# data[].attributes.body
Eu sempre estou interessado nas diferenças léxicas entre português brasileiro e português europeu. Alguns das palavras brasileiras têm raizes nas línguas indígenas da area, mas eu gostaria saber mais razões dessas diferenças. Esse artigo têm uma lista das palavras que têm diferenças nas duas línguas. Por exemplo, no Brasil usaria "ônibus," e em Portugal usaria "autocarro." Mais exemplos são lindo (BP) v. giro (EP), café da manhã (BP) v. pequeno almoça (EP), e celular (BP) v. telemóvel (EP).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I've been speaking Brazilian Portuguese regularly for more than a decade, but have recently been spending more time in Lisbon and so I've had to make some adaptations for the European version of the language.

So this will be my thorough guide to the differences to note between the two varieties; it's especially intended for those who need to go through a similar transition in one direction or the other.

How Different Are European and Brazilian Portuguese, Really?

Quite different, I'd say. I speak English, French, and Spanish as well, and the differences between the varieties of those languages in the Americas versus in Europe are certainly strong, but generally not as far out as when you cross the Atlantic from Portugal to Brazil.

To sum up the Portuguese differences, there is a lot of different, very basic, day-to-day vocabulary; the European accent is much more nasal and the vowels are stifled or dropped; and finally there are some major grammar differences in the spoken (as opposed to written) varieties.

But, this is a matter of opinion, of course, and you'll get all kinds of different answers to the question, depending on a person's background and experience of these varieties of Portuguese. Here's what I think you ought to know:

I have known many, many Portuguese people who have a hard time making themselves understood when they first travel to Brazil. It is also quite difficult for Brazilians to watch and understand Portuguese films and television without subtitles (or more commonly, dubbing).

The reverse is not true to as high of an extent; Portuguese people generally understand Brazilians' speech. People will give armchair linguistic explanations (the "clarity" of Brazilian pronunciation, whatever that means), but the real truth is that Portuguese people are exposed to more Brazilian songs, telenovelas, films, and actual real-life Brazilians than your typical Brazilian is exposed to European Portuguese content and people. So of course Portuguese people come to understand Brazilian Portuguese better than the inverse.

Because they're so different, most people who learn Portuguese as a foreign language necessarily focus on learning either Brazilian or European Portuguese, but not both. For those who have learned Brazilian Portuguese, it takes some effort to understand Portuguese people, which is impetus for this article. Those who learn European Portuguese are still often exposed to the Brazilian variety, and so are less likely to have as much trouble understanding Brazilians.

The spelling of all varieties of Portuguese is supposed to be the same since the implementation of the Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement. Written grammar and vocabulary are still different but it's fairly easy for speakers of either variety to decipher the other when written.

The Portuguese spoken in Goa, Angola, and Mozambique is much, much closer to European Portuguese. This is partly because the Portuguese government imposed its genocidal rule over these lands until much more recently, and so in parts of the 20th century there was still more of a mandate to keep the language in those places similar to what was spoken and evolving in Portugal. And there was back-and-forth movement of people. That said, in my personal experience as a Brazilian Portuguese non-native speaker travelling to Goa and Mozambique, I've found that it's much, much easier to understand Portuguese speakers in those two countries than it is to understand Europeans. This may be because these lands have influence from Brazilian soap operas and media, and also because the language loses some of its complexity as it is learned by non-native speakers, particularly in Mozambique.

Portuguese people and sometimes even Brazilians may insist that the European version of Portuguese is more "correct" or "has more grammar" and other such rather meaningless, culturally biased nonsense. Of course no Portuguese variety's grammar is more "correct" than any other's, this is just a garden-variety cultural imperialism imposed by schools, academies, and governments. For a look at the equally complex and beautiful grammar of spoken Portuguese, for example, you can check out Earl Thomas' classic take.

Pronunciation Differences

The toughest nut to crack is understanding the pronunciation differences between Portuguese people and Brazilians. Here are some of the key things to look for, followed by a video that gives some good contrast.

