Portuguese is the official language of nine countries and one territory, including Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde and Mozambique. According to the 27th edition of Ethnologue published in 2024, it is the sixth most spoken language in the world, with 236 million native speakers. While it shares similarities with other Romance languages such as Spanish and Italian, Portuguese has many differences and it is important to understand the nuances to provide accurate Portuguese translations. In today’s article, we will focus on discussing the differences between two of the main variants, Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese.
While Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese have many similarities, they are also very different. European Portuguese is spoken in Portugal and is most similar to the variants spoken in Africa and Asia. Brazilian Portuguese is spoken in Brazil and is home to the largest population of Portuguese speakers in the world, at over 200 million, versus around 10 million in Portugal.
When requesting Portuguese translations, it is important to specify if you need a Brazilian Portuguese translation or a European Portuguese translation; each will yield a very different result. The grammar and pronunciation are different, and there are even vocabulary differences. In some cases, some words in Portugal can have a different, and even offensive meaning in Brazil, and vice versa. So, it is critical to hire a Portuguese translator who is a native speaker of either variant, depending on your target audience, to guarantee culturally competent translations.
Some common examples of Portuguese translations include Portuguese birth certificate translations, Portuguese marriage certificate translations, Portuguese divorce certificate translations, Portuguese to English USCIS translations, contract translations and other Portuguese translations. At CSH Translation, we are accustomed to working with both Brazilian Portuguese translations and European Portuguese translations and will be happy to assist you with your projects in either variant.
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