Portuguese V Spanish
I have a question, I talk English and Spanish, I speak almost fluent spanish. I recently went to an interview on my way back home I caught the train, when I arrived the women at the kiosk asked me to help a brazilian lady to london as she was having trouble with language issues , I told her that I speak spanish so I could help. Anyway, I found the women on the platform and she spoke only portugues, she could understand me PERFECTLY in? spanish, but I couldnt understand her at all.
I could undersand just a few VERY basic things she was saying. My question is, does anyone who speaks portuguese find spanish easy to understand as? its almost identical? Also, do any spanish speakers find it easy to understand portuguese for the same reasons? Strangely enough I can't understand portuguese that well.
Gracias a todos que me contesten.
10 Answers
I speak Spanish. To me, Brazilian Portuguese is very easy to understand. I'd say I understand about 85% - 90% of what is being said.
I find it goes the other way around, so it is easy enough to carry on a conversation between a Brazilian and a native Spanish speaker, each one speaking his or her own language.
Portuguese from Portugal I find a lot harder to understand, because their accent is a lot less familiar to me.
I think it has something to do with the clarity of Spanish vowels compared with the Portuguese ones. I have learned a bit of Portuguese for holidays. On paper, the two languages, at that level, are very similar. But listen to the CD and everything is different. All the words run into each other, half of the consonants disappear, final "s" are voiced and linked onto the following vowel, final vowels are "flattened" and made indistinct, etc, etc. I love the sound of Portuguese but listening comprehension is more challenging than in Spanish. The woman you tried to help spoke Brazilian Portugues, which to many, is easier to understand - less of the "sh" sounds - than Lusitanian Portuguese. Of course, if you are from Gallicia, so I'm told, you won't find Portuguese so difficult.
Having said all that, perhaps she watches more South American tele programmes and is more used to hearing Spanish than you Portuguese.
I find it goes the other way around, so it is easy enough to carry on a conversation between a Brazilian and a native Spanish speaker, each one speaking his or her own language.
I hardly understood a single word when I was in Brazil
Portuguese from Portugal I find a lot harder to understand, because their accent is a lot less familiar to me.
Well, that is a different story, I can understand Portuguese from Portugal pretty well
And ask cogu, I am sure she understands all of it, or very close to all
I have found Portuguese the most difficult of all the Romance languages to learn so far. I speak Spanish, some french and a little bit of Brazilian Portuguese and even less Italian. lol
I have been taught some Brazilian Portuguese by a native from Brazil for nearly 2 years - who incidentally used to be the Youth Pastor in our church! Learning to pronounce Portuguese was certainly a challenge. My ability to understand written Portuguese is better than my ability to understand spoken Portuguese. There are many nasal sounds that are tricky to pronounce eg não = no I used to have a Brazilian girlfriend for 4 years who came from São Paolo.
It was certainly an advantage to have learnt Spanish first - at least in terms of learning how to write and understand written Portuguese. Spoken Portuguese, as I have said is not easy to pronounce but some words and phrases can be understood.
eg:
Falo um pouco de Português
= Hablo un poco de español
(Eu) gostaria visitar Brasil
= Me gustaría visitar Brasil
Você pode me ajudar?
= ¿Me puedes ayudar?
There are similarities in some of the verbs and verb structures eg when two verbs follow each other the second is generally in the infinitive like in Spanish and French.
The complexities arise trying to understand the spoken language with the differences in pronounciation. For me, understanding Brazilian portuguese is neither impossible nor easy, it just requieres a lot of practice and above all, a native teacher!
I hope this helps 
I find this subject utterly fascinating. I know that languages belong to families and are related. German, Dutch and English are related but apart from some words/phrases (eg. das ist gut!) German is completely alien to me. Dutch may as well be Russian for all I can understand.
Having read the experiences of our native Spanish speakers (Gekko and Heidita) I'm tempted to think that Portuguese and Spanish are mutually intelligible (thank God for spell checkers, eh?)
I'd say I understand about 85% - 90% of what is being said.
I wonder what the figure would be between -say- a Texan and a Glaswegian? Maybe less than 85% but still the same language.
I can understand Portuguese from Portugal pretty well
Can they understand you too? I wonder - could an average Spanish person go on holiday to Lisbon without a phrase book? Book into a hotel? Order in a restaurant? Chat to the locals about the weather?
Saludos
The thing is like this
Grammar and vocabulary: Portuguese and Spanish are very, very similar, for two different languages; French and Italian are very similar to each other too
Pronunciation: Portuguese and French are very similar: nasal sounds everywhere and the guttural R; Italian and Spanish are closer on this although Italian wth its geminated consonants poses a difficulty.
So Spanish is the best of all Romance languages, we can understand at least some written Portuguese and spoken Italian to different degrees. French is the odd man out, only they can understand each other.
A Portugese woman has just started the same Spanish course as me. She took advice from the OU (Open University) who said she wouldn't need to do the beginners level as Spanish would be easy for her to learn.
Interesting answers. Well, I'm only an intermediate Spanish speaker (Castellano, I find that I have to pay much more attention when I'm listening to Latino Spanish). But even back when I was less capable in Spanish, I remember hearing people speaking in Portuguese (from Portugal) and I could pretty much follow (not everything, of course).
So I'd say maybe regional accents do play a role here. Interesting...
I can just repeat what Pibosan and Gekkosan have said. I can understand a fair amount of Brazilian Portuguese, but peninsular Portuguese is a very different story. Which is kind of funny, since my high school girlfriend when I lived in Venezuela was from Portugal. But she was completely fluent in English and Spanish, as well as French and Portuguese, so I didn't really have to learn any Portuguese. Looking back on it I wish I had.
Although Spanish and Portuguese are kind of similar, when I listen Portuguese I find the pronunciation very fast :( so it's not so easy for me to understand it at once, maybe a few words. Still, I like it and I'm trying to learn it. ^^