Vowels

The vowels in Europe sound a bit more pinched and closed off than the wide-open, sing-song Brazilian vowels. Some unstressed vowels get left out of European Portuguese entirely; this is particularly noticeable at the end of words. For example, compare:

Brazil:

Brazilian pronunciation of "saudade" (nostalgia, etc.)

Portugal:

Portuguese pronunciation of 'saudade" (nostalgia, etc.)

Consonants

The biggest consonant adjustment to make in going from Brazil to Portugal is the S, particularly at the end of words or at the end of a syllable when followed by another consonant. In Brazil, this S has an S sound, but in Portugal it sounds like the English SH.

For example:

Brazilian pronunciation of "gostoso" (delicious, lovely, etc.)

Portuguese pronunciation of "gostoso" (delicious, lovely, etc.)

(However, cariocas (people from Rio) pronounce their S's as SH as well.)

Brazilian pronunciation of "te amo" (I love you)

Brazilian pronunciation of "desde" (since)

European Portuguese pronunciation of "te amo" (I love you)

European Portuguese pronunciation of "desde" (since)

Another quite notable consonant difference is the Brazilian tendency to take a spelled DE or DI and give it a G sound, and to take the TE or TI and make a CH sound.

Portuguese people do not make this change, and pronounce these sounds "as written".

In the video below, a Brazilian woman interviews a Portuguese man about the differences between the versions of the language; this also allows for a contrast of the accents.

Note that he had much more trouble being understood in Brazil than in understanding Brazilians, and they mention some of the other vocabulary differences as well.

No norte, em cada vírgula eles dizem uma asneira. - In the north [of Portugal], in each comma they say some bullshit thing.

Levantaste dinheiro no multibanco? - Did you take money out of the ATM?

Hoje, a malta vai ao futebol. - The group is going to the football match.

Tenho um canudo em dramaturgia. - I have a degree in playwriting.

As passadeiras ficam escorregadias. - The sidewalks end up slippery.

Não sejas puto! - Don't act immature!

Os putos estão a fazer muito barulho. - The young people are making a lot of noise.

Onde é a casa de banho? - Where is the bathroom?

Key Vocabulary to Watch Out For

I've endeavored to make a list of only the most useful words that a speaker is likely to encounter and have issues with in the first month or two of living in either land and adjusting to the local variety of Portuguese. There are, of course, many more.

Here are a few of the trickier European Portuguese words used in sentences:

The Grammar Differences Between European and Brazilian Portuguese

As noted above, it's not that one version has "more" or "better" grammar, just that the two varieties are different.

Tu vs. você: Saying "you" in Portugal and Brazil

The second-person informal singular is one of the more obvious grammatical distinctions between these two countries.

In Portugal, the informal singular "you" is tu. In Brazil, it is você (though some parts of the south do use tu to a certain degree).

If you're used to Portuguese speech, you can adapt to Brazil by using você instead of tu in all cases; you conjugate você as you would conjugate the third-person singular ( ele or ela).

você perceba - you understand (Brazil)

tu percebas - you understand (Portugal)

Quero que percebas uma coisa. - I want you to understand something.

If you're used to Brazilian speech, it's not too difficult to adapt to Portuguese from Portugal; the tu conjugations are generally the same as você but with the addition of an S at the end.

So for example, taking the European Portuguese version of to understand, perceber.

tu brincaste - you played

tu percebeste - you understood

tu fingiste - you pretended

That's the regular indicative present tense conjugation. The same rule of adding an S to the você form to create the tu form applies to make the subjunctive.

The future subjunctive and personal infinitive forms add an ES in the tu form as compared to the você form.

The past preterite tense for tu is a bit more complicated. It goes like this for -ar, -er, and -ir verbs respectively.

Gerunds in Brazil; No Gerunds in Portugal

Brazilians use gerunds (- ando, -endo, -indo; corresponding roughly to -ing endings in English) all the time to indicate the continuity of an action, whereas the Portuguese go to great lengths to avoid them.

In many cases European Portuguese speakers may also just say vou, using the standard present tense, in situations where Brazilians would favor the more shaded continuous meaning of the gerund.

Gerunds are similarly avoided in Portugal in the past and other tenses.

