What do you know about Portuguese? I invite you to expand your knowledge about the Portuguese language. Here are some aspects of the Portuguese language that you may not know.
1) There are more words in Portuguese similar to English than you think.
Agenda, animal, artificial, bar, base, cafeteria, capital, casual, central, chance, chic, chocolate, cinema, colonial… all of these words are cognates, meaning they are written the same in both English and Portuguese. In fact, many other words are identical in English and Portuguese like real, natural and hotel. There are also other nearly-identical words such as apartamento, simples, and opinião. It happens because many words in both English and Portuguese have Latin origin.
2) 80% of all people who speak Portuguese are actually in Brazil.
Portuguese language should be called “Brazilian” language as most people that speak this language are in Brazil. There are 244 million people speaking Portuguese in the world. About 80% of that is in Brazil. Nevertheless, for the longest time, the Brazilian government wasn’t interested in promoting the Brazilian dialect as a foreign language. On the other hand, Portugal has always promoted its dialect by the Camões Institute and other initiatives.
3) Average Brazilian people do not speak English.
For a long time, English was not an obligatory subject at school. In addition, the quality of the English teachers in Brazilian schools are not good enough at effective conversation. Private English courses are expensive and the teachers are not native speakers. In general, Brazilians people don’t need to speak English in their everyday life. There are plenty of materials translated from English to Portuguese, and there are good publications produced in Brazil for the country's needs.
If you want to be updated about Portuguese language and Brazil send me an e-mail portuguesewithangelica@gmail.com to receive a list of cognates in Portuguese and English.
1) There are more words in Portuguese similar to English than you think.
Agenda, animal, artificial, bar, base, cafeteria, capital, casual, central, chance, chic, chocolate, cinema, colonial… all of these words are cognates, meaning they are written the same in both English and Portuguese. In fact, many other words are identical in English and Portuguese like real, natural and hotel. There are also other nearly-identical words such as apartamento, simples, and opinião. It happens because many words in both English and Portuguese have Latin origin.
2) 80% of all people who speak Portuguese are actually in Brazil.
Portuguese language should be called “Brazilian” language as most people that speak this language are in Brazil. There are 244 million people speaking Portuguese in the world. About 80% of that is in Brazil. Nevertheless, for the longest time, the Brazilian government wasn’t interested in promoting the Brazilian dialect as a foreign language. On the other hand, Portugal has always promoted its dialect by the Camões Institute and other initiatives.
3) Average Brazilian people do not speak English.
For a long time, English was not an obligatory subject at school. In addition, the quality of the English teachers in Brazilian schools are not good enough at effective conversation. Private English courses are expensive and the teachers are not native speakers. In general, Brazilians people don’t need to speak English in their everyday life. There are plenty of materials translated from English to Portuguese, and there are good publications produced in Brazil for the country's needs.
If you want to be updated about Portuguese language and Brazil send me an e-mail portuguesewithangelica@gmail.com to receive a list of cognates in Portuguese and English.
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