What does portuguese sounds like to you?

[u/20_comer_20matar]

For me it just sounds normal, that's why I wanna hear opinions from non-brazilians.

Also, Spanish for me sounds like portuguese except that it's being spoken by a person who's trying to sound classy and sophisticated at the same time that they're mispronouncing every word.

[u/Ponchorello7]

Brazilian Portuguese: cute Spanish.

European Portuguese: Russian spy pretending to be a Spaniard.

[u/Conscious-Bar-1655 → u/Ponchorello7]

🤣🏆

[u/anna-molly21 → u/Ponchorello7]

Why is this so accurate??! 😄😄😄😄😄

[u/down-tempo → u/Ponchorello7]

Hah

I once saw a comment from a fellow Brazilian that European Portuguese sounds like a Russian trying to speak Spanish while being strangled to death, never forgot about it.

[u/Overall_Chemical_889 → u/Ponchorello7]

Why cute?

[u/Ponchorello7 → u/Overall_Chemical_889]

In Spanish, we would say it sounds "chiqueado", which is often associated with how children speak.

[u/Overall_Chemical_889 → u/Ponchorello7]

I think i get It. Is like a forma of intonation right? That's strange. We have this phenomenom as childrean Voice. Usuallly couples do with each other. And its very cringe.

[u/Ponchorello7 → u/Overall_Chemical_889]

Yeah, the intonation. The sing-song way you guys speak is very pleasing to the ear.

[u/KevonMD]

To me it's like a person speaking Spanish, but at times sounding beautiful like in Gal Costa's "Baby" or Caetano Veloso's "Triste Bahia" and then it cuts momentum when the funny words kick in, like "feijoada". Basically it sounds like music until the person speaking it drops "futebol" or "catupiry" and it's like a wind instrument in an orchestra missing a note but acting like nothing happened immediately after.

Edit: I do not mean to sound derogatory, I think Brazilian Portuguese is more beautiful than most Spanish spoken in the region, but I can't help myself when, you know, I see something like "os bichinhos mais fofos do mundo" on the Internet.

[u/Fernando1dois3 → u/KevonMD]

What a beautiful comment

Have this feijoada in return

P. S.: catupiry sounds peculiar to us, too, because it's an oxitone (when the stress syllable of the word is its last), and most portuguese words are paroxitones (the stress syllable is the second to last). Plus, it's of indigenous origin (it comes from the Tupi language), so it would also sounds a little off, even if it wasn't an oxitone.

[u/KevonMD → u/Fernando1dois3]

Ngl, that looks really good.

That one fun fact just made me want to learn Portuguese again. Maybe I should hurry it up because a certain country is kind of bringing us closer and maybe one day I'll get to greet y'all here or there.

[u/Fernando1dois3 → u/KevonMD]

If you ever come to Rio, feel free to contact me!

[u/KevonMD → u/Fernando1dois3]

Muito obrigado. If you ever come to CDMX or Guanajuato, feel free to do the same.

[u/Fernando1dois3 → u/KevonMD]

Deal.

Mas temos que concordar não falar em inglês, só em espanhol e português, um com o outro 🇪🇸🤝🇵🇹

[u/Apolinario13 → u/Fernando1dois3]

At least give some picanha with the feijoada :P

[u/Fernando1dois3 → u/Apolinario13]

Eu sei que você tá brincando, mas, parando pra pensar aqui, eu acho que não ia casar muito bem, picanha com feijoada ahahha

[u/Apolinario13 → u/Fernando1dois3]

Mais ou menos a brincar :P
Restaurantes brasileiros em Portugal servem, mas de facto só vi portugueses a pedir!

[u/Overall_Chemical_889 → u/KevonMD]

Why are those words funny?

[u/KevonMD → u/Overall_Chemical_889]

I dwelt on that question for like 12 minutes and came to the conclusion that I really, really, don't have any idea why.

[u/gabrrdt → u/KevonMD]

I recommend a Caetano song called "Língua", lyrics are basically a big ode to the Portuguese language.