Many Object Pronouns in Portugal; Few of Them in Brazil

Brazilians have some object pronouns but tend to avoid them, particularly in speech, where using them would sound stilted. Portuguese people apply them quite naturally in both written and spoken contexts.

If you're used to Brazilian speech and you want to understand Portuguese people, you need to be able to recognize the variety of object pronouns as well as the complex combinations and changes they sometimes undergo.

Direct, Indirect, and Reflexive Object Pronouns in Portugal

The direct object pronouns are listed below, followed by their corresponding subject pronoun.

For example:

The indirect object pronouns are the same, but replace o / a with lhe and os /as with lhes.

Chamei-lhe de vaidoso. - I called him vain.

To phone someone is one of the few (only) verbs that takes an indirect object but takes no direct object in Portuguese. The same is true whether you use telefonar or ligar.

But if you're using the verb ligar in the sense of turning something on, it takes a direct object.

Ele lava-se. - He washes himself.

Eu lavo-me. - I wash myself.

Os senhores lavam-se. - The gentlemen (or you, formal and plural) are washing themselves (yourselves).

Eu vim-me. - I came (had an orgasm). [As noted in the above vocabulary table, this would be gozei in Brazil.]

And conversely chamar means the same thing but takes only direct objects for talking about the person being called, as seen just above. But if you call someone a name, then you use an indirect object for the person you are taunting.

I take the time to point these verbs out because they're the complicated ones in Portuguese, otherwise a verb taking a single object will take a direct object, and a verb taking two objects will have both a direct and indirect object.

The reflexive pronouns are also the same as the direct object pronouns, but replace o / a as well as os / as with se.

Placement and Modifying of the Object Pronouns in Portugal

An adverb (já, sempre, etc.)

A negative word (não, nunca, etc.)

An interrogative (question) word (quando, quem, etc.)

A conjunction (quem, enquanto, etc.; includes the interrogative words in their roles as conjunctions)

A preposition (por, em, para, etc.)

Brazilians love to place any object pronouns they do use before the verb, but in European Portuguese these "always" come after the verb (hyphenated).

The direct object is after the verb in Portugal (and we'll see in a moment why it is modified to become lo in this case).

But then of course there are the exceptions, in which case object pronouns come before the verb, such as when the phrase has:

If you're using the pronouns o / a / os / as after a verb and the verb ends in S, Z, or R, you will lose that consonant add an L before the pronoun.

If the verb ends in a vowel followed by an N or M (that is, the vowel is pronounced as a nasal vowel - the N and M are unpronounced), you will add a pronounced N before the pronouns o / a / os / as.

The above rules apply to present and past tenses. If you're dealing with the future or conditional, you should in theory put the object pronoun after the verb stem but before the conjugated ending.

However, that is not common in speech; Portuguese people are more likely to just reformulate to avoid the complications:

I've endeavored to walk the line between concise and complete, but any further notes from those transitioning from one variety of Portuguese to the other would be quite welcome in the comments. I'll update this post as need be in the future.

Thanks to Ana Cristina on Italki, who provided a lot of good insights as I was preparing this article. She's a top-notch teacher of European Portuguese, and is available for lessons one-on-one via Skype.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Brazilian vs. European Portuguese: Key Differences to Learn in Grammar and Vocabulary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I've been speaking Brazilian Portuguese regularly for more than a decade, but have recently been spending more time in Lisbon and so I've had to make some adaptations for the European version of the language. So this will be my thorough guide to the differences to note between the two varieties; it's especially intended for ...

# data[].attributes.body
Eu gosto de comparar as palavras das línguas romances e aprender as padrões. Esse site têm listas para comparar o vocabulário de inglês, francês, italiano, espanhol, e português. Por exemplo, a estação "spring" em inglês, é "primavera" em português, italiano, e espanhol, mas é "printemps" em francês. Eu quero aprender falar francês logo, acho que essa língua vai ser mais difícil de português e espanhol!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Learn French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese Together

These tables include vocabulary words side-by-side in French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese so that you can learn these four Romance languages together. In each table, the columns can be re-arranged to change the order of the languages and there is also the option to hide or show languages. Additionally, there are some gap-fill exercises and videos so you can test yourself and listen to the pronunciation differences.

