Can people who speak only Portuguese converse with people who speak only Spanish?

Answer 1

This is a great question and people often make the assumption that Spanish and Portuguese vary very little, when in fact, there are some big differences between the two Romance languages. The most obvious difference between the two languages is the way in which you pronounce vowels and some consonants. While some phonemes are common to both languages, others are unique to each. Native Portuguese speakers struggle to pronounce some phonemes that to them, seen in written Spanish, appear to be the same word with the same pronunciation. Lets analyze an example:

heart- the English word for this human organ is based on the root word, an Old English word of Germanic origin heorte.

corazón- the Spanish word for heart, based on the Latin and Indo-European root words cor and ker

coração- the Portuguese word for heart, also based on the Latin

A Portuguese speaker knows instinctively how to pronounce the Spanish z but the accented o and n make the phoneme a hard sound, whereas in Portuguese this is pronounced softly with a nasal tone. Most native Portuguese speakers will tell you that Spanish is enough alike where they can pick up words like cognates but that pronunciation is distinct and difficult.

To answer your original question, yes, a Portuguese speaker could converse with a Spanish speaker provided they each have the patience and foresight to speak slowly and clearly with lots of gestures and context. As a native speaker of both Spanish and Portuguese as my first languages I take great care to keep practicing and teaching each so that my pronunciation always improves.

If you're interested in improving your Portuguese, Spanish or English pronunciation and fluency, give me and online tutoring through Wyzant a try!