[u/KevonMD → u/gabrrdt]

Muito obrigado. I'll listen to it right away

[u/guinader → u/gabrrdt]

Acabei de escutar e pesquisei sobra ela. Nunca tinha escutado essa música. Obrigado

[u/Nirenha]

I love Portuguese from Brazil, everything just sounds way funnier. To me it sounds like Spanish but as if they were very surprised and happy all the time, and everything is tiny

[u/Overall_Chemical_889 → u/Nirenha]

What make this impression of surprise and happiness?

[u/Nirenha → u/Overall_Chemical_889]

The intonation and emphasis on some sentences I guess?, oddly enough I first noticed it on my sister who's been living in Brazil for some years and not my brother in law who is Brazilian

[u/Overall_Chemical_889 → u/Nirenha]

I have heard before that we do this intonation thing. But is something that doesn't endereço in my head que that we do ar all. Is like explaining what is red to a collor blind.

[u/Bubbly-Garlic-8451]

Coastal Spanish with countryside dialect sprinkles.

I like how Brazilian Portuguese sounds, and it definitely sounds much better to my ears than European Portuguese.

[u/vjhc]

I'm Cuban, Brazilian Portuguese sounds like a cooler and funnier Spanish, memes in Portuguese are often popular here because they sound insanely funny and we can (usually) understand their meaning.

[u/Dragonstone-Citizen]

It sounds like Spanish but with more swag

[u/Special_H_]

I just want to say, after spending some time listening to Russian, I was flabbergasted at the similarities between Russian and Portuguese. I understand now the comparison.

Russians who live in Brazil speak an almost perfect Portuguese 👀

[u/TimmyTheTumor → u/Special_H_]

I dated a Russian girl and, one time, we were hanging out in a bar when she heard some people speaking Russian in a table near us. She went to greet them, as it's not common to find Russian folks in LATAM.

Ends up they were all Portuguese people speaking PT-PT. And she got confused by listening to them from afar.

[u/Special_H_ → u/TimmyTheTumor]

Yeah, this is so interesting. Russia feels distant, but so close. Like they’re winter Latinos. I can’t say the same about most Europeans lol.

In Brazil, I’ve heard many of them are going to Florianópolis, in particular.

[u/meme_de_la_cream]

It sounds like cursive Spanish to my English ears lol I love the sound of Brazilian Portuguese it’s very pretty and “fun” sounding. I plan on learning it after I’m more comfortable with Spanish.

[u/butitdothough]

Portuguese from Brasil just sounds like a cousin of Spanish. From Portugal it sounds like a Slavic language. Sometimes if I listen very closely it sounds like five world cup wins to 0.

[u/dnyal]

Brazilian Portuguese sounds like the language wants to start dancing samba; it’s the melodic cadence, I think. It also sounds very tropical, like Spanish wants to relax and turns into Portuguese. I find it overall very cute! Like Spanish with an exotic twang.

I do not care for European Portuguese; it sounds boring, as if someone had a stroke and forgot how to speak Spanish.

[u/zeviea → u/dnyal]

Brazilian Portuguese as a language to me perfectly reflects the Brazilian people I met. It's cheerful and fun and pleasant to listen to.

Portuguese in Portugal, Angola, Cabo Verde, and Timor-Leste are all intriguing in their own way

[u/Overall_Chemical_889 → u/dnyal]

Could you explain more? Like, what sounds and words did that impression?

[u/dnyal → u/Overall_Chemical_889]

It’s the combination of rhythm and nasal sounds alongside the familiarity. It sounds lively, friendly, and it has feeling, passion! Now, I know that may be a reflection of the culture upon the language, but languages are themselves a product of and a vehicle for the culture that shapes them. I am convinced Brazilian Portuguese sounds to me as Spanish sounds to the gringos who love it. To answer your question, it is not the words, it’s the accent; hence why I don’t care about European Portuguese.

[u/Overall_Chemical_889 → u/dnyal]

Cool! Thanks you for the answear! did you have the same impression for different Brazilian acidents? I don't know If you have heard the others but too us they sound really different. If you search gaúcho, nordestino, carioca, mineiro and paulista accents you will see this difference. I curiosa If you will have the same impression.