If you are looking for a certain word and are not sure which category it is under, try the search box at the top of the page.

If you have any corrections or additions (including other Romance languages), please e-mail me at ielanguages [at] gmail [dot] com. If you are interested in comparative verb conjugations, please go to Romance Verbs or Germanic Verbs. Comparative vocabulary lists are also available for Germanic Languages (German, Dutch, Afrikaans) and Scandinavian Languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish).

Choose a category below:

Romance languages playlist:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Learn Romance Languages Vocabulary: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These tables include vocabulary words side-by-side in French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese so that you can learn these four Romance languages together. In each table, the columns can be re-arranged to change the order of the languages and there is also the option to hide or show languages.

# data[].attributes.body
Esse artigo têm vinte e um fatos divertidos sobre o galego. Eu estava muita emocionada ler isso porque eu vou caminhar o Camino del Norte essa verão na Espanha! Eu nunca sabia como perto galego é do português, com os artigos (o, a, os, as) e pronomes (eu, ele, eles). Eu aprendi que galego também têm "rhotazisação" em que os L's de espanhol se torne em Rs, por exemplo "branco" em vez de "blanco." Eu estou emocionada para aprender um pouco de galego essa verão.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Galician is a Romance language (i.e., from Latin) spoken by about 3 million people in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia. Although it's most closely related to Portuguese-which is spoken south of the border-it shares many similarities with Castilian Spanish, including sounds and spelling.

If you're planning on spending any time traveling or living in this unique corner of Spain, or walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route that ends here, even a tiny knowledge of Galician will help you get around and navigate menus, maps, etc. If you happen to speak Spanish, you're already 80% of the way to understanding Galician, and I'm serious! Getting a grasp on the grammatical and phonological differences will turbo boost you up to 90%.

To whet your appetite (both literally and linguistically), here's a little selection from the Galician Wikipedia's article on empanada, or meat pie:

Unha empanada é unha preparación culinaria consistente nunha masa e un recheo que se frixe ou coce no forno. Consiste nunha masa de fariña, elaborada máis ou menos como unha masa de pan rechea de carne ou outros produtos (tamén verduras peixes, ou mariscos variados), previamente cociñados de formas moi variadas segundo a gastronomía local, pero sendo con moita cebola frixida en aceite o modo tradicional en Galicia. Este é un tipo de alimento de orixe moi antiga que se da en case tódalas culturas.

And if you're trying to get an ear for the language, listen to this advertisement from Galician supermarket Gadis:

Galician's a really cool, unique language that's really easy to pick up on if you take a little time to figure out what makes it different. Like I said, if you already know Spanish, you can basically figure out what Galician means, even if you can't speak it yourself.

Fun facts

1) Articles (think "the") are simple vowels: o for masculine words and a for feminine ones. Where Spanish has el, la, los, las, Galician has o, a, os, as. Because Galician lost the initial L over the centuries as the Latin spoken by everyday people transformed into what we have today, this makes for some fun, and sometimes confusing, contractions.

2) Contractions-Galician's got a lot. I've used articles as the examples below, but pronouns also combine, too.
* with a ("to") and an article: ao, á, aos, ás
* with con ("with") and an article: co, coa, cos, coas
* with de ("of") and an article: do, da, dos, das
* with en ("in, on") and an article: no, na, nos, nas
* with por ("by, for") and an article: polo, pola, polos, polas
And so on...

3) I love Galician pronouns: "I" is eu, "you" is ti, "he, she" is el, ela, "we" is nós, "y'all" is vós, and "they" is eles, elas

4) And their possessive adjectives are even cooler, since the construction is literally "the my [thing]" and all the adjectives take gendered forms.
* "my cat": o meu gato
* "my university" a miña universidade
* "your mom" a túa nai
* "his/their house" a súa casa
* "our world" o noso mundo
* "y'all's apartment" o voso piso
5) Galician has more vowels and different diphthongs than Spanish. For example, where Spanish has tierra ("earth") and huerta ("garden"), Galician has the short vowels terra ("TEH-rrah" [ˈtɛ.ra]) and horta ("OHR-tah" [ˈɔɾ.ta]). Similarly, you will find two unique diphthongs (two vowels sounded together) all over the place in Galician: EI and OU. The word manera in Spanish ("way, manner") is maneira in Galician-"mah-NAY-EE-rah" [maˈnej.ɾa], and otro ("other") is outro in Galician-"OE-OO-troe" [ˈow.tɾo].

