Portuguese phrasebook

Sourced from Wikivoyage. Text is available under the CC-by-SA 3.0 license.
Carlos Luis M C da Cruz

Jonatan argento
Portuguese (português) is a Romance language closely related to Spanish, and even more closely related to Galician (in fact, many people consider that Galician and Portuguese are the same language). It is spoken as the official language of Portugal and Brazil, with some differences in pronunciation, spelling, and use of pronouns. It is also the official language of Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe, Angola, Mozambique, and the co-official language of East Timor, and Macau. It is spoken mainly by the elderly in Goa, Daman and Diu in India. Portuguese-based creoles are still spoken in various former Portuguese colonies in Africa and Asia. There are around 200 million Portuguese native speakers, the vast majority in Brazil.
The Portuguese we will include in this phrasebook is of the European usage, which differs from Brazilian Portuguese in vocabulary and pronunciation. Brazilians can sometimes find it hard to understand the Portuguese form Portugal, though not vice-versa, as Brazilian pop culture is popular in Portugal.
Needless to say, if you know a Romance language, it will be easier for you to learn Portuguese. However, people who know a little Spanish may hastily conclude that Portuguese is close enough that it need not be studied separately. While they may be able to figure out the meaning of some signage, items on a menu, etc., understanding of verbal communication will be very low to nothing. Words such as "gente" (people) are pronounced so differently in either variant of Portuguese, that you would hardly recognise them. Also, some personal names such as "Jorge Ramos," for example, will be pronounced quite differently as well. If you speak Spanish fluently, invest a few hours getting used to the sound differences and some common words—after that you'll be able to make rapid progress understanding what people are saying to you.
If you know Spanish, watch for a lot of new vowels, a huge number of contractions (comparable to del and al) and irregular plurals. For the non-fluent, some pronunciation differences can be easily missed, such as año (year) becoming ano. If you speak good French, you may find Portuguese pronunciation to be fairly easy, though much of the vocabulary will have changed substantially.

Pronunciation guide

European vs Brazilian Portuguese

Phrase list