[u/dnyal → u/Overall_Chemical_889]

I can’t really tell the accents apart, but I know the one from the northern part of Brazil doesn’t sound as good. I’m more familiar with the accent from São Paulo.

[u/balta97]

I’m from a Spanish speaking country. To me it sounds dsimiksr to Spanish but somewhat modified. Like a cousin of Spanish. Also the cadence is different.

[u/DoctorWhoSeason24 → u/balta97]

Yeah, it's very dsimiksr.

[u/Equal-Suggestion3182 → u/balta97]

what is dsimiksr

[u/anweisz → u/Equal-Suggestion3182]

It’s what happens when you eat up an i after the first letter and then the k and s happen to be next to the l and a respectively on the keyboard.

[u/balta97 → u/Equal-Suggestion3182]

I meant to write similar 😂

[u/Special-Fuel-3235 → u/balta97]

"sounds dsimiksr to Spanish but somewhat modified. Like a cousin of Spanish. Also the cadence is different." I could have not say it better myself. Its kinda more "relaxed". 

[u/rmiguel66]

Does Portuguese sound like Broken Spanish? To me, Spanish felt like Broken Portuguese for a long time, partially due to people from the Northeastern countryside who, for some strange reason, say “muncho” (asturian) instead of “muito”, “salchicha” instead of salsicha and “ocho” instead of oito, among other (errors?). That actually kept me from properly trying to learn Spanish for a long time.

[u/Special-Fuel-3235 → u/rmiguel66]

In a way, yes haha. It sounds similar to spanish in the way that it has similar words (like the ones you mention) but the way the vowels are spelled and the way you use the grammar its probably what "sounds odd" to me, in adition you change the words a bit.  Like, insted of saying, "la américa española era mucho más extensa que el Brasil portugués" in porruguese would be more like: " a América Espanhola era muito mais extensa que O Brasil Porrugués" (btw, i dont speak porruguese, just kinda got the grammar fron listen, can you understand that paragraph well?). 

[u/rmiguel66 → u/Special-Fuel-3235]

“Que o Brasil PORTUGUÊS”. It’s almost the same thing, but where does “Porruguese / Porrugués” come from? 🤔 Is it a typo?

[u/Special-Fuel-3235 → u/rmiguel66]

Sorry, im in phone so i write fast, you know how it is

[u/rmiguel66 → u/Special-Fuel-3235]

No problem!

[u/TheCarlosSilva]

As a Brazilian, it looks like Brazilian Portuguese for me.

[u/adoreroda]

European Portuguese sounds like Russian and Spanish~Italian mixed together

Brazilian Portuguese sounds like its own thing. I don't think it sounds like Spanish very much as it has an abundance of nasal sounds that Spanish lacks

Not heard enough African Portuguese to comment but I assume it sounds similar to European Portuguese

[u/TimmyTheTumor → u/adoreroda]

You're right.

I'm trying to teach BR-Portuguese to my Argentine wife but the nasalization always gets her.

Trying to differ "avô" prom "avó" is crazy for them.

[u/adoreroda → u/TimmyTheTumor]

At first I thought Portuguese was super intimidating to learn phonology wise but coming from French I found pronouncing Portuguese absurdly easy. And the stress in words in Brazilian Portuguese is a lot more similar to English than Spanish

[u/TimmyTheTumor → u/adoreroda]

Oh, absolutely. Coming from french it will be much easier.

[u/Spiritual_Pangolin18 → u/adoreroda]

Funny enough I had a way easier time learning french pronunciation than I do with Spanish.

The trilled R kills me.

[u/Difficult_Pop8262]

brazilian portuguese: melodic spanish

portugal portuguese, spanish with a cock in your mouth

[u/Spiritual_Pangolin18 → u/Difficult_Pop8262]

Hum I gotta study some European Portuguese then

[u/Difficult_Pop8262 → u/Spiritual_Pangolin18]

[u/ZaheenHamidani]

Spanish but drunk

[u/Frequent_Skill5723]

I speak english and Spanish fluently and I like listening to Portuguese, both in song and spoken word, but I don't understand it.