6) Unlike Portuguese, Galician has lost the nasalizations of its sister language. In Portuguese, to greet someone, you might say bom dia ("BOENG DEE-ah" [bõ ˈdi.a]), but in Galician it's a simple bos días-"BOES DEE-ahs" [bos ˈdi.as]. Similarly, a Portuguese "apple" is a maçã-"mah-SANG" [maˈsɐ̃] but in Galician it's the un-nasalized mazá -"mah-THAH" [maˈθa].

7) Galician is not a mixture of Spanish, Portuguese, or any other combination of languages. In the Middle Ages, when the vernacular Romance languages were emerging, Galician was one of many Latin-based languages spoken in northern Spain-along with Astur-Leonese, Castilian, Aragonese, and Catalan. Portuguese began to break off from medieval Galician around the same time Portugal gained its independence from Castilla.

8) Additionally, Galician is not a dialect of Spanish, nor is it badly-spoken Castilian. It simply shares a common source-Latin-with Spanish, just like French and Italian do. I'm comparing Galician with Spanish on this post because the two languages are very closely-related and many readers of this blog know Spanish. It just helps to point out where Galician is unique or different.

9) There's a little bit of rhotacization in Galician, a fancy word for "Ls-turning-into-Rs." Where Spanish has plaza ("city square") and blanco ("white"), Galician has praza and branco.

10) In the shift from Latin to Galician, many Ls and Ns were lost in the middle of words. These medial consonants vanished in words like lúa ("moon"; cf. Spanish luna) and quente ("hot"; cf. Spanish caliente).

11) Palatal consonants in Spanish-the LL and the Ñ-are often simply Ls and Ns in Galician. The Spanish word for yellow, amarillo, is amarelo in Galician, and pequeño ("little") is pequeno.

12) On the other hand, because of the extremely confusing process that nasalization and denasalization took in medieval Galician-Portuguese, where Spanish has a simple medial N, Galician often has a palatalized Ñ. For example, "wine" in Spanish is vino but is viño in Galician; "queen" is reina and raíña, respectively.

13) The Galician letter X represents the "SH" sound /ʃ/: xente for "people" (cf. Spanish gente), dixo for "he said" (cf. Spanish dijo), and xaneiro for "January" (cf. Spanish enero).

14) "No" is non.
15) Galician conserves the initial Latin F, whereas it was lost in Spanish. Compare the words for "oven"- forno & horno-"to talk"- falar & hablar-"flour"- fariña & harina-and "to boil"- ferver & hervir.

16) Object pronouns are stuck to the end of verbs. So, "he told me" is díxome (from dixo + me), unlike Spanish, where it's reversed: me dijo.

17) Galician is as "lispy" as Spain Spanish. You pronounce here in Santiago de Compostela as you would in Spanish, with the "TH" sound for the Z and the C.

18) Galician has no compound tenses. Compound simply means you add an auxiliary verb like "have" to create a new, nuanced tense, like "I had gone to bed when you called." Galician will have none of that, relying only on context for specifics.

19) The Latin word multus ("much/many") changed to mucho in Spanish but moito in Galician; similarly, the Latin lactus ("milk") became leche in Spanish but leite in Galician.

20) It even has its own font! Inspired by traditional stone inscriptions, you will often see restaurants or bars with signs hanging printed in this typeface, and you can download it for free here.

21) How to say thanks: graciñas ("grah-THEE-nyahs" [graˈθi.ɲas]). The diminutive ending in Galician, - iño, is adorable, and pops up in words like poquiño ("a little bit").

22) The plural ending is -S and that's all there is to it. More than one constitución? Then you've got some constitucións. Watch out for words that end in L, though. In a phenomenon related to the whole losing-medial-Latin-Ls thing, they become semivowels (an I) and an S is added. For example: animal >> animais (cf. Spanish animales).

