Difference Between Spanish and Portuguese

Spanish vs Portuguese

Termed as romance languages, the Spanish and Portuguese are the most widely spoken languages today. Though the two languages are very closely related, they have very significant differences.

One can see that people who speak Portuguese can understand Spanish easily but it is not likely that Spanish speakers can understand Portuguese that easily. When talking about the letters in the two languages, the Spanish alphabet has 28 letters and the Portuguese 23.

There are a great number of words in Spanish and Portuguese language, which are spelled the same but pronounced differently. There are other words, which are pronounced almost the same but spelled differently.

Another difference that can be seen in the vocabulary is that while the Spanish language has kept most of the Mozarabic vocabulary of Arabic origin, the Portuguese language do not have this Mozarabic substratum but replaced it with with Latin roots. In Portuguese language, one can see the influence of French while in Spanish language, there is a great influence of the autonomous and Mediterranean-oriented.

The two languages are very much different in grammar too. They have difference in their tenses, prepositions, cardinal numbers, reflexive pronouns and a lot more.

When comparing the cognate words, the spanish words are different from the Portuguese. For example the Spanish indefinite pronoun “Todo” and “tudo” means “all/every”, or “everything”. But in Portuguese language, ‘todo’ means “all/every” and ‘tudo’ mans “everything”.

While ‘Y’ (meaning and) is used before all words, except those that begin with ‘i’ and ‘hi’ in Spanish Language, ‘e’ is used before Portuguese words. Fior example ‘sal y pimienta’ in Spanish and ‘sal e pimenta’ in Portuguese. Moreover, the word endings are also different in Spanish and Potrtuguese languages. The ‘n’ in Spanish corresponds to ‘m’ in Portuguese.

When we compare the phonemic inventory, there is a noticeable difference between the two languages. The Portuguese language has more phonemes than the Spanish language.

While Portuguese language is the sixth-ranking language in terms of speakers, Spanish is the fourth most spoken language.

Portuguese is a working language of the European Union. Spanish is an operating language of both the United Nations and the European Union.

Summary
1.The Spanish alphabet has 28 letters and the Portuguese 23.
2.There are words in Spanish and Portuguese language, which are spelled the same but pronounced differently and vice versa.
3.While the Spanish language has kept most of the Mozarabic vocabulary of Arabic origin, the Portuguese language does not have this Mozarabic substratum but replaced it with with Latin roots.

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