that there are two well-established standards of Portuguese – the European and the Brazilian. Most language learners, though, don’t know much about their differences.

So, how different are European and Brazilian Portuguese? Can native speakers on either side understand one another?

In general, European and Brazilian Portuguese are mutually intelligible. While there are subtle variations in grammar, vocab preferences, and spelling between the two standards, pronunciation is what differs the most. Nonetheless, those differences don’t hinder, in any substantial way, mutual intelligibility. 

Let’s dive in.

First impressions

Let’s get a sense of how Brazilian and European Portuguese look and sound in their written and spoken forms.

Below, there’s a passage from Paulo Coelho’s book O Alquimista, originally written in Brazilian Portuguese. I wrote a slightly different version by making small adjustments (marked in bold) to make it conform to the European standard:

He got up and took a sip of wine. Then he took his staff and started waking up the sheep that were still sleeping. He had noticed that most animals also started to wake up as soon as he woke up. As if there was a mysterious energy joining his life to the life of those sheep that, for two years, had been traveling the land with him in search of water and food. “They’ve gotten so used to me that they know my routines,” he said quietly. He reflected for a moment and thought that it could also be the other way around: maybe he had gotten used to the sheep’s routines.

Note that the original text above (Brazilian version) is fully intelligible for European Portuguese native speakers. None of the adjustments were strictly necessary for comprehension. Only highly informal language containing slang words and expressions, or regional dialects, challenge the mutual intelligibility between European and Brazilian Portuguese. 

Differences in pronunciation

As said before, pronunciation is where Brazilian and European Portuguese differ the most. Generally speaking, Brazilian Portuguese has more open vowel sounds and is more melodic than its European counterpart. 

I often hear people saying that the Portuguese “swallow” syllables and that’s a fair observation – European Portuguese, like English, is stress-timed which means higher vowel reduction (more on that soon).

Many people even suggest that European Portuguese phonology is reminiscent of Russian * or other Slavic languages – that’s partially due to vowel reduction, and partially to an abundance of hushing-like fricative sounds (more on that soon, too).

Before we go deeper into phonological differences between the two standards, I want to remind you that Brazil is a big country with various regional dialects. Portugal, though not as big as Brazil, also has its regional differences – the differences in pronunciation pointed out below are based on “standard” versions of either variant of Portuguese. 

* Learn more about why European Portuguese sounds Slavic: Here’s Why Portuguese Sounds like Russian.

Vowel Sounds

Brazilian Portuguese is more clearly pronounced than European Portuguese mainly due to differences in the vowel sounds between the two – there is significantly more vowel reduction going on in the European standard. 

Vowel reduction, if you haven’t yet come across this concept, is a speech mechanism by which unstressed syllables are shortened, thus rendering closed vowel sounds, sometimes even nearly muted. 

Vowel reduction is much more apparent in stress-timed languages like European Portuguese than in syllable-timed languages like Brazilian Portuguese.

Vowel reduction results in a less explicit pronunciation and gives the impression that the person speaking is swallowing word syllables. Let’s listen to the following verses (from the song  Água de Beber by António C. Jobim) in either standard. Pay special attention to the vowel sounds.

Could you notice the vowel sounds nearly disappearing in the European version? 

You’ve probably heard the difference in words ending with the vowel e, for instance, tive or sabe. One can hardly hear that e-sound in the European version. In Brazilian Portuguese, however, you clearly hear an i-sound, as in Lee. Go back and listen again.

I bet you’ve noticed, too, differences in the consonant sounds. That’s where we are heading next.

Consonant Sounds 

S&Z

There’s more of a hushing resonance in European Portuguese than in the other. Much of it is due to the pronunciation of the letter s. 

Accordingly, in European Portuguese, all words ending with an s render a sh-sound, as in shape. The same happens when the s occurs before a voiceless consonant (p, t, c, f).

Even words ending with a z produce that same sh-sound

In Brazilian Portuguese, on the other hand, the s letter will, under the same circumstances, produce more of an s-sound (as in sign).

Listen to the following sentence in either standard:

L

In European Portuguese, words ending with an l render the so-called dark l-sound, roughly as in normal.

But that’s not the case for Brazilian Portuguese, where the letter l will produce a rounded vowel sound, as in bow.  

