Portuguese is a Romance language spoken by over 210 million people worldwide, with the majority of speakers in South America. It is the most widely spoken language in South America and an official language in several countries. Portuguese is somewhat mutually intelligible with Spanish and retains much of the sound of the original Latin. It is relatively easy for English speakers to acquire due to its large number of English cognates and straightforward grammar.
Portuguese is a Romance language spoken widely around the world, with the majority of speakers in South America. It is spoken by over 210 million people worldwide, making it the sixth language in terms of total speakers.
Portuguese is an official language in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Macao, Mozambique, Portugal and Sao Tome and Principe. It is also a working language of the European Union. Its population of speakers in Africa is currently on the rise, and the number of speakers worldwide is expected to increase dramatically over the next two decades. Surprisingly for many people, who expect Spanish to maintain the distinction, Portuguese is the most widely spoken language in South America. More than 185 million people speak Portuguese, and this number is rising as Brazil grows its ties with its Spanish-speaking neighbors.
Portuguese is somewhat mutually intelligible with Spanish, and in general, Portuguese speakers have a harder time understanding Spanish than the other way around. There has been a renewed interest in Portuguese-speaking countries in learning Spanish and the similarities between the two languages have made this transition quite easy. The Brazilian government recently declared Spanish a mandatory foreign language, in recognition of the growing proximity between Brazil and its Spanish-speaking neighboring nations.
More than most other Romance languages, Portuguese retains much of the sound of the original Latin. While languages like French, Italian, and Spanish make liberal use of diphthongs in their words, Portuguese often retains the same strong vowels as the original Latin words. This often sounds sharper and more concise to non-speakers, and is one of the easiest ways for non-speakers to distinguish between Spanish and Portuguese when speaking. While most Portuguese words are Latin-derived, the language was also heavily influenced by Arabic during the Moorish occupation of the Iberian peninsula. In the modern age, Portuguese has adopted a large amount of English words, especially those related to electronics.
Portuguese began to form in the 3rd century BC and was used in a fairly mature and distinct form by the 10th century. By the 15th century, it had reached a point where it would be recognizable to most people today as a direct relation to modern Portuguese and was being used as a lingua franca throughout the new empire Portugal was building in the New World.
Portuguese is a relatively easy language for English speakers to acquire. Its large number of English cognates – from the shared pool of Latin – and fairly straightforward grammar leave few unexpected obstacles in study. There are a handful of odd tenses – like the present perfect and future subjunctive – but they don’t take too much getting used to.
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