[u/JKACLNG → u/Frequent_Skill5723]

I find that so amazing because the portuguese speaker can understand most spanish, and the closest accent/easiest that I find to portuguese is the mexican. The words are very clearly spoken nothing like spain or argetina where they mumble something

[u/Frequent_Skill5723 → u/JKACLNG]

Yeah, it's weird. I'm a certified Eng-Spa interpreter and translator, but I hear Portuguese and I don't make the word associations at all. I think I could learn Portuguese if I studied it, but I'd definitely have to study hard.

[u/JKACLNG → u/Frequent_Skill5723]

I lived in the US and had several mexican friends. we could understand everything even while they talked to each other but they had no clue what we said, its very weird because the words seem very close.Vocabulary would be easy but portuguese grammar is another level, is too hard, makes no sense most of the time

[u/Necessary-Jaguar4775 → u/JKACLNG]

I don't think Spanish and Portuguese grammar are too dissimilar, mainly I think it is the accent that makes understanding Portuguese so hard, which mainly comes down to Portuguese having more sounds and nasal sounds that Spanish doesn't have.

[u/Equal-Suggestion3182]

I think Portuguese sounds like a Slavic language

Sometimes I hear people speaking Russian or Ukrainian and I think it is Portuguese, then I try to understand it and I can’t and I realize it is not the same language

[u/iambobanderson]

Like Italian mixed with Dutch

[u/Overall_Chemical_889]

For my hermanos who want to know how it feels from the other side. To me, Spanish doesn’t necessarily sound like a version of Portuguese, it feels more like Italian. But when it comes to isolated words or the written language, the similarity is striking. Overall though, it sounds like someone who wants to speak really fast, trying to make lots of rhymes. The way the words are pronounced gives the impression that you want to add a flourish or something elegant, especially with the use of the double R

Edit: and i still can't grasp the different of the accents. I have heard mexico, cuban, peraguayan, peruvian, Argentinian and colombian spanish. I am not saying It look like the same. I Just did not saw a pattern amont them.

[u/Special-Fuel-3235]

It sounds /reads vaguely like spanish. Like i can get the "main" idea of a text/sentence, but at the same time it has a lot of sounds and words i dont get; for example:

"Miguel Uribe nasceu em Bogotá, em 28 de janeiro de 1986, no seio de uma família colombiana de políticos e jornalistas: sua mãe era a jornalista Diana Turbay, seu avô materno era Julio César Turbay, presidente da Colômbia no período de 1978 a 1982, e seu avô paterno era Rodrigo Uribe Echavarría, que naquele ano era o diretor do Partido Liberal."

This is a wikipedia article about Miguel Uribe Turbay, by reading i can tell he was born in Bogotá and that his family was made of politics, and his grandpa was the colombian president. However many words sounds strange to me, (for example "em", "seio", "jornalista" "no") it kinda feels like somebody trying to speak spanish but not being able to. About the sound? You use a lot of "sh" and "ch". Like, instead of "descenIENTE"  you would say "discindDINCHI".

[u/dread_companion]

Sounds like smooth, musical spanish. Hard consonants seem absent.

[u/gabrrdt]

The neutral sound of a god-like creature, who express the things perfectly, without any noise or mistake. The correct way of expressing ideas.

[u/Liquid_Cascabel]

Brazilian Portuguese: Papiamento's lost step brother

European Portuguese: weird russian unfortunately

[u/Proof-Pollution454]

Portunhol

[u/hulloiliketrucks]

Brazilian Portuguese is distinctive, I will say. I can't describe it but I literally need maybe 2 or 3 seconds to identify it.

Portuguese from Portugal sounds nasty. It never sounds right.

[u/Far-Estimate5899 → u/hulloiliketrucks]

Nah.