Listen to the following sentence and compare:

R

In European Portuguese, words ending with an r produce the so-called alveolar tap, more or less as in settle (American pronunciation). In Brazilian Portuguese, however, these r-sounds more subtle and in some regional dialects even muted.

On the other hand (back again to the European standard), words starting with an r render a throaty r-sound (produced at the back of the mouth). That’s also the case when a double r is stuck between vowels.

In Brazilian Portuguese, and depending on the region, that throaty r  can be voiceless, as in Juan (Spanish pronunciation). 

Listen to the following sentence and compare the r-sounds mentioned above:

D

In European Portuguese, the letter d is always pronounced the same way, roughly as in date (the Portuguese d is somewhat less percussive and sharp than the English). 

In Brazilian Portuguese, on the other hand, the letter d can render a /dʒi/-sound, as in aging or jail. This happens when d is followed by either i or an e that sounds like i (namely when e appears at the end of a word).

Listen and compare the d-sounds mentioned above:

T

The t behaves analogously to the d.

In the European standard, the letter t always produces the same sound, more or less as in tea (once more, the Portuguese t is pronounced less percussively than the English). 

However, in Brazilian Portuguese, the letter t will sometimes produce a /tʃi/-sound, as in chat. That happens when t is followed by i or an e that sounds like i. 

Listen and compare the t sounds mentioned above:

Learn more about the European Portuguese sound system: European Portuguese Pronunciation: A Helpful Guide to Its Elemental Sounds.

Lexical preferences and false friends: Portugal vs. Brazil

Lexical preferences

On either side of the Atlantic, you will find different colloquialisms and idiomatic expressions reflecting different cultures.  

To illustrate this, let’s peek into Mário’s (Portugal) and Laura’s (Brazil) daily routines: 

Here’s a summary of common expressions that differ between Portugal and Brazil:

	Portugal	Brazil
hi everyone!	café da manhã	oi galera!
bathroom	quarto de banho	banheiro
breakfast	pequeno-almoço	café da manhã
juice	sumo	suco
fridge	frigorífico	geladeira
train	comboio	trem
bus	autocarro	ônibus
hot dog	cachorro	cachorro quente
ice cream	gelado	sorvete
to chat (informal)	dar dois dedos de conversa	bater um papo
something	uma coisa	um negócio
awesome/nice	fixe	legal
dog	cão	cachorro
mobile phone	telemóvel	celular
draught beer	imperial	chope
brandy	aguardente	cachaça
screen	ecrã	tela
computer mouse	rato	mouse
soccer team	equipa de futebol	time de futebol
goalkeeper	guarda-redes	goleiro
goal	golo	gol
tram	elétrico	bonde
grass	relva	grama
block (neighbourhood)	quarteirão	quadra
	. . .	. . .

! Brazilians use diminutives with higher frequency than people in Portugal. Diminutives are derivative words ending in –inho, suggesting smaller size, endearment, or deprecation. Some examples would be Joãozinho (little John), carrinho (little car), or beijinho (sweet kiss).

False friends

Many words share the same origin but their meanings eventually grow apart as time goes by. Often, the same word has several meanings on one side but only one meaning on the other, which can lead to misunderstandings.

Let’s look at a few examples:

	PT	BR
propina	tuition fee	brive
apelido	last name	nickname
rapariga	girl	prostitute
fato	suit	fact
pele	leather	skin
bicha	queue	gay
peão	pedestrian	pawn
	. . .	. . .

Differences in grammar

There are a few grammar nuances between Brazilian and European Portuguese. Let’s take a look at some of them.

If you are a beginner and want to get your feet wet in Portuguese grammar, read is: Dabbling in Portuguese Grammar – First Impressions for Beginners.

Definite articles

The European variant always calls for definite articles before proper nouns and possessive pronouns. In Brazilian Portuguese, though, those articles are most commonly left out.

A few examples:

(pt) O Pedro viu a Teresa no café.
(br) Pedro viu a Teresa no café.
Pedro saw Teresa at the café.

(pt) O meu irmão vive na Argentina.
(br) Meu irmão vive na Argentina. 
My brother lives in Argentina.

Continuous tenses

Either standard of Portuguese deals with continuous tenses differently. 

