Are Portuguese and Spanish as similar to each other as Swedish and Danish?

Answer 1

Portuguese and Spanish are two of the most commonly spoken languages in the world, and they also share quite a lot of similarities. Both the languages fall into a branch of Romance languages, which is called West Iberian or Hispano Iberian. This branch contains a number of variants and dialects, which can be more or less understood by all speakers within it. Portuguese and Spanish share a similar grammar and lexicon that closely connects them and makes them fairly mutually intelligible. In fact, you don’t even need to be fluent in them to understand that they are close to each other. This makes it advantageous for speakers of both languages to learn each other’s language. However, despite their similarities; each language possesses its own unique set of distinctive differences too. It is in pronunciation that they differ the most.

Portuguese And Spanish In Written Form

Here is an example to help you understand that both the languages have words that don’t just sound similar but look almost identical:

Our current world presents very complex problems that are difficult to solve.

Portuguese:

O nosso mundo atual apresenta problemas muito complexos e difíceis de resolver.

Spanish:

Nuestro mundo actual presenta problemas muy complejos y difíciles de resolver.

As you can see, the words, especially the verbs and nouns, look similar. However, when you say these sentences out loud, you will notice the differences. Compared to their written form, spoken Portuguese and spoken Spanish are not very mutually intelligible. This is because the former’s phonology is slightly more complex than the latter.

Portuguese And Spanish Lexicon

There are numerous words that look alike and often share the same meaning in both languages. They also share a common origin. These words are known as cognates. Since both Portuguese and Spanish have originated from Vulgar Latin, they contain a lot of cognates. Here are some examples:

 

          Portuguese           Spanish

life              vida                       vida

eyes            olhos                     ojos

sleep           dormir                    dormir

cold             frio                        frío

I                Eu                         Yo

We             Nós                      Nosotros

There are also words that look the same but have entirely different meanings, which are called false friends. For instance, the words esquisito (Portuguese) and exquisito (Spanish) look similar, but they mean weird in Portuguese and exquisite in Spanish. The Portuguese for exquisite is requintado.

Due to the many similarities and despite the differences, experts say that people speaking Spanish enjoy a great advantage while learning Portuguese.