Portuguese from Portugal grows on you. It’s like British English. When starting to learn English, USA English is so so much clearer and every syllable usually pronounced, like in Brazilian Portuguese, and by comparison British English is just so heavy, and difficult, and slangy and changing every 10 kilometers to a whole new dialect! Like Portuguese from Portugal…

But after some time you begin to really enjoy the craziness of British English or Portuguese from Portugal! I once was listening to Cristiano Ronaldo do an interview after a game in Portuguese…speaks so quickly he just entirely dropped the ‘o’ in the word ‘tempo’ among 50 other crazy things he did with the language in a 5 minute interview😂

https://youtu.be/MvSy_Mc-X3I?si=NvUIPHvURybsFTZf

[u/carlosrudriguez]

For me, a Mexican Spanish-Speaker living for a few months in SP and RJ, it sounds like an incomplete version of Spanish.

I mean no disrespect, I think it’s a beautiful language and I’ve always loved Brazilian music so I feel a connection to it, but feels “incomplete” in a way. This is because the words are so similar but have less letters in them. I’m talking about examples like these.

Color -> Cor

Nosotros -> Nós

Tenemos -> Temos

Manzana -> Maça

Precio -> Preço

Also, in México we really enunciate every single letter very clearly. So the contrast feels deeper.

In some costal towns and cities in Mexico people enunciate less so I find Brazilian Portuguese similar to that way of talking.

Now the accent (multitude of accents) is a whole other thing because it’s very distinctive. At first I was afraid to pronounce some words correctly in Portuguese because I felt like I was making a mock accent, but that’s simply the way to pronounce things.

[u/gabrrdt → u/carlosrudriguez]

Most Portuguese words are paroxyton, which means we kinda give up of the word half way to the end.

[u/one_into_one]

Like a rounder Spanish

[u/Background-Gap-3794]

brazilian port- beautiful portugal port- uncanny

[u/Beneficial_Umpire552]

Like Galician 

[u/DotComprehensive4902]

European Portuguese : humming Spanish Brazilian Portuguese...sounds like Spanish spoken by a Russian

[u/corolario_matrix → u/DotComprehensive4902]

Brazilian Portuguese...sounds like Spanish spoken by a Russian

It doesnt sounds Russian at all

[u/TheRealVinosity]

In Portugal, to me, it sounds like Spanish with a very heavy Russian accent.

It is easier to understand in Brazil.

[u/AnjouRey]

Brazilian Portuguese sounds like a beautiful song. The only European Portuguese I've heard has been in Eurovision songs so I can't quite tell you what it sounds like.

[u/Apolinario13 → u/AnjouRey]

Everyone says we sound like Russians, even us. Once I was in France, I hear a couple speaking, and it sounds really like Russian, I pass close to the people and realize that is Portuguese, and the accent is not that different from mine. :D

[u/mau2icio]

It sounds like drunk spanish to me (in a funny way)

[u/Both__]

A comedian, Russell Peters, once said that Portuguese sounds like a deaf person speaking Spanish. I can’t say I disagree.

[u/FoxBluereaver]

I can more or less understand Brazilian Portuguese (had a few Brazilian channels on my cable years ago). European Portuguese however is a different story.

[u/gadusmo]

They call a condom camisinha, which sounds like "little shirt" in Spanish. How is that not cute and funny. I'm talking about Brazilian portuguese though.

[u/Own-One-5771]

PT-PT sounds just boring and ugly tbh

PT-BZ sounds fantastic.

[u/Tobar_the_Gypsy]

Like a Russian person trying to speak Spanish 

[u/Camimo666]

I like both of them. I can only understand one of them tho.

[u/lachata9]

sometimes it sounds a bit like Russian if you don't pay attention. well, I guess it depends of the region or like a funny version of Spanish. Well this is coming from a Spanish speaking person. I'm sure Spanish sounds funny to Brazilians too.

[u/ElRanchero666 → u/lachata9]

Sounds more similar to Italian to me, English speaker

[u/kenshin552]

It sounds like a variation of spanish where they're always happy and joking. Even politicians and news reporters.

Perhaps it is also because I associate brazilians with happiness and cheerfulness. I guess it's kind of a chicken & egg thing.