Take the present continuous for instance. In European Portuguese, you use the auxiliary verb estar conjugated in the Present tense followed by the preposition a and the main verb in the Infinitive form. 

In Brazilian Portuguese, you also use the auxiliary estar conjugated in the Present tense, but there is no preposition in between the verbs and the main verb is in the Present Participle.

Here’s an example:

(pt) A Catarina está a viajar.
(br) Catarina está viajando.
Catarina is traveling.

Learn more about progressive tenses in Portuguese: Portuguese Gerund: Progressive Tenses and Beyond.

Compound tenses

In Portuguese, both ter and haver * can be used as auxiliary verbs to form Perfect tenses.

In European Portuguese, however,  haver as an auxiliary verb is less frequent than in Brazilian Portuguese:

A Ana tinha estado com o Pedro. (frequent in both standards)
Ana havia estado com o Pedro. (more frequent in Brazilian Portuguese)
Ana had been with Pedro.

* The Portuguese verb haver is a must-know: The Portuguese Verb “Haver” and All the Things You Say with It.

Subject pronouns: você vs. tu 

One significant difference between European and Brazilian Portuguese is the way people address one another.

In Brazil, você (third person) is widely used, even among family and friends. Apart from a few regional dialects, you won’t hear people saying tu (second person).

In European Portuguese, on the other hand, tu is the norm for casual settings. You’d only use você in formal situations:

(pt) Pedro, (tu) queres gelado de baunilha ou chocolate?
(br) Pedro, (você) quer sorvete  de baunilha ou chocolate?
Pedro, do you want vanilla or chocolate ice cream?

(pt) Olá mãe, como foi o teu dia?
(br) Oi mãe, como foi seu dia?
Hi, Mum, how’s your day?

Object Pronouns

There are also a few differences in word order between the standards, namely concerning reflexive and object pronouns.

Overall, European Portuguese has more rigid rules for word order than the other. Here are a few examples to illustrate these differences:

(pt) Olá, Chamo-me Miguel.
(br) Oi, me chamo Miguel.
My name is Miguel.

(pt) Conto-te essa história mais logo.
(br) Te conto essa histório mais logo.
I will tell you that story later.

Here are a couple of readings where you can dive into Portuguese object and reflexive pronouns:
1. Portuguese Object Pronouns: What Are They for and Where to Place Them
2. Portuguese Reflexive Verbs and Reflexive Pronoun Placement

Prepositions

Portuguese and Brazilian people do not seem to agree on how to use prepositions, especially when movement is concerned (as when you use the preposition to in English). 

Where people in Portugal say à or ao (contractions of the preposition a), Brazilians prefer the no or na (contractions of the preposition em): 

(pt) Vou ao quarto de banho.
(br) Vou no banheiro. 
I am going to the restroom.

(pt) Vou à África do Sul em janeiro.
(br) Vou na África do Sul em janeiro.
I am going to South Africa in January. 

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

Differences in spelling

There are only minor differences in spelling between the Brazilian and the European variants. 

An orthographic agreement signed by several Portuguese-speaking countries, and coming into force under the 2010s, further contributed to a standardized spelling across the various regions where Portuguese is spoken. 

To be clear, this agreement doesn’t interfere with vocabulary preferences, idiomatic praxis, or pronunciation of either country. It strictly concerns spelling. 

For instance,  in European Portuguese and before the agreement, several words were spelled with mute consonants (c‘s and p‘s). In Brazilian Portuguese, however, that was never the case as they wouldn’t write unpronounced letters.

Accordingly, in European Portuguese and before the agreement, the words acção (action), correcto (correct), baptismo (baptismo), and excepto (except) included mute consonants. Today, they are spelled ação, correto, batismo, and exceto – just the way they already had been according to the spelling of the Brazilian variant. 

This was only one example illustrating how the orthographic agreement brought closer the spellings on either side of the Atlantic. But there are still a few minor differences, most of them reflecting variations in pronunciation:

	European Portuguese	Brazilian Portuguese
reception	receção	recepção (Brazilians pronounce the p)
european (feminine form)	europeia	européia
Anthony	António	Antônio (the o is pronounced with a more closed vowel sound)
fact	facto (the Portuguese pronounce the c)	fato

Learn more about the Portuguese spelling reform: Portuguese Spelling Reform: A Before-and-After Summary.