[u/kenshin552 → u/kenshin552]

Also, I find it very cute how they mispronounce certain english words.

(some examples that come to mind: nubank = nubankee, whitelist = whicheelischee)

[u/ParadiseChick]

For Rio's carioca accent, all those sshhh, chhh, and ooo sounds soften even the most commonplace phrases into a lullaby: 'osh pássarosh gooshtam de tomachis' has such a soothing cadence. There's also a lack of harsh vowels. My favorite phrase is: 'Oyê o uaê aí, ô', which means 'Hey, look at that crowded beach' in surfista-speak.

[u/TheNewGildedAge]

My Mexican friend calls it gabagool Spanish

[u/Apolinario13]

In Portugal, it really depends on accent, but I can get really fast where the person is from.
In a foreign country if I'm not expecting European, Portuguese does sound a lot like Russian. Brazilian Portuguese to me at least sounds a lot like my grandmother from the interior speaks in some aspects.

[u/HereNow-but_not4ever]

It sounds like a lot of “shh” sound, which softens the language imo.

[u/WideGlideReddit]

It sounds like Portuguese

[u/EmergencyReal6399]

Brazilian Portuguese : exotic , fun , like if a woman with a fruit básquet in her head was talking to me . Portugal Portuguese : Slavic, hard , cold .

[u/UselessEngin33r]

Portuguese from São Paulo: an English speaking person speaking Portuguese

Portuguese from Rio: a Brazilian speaking Portuguese

Portuguese speaking Portuguese: kinda like a French/ Russian/ German speaking Portuguese

[u/SomeGoddamnLetters]

One of the greatest language on earth, at least BR portuguese

[u/ElCaliforniano]

portuguese sounds like lazy spanish

[u/BananaShinKick]

Drunk Spanish

[u/Remote-Wrangler-7305]

Also, Spanish for me sounds like portuguese except that it's being spoken by a person who's trying to sound classy and sophisticated at the same time that they're mispronouncing every word.

Hmmmmm. To me it kinda sounds like the opposite. Like Portuguese but really muddied. I think it's the soft d, b, g and aspirated s in some accents that give that impression.

I really like the way porteño Spanish sounds though. The sh sound adds a lot of character.

[u/Remote-Wrangler-7305]

Those are kind of non descriptions, but to me Spanish sounds sharp and Brazilian Portuguese mushy. In a mushy to sharp scale, though, something like French is way mushier than Portuguese.

[u/Educational_Bed3651]

I mean no disrespect when I say (assuming you’ve watched ‘King of the hill’ in the original English) ‘Boomhauer Spanish’ whereas for a Brazilian it’d be the reverse ?…#^{_^} https://youtube.com/shorts/t9_MEKIVQps?si=FmxaEECRp7TvnOpS .. Mike, Judge, baster characters, voice on someone with a thick, Southern accent, who personally called him to complain about how inappropriate Beavis and Butthead was https://youtube.com/shorts/8OPWYB23q5o?si=4JnquulXRBPpbB8x ..I still like Eddy and the other Brazilian Tekken characters though ! https://youtu.be/ufmGiM46g5s?si=zF2soZMXAYu9G5Fr

[u/rayrayray_2605]

Brazilian sounds like curvy or groovy spanish

[u/ElRanchero666]

Galician, also known as Galego is similar to Portuguese

[u/river0f]

It sounds like a Spanish speaker kinda choking on food.

[u/Regenarus888]

Like a drunk German trying to speak spanish

[u/androidporti]

To me it sounds like a deaf-mute person trying to speak spanish.

[u/Moist-Carrot1825]

it sounds like portuguese

[u/Educational_Land1330]

Like Russian

[u/pseudo__gamer]

I don't speak Spanish or Portuguese so I can't really tell the difference.

[u/arturocan]

From brazil like a drunk is trying to speak spanish with a potato in their mouth.

From portugal like a spaniard pretending to speak an unintelligible language.

[u/scp-NUMBERNOTFOUND]

Sounds like if an alien tried to speak Spanish but just make nonsense sounds barely similar to actual words