If you've ever encountered one of the many minority languages of Spain, what did you observe or find interesting about them? Add your thoughts to the discussion below!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
22 Fun Facts About the Galician Language

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Galician is a Romance language (i.e., from Latin) spoken by about 3 million people in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia. Although it's most closely related to Portuguese-which is spoken south of the border-it shares many similarities with Castilian Spanish, including sounds and spelling.

# data[].attributes.body
Esse blog têm poemas duma poeta galega, que se chama Rosalia de Castro. Eu gosto dos poemas delas para seus temas de saudade e natureza. O meu poema favorita dela é "Candente está la atmósfera." O galego me parece muito perto de português. Eu gosto da linha "Hermosas son las estaciones todas/para el mortal que en sí guarda la dicha," é muita beleza. A vida dela é fascinante e seus poemas são belezas.

# data[].attributes.headline
"O Ovo e a Galinha" de Clarice Lispector

# data[].attributes.subject
"O Ovo e a Galinha" de Clarice Lispector

# data[].attributes.body
Eu gosto muito de Clarice Lispector, e incluiu a sua conta "O Ovo e a Galinha" porque Lispector escreve com uma sintaxe incomum. Esse é uma das razões que é difícil de traduzir as escritas de Lispector. Por exemplo, em "O Ovo e a Galinha" ela escreve na primeira linha "De manhã na cozinha sobre a mesa vejo o ovo." Essa frase demostra a ordem das palavras nas frases em português brasileiro, que enfatiza o cenário do evento em vez do evento mesmo. Estabelece um ritmo que é muito absorvente.

# data[].attributes.body
Eu estava muita interessada na nossa conversação sobre topicalização em português. Eu fiz mais pesquisa sobre esse tópico e descobri que outras línguas como japonês, chinês, lakota, ASL, e turco são tópicos proeminentes também. Por exemplo, em turco, a frase "eu vou ver você de novo amanhã" têm a ordem de palavras de "você, amanhã de novo vou ver." É interessante que as línguas que são tópicos proeminentes não vem duma origem comum, e quero saber a razão da desenvolvimento desse inclinação.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A topic-prominent language is a language that organizes its syntax to emphasize the topic–comment structure of the sentence. The term is best known in American linguistics from Charles N. Li and Sandra Thompson, who distinguished topic-prominent languages, such as Korean and Japanese, from subject-p…

# data[].attributes.body
Esse manual para o uso da linguagem neutra em língua portuguesa é muito interessante para mim. Eu sempre estou interessado saber como outras línguas decidem nos pronomes neutros, especialmente as línguas romances que incluyem o gênero nas muitas mais partes da línguas do que outras línguas. Eu aprendi que existe formas diferentes dos pronomes neutros em português, incluyendo o sistema Elu, o sistema Ile, o sistema Ilu, e o sistema El. Por exemplo, no sistema Ilu, pode dizer "Ilu gostei da comida" para usar a linguagem neutra. É fascinante as maneiras em que as pessoas estão inovando a língua para ser mais inclusiva.

# data[].attributes.body
Esse artigo revisa como usar os pronomes objetos: os usos, a posição, e exemplos. O artigo descreve as regras do português europeu, e define o que é um pronome clítico, que a gente aprendeu na aula. O artigo resume como pôr o pronome clítico nas frases declarativas, imperativas, condicionais, e subjuntivas. É difícil para o meu mente inglês decidir onde eu devo pôr os pronomes clíticos e essa guia é muito útil.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In this lesson, we'll have a look at direct and indirect object pronouns in Portuguese. These fall into the category of , along with reflexive pronouns, which we will cover separately, but which follow many of the same rules.
Keep in mind that we focusing on how to use object pronouns in European Portuguese, as there are some differences in the Brazilian dialect.

So What IS a Clitic Object Pronoun?

You may recall from the Reflexive Verbs unit that a clitic pronoun is an unstressed morpheme (sort of like a mini-word) that goes along with a verb. A clitic object pronoun shows to whom or to what the action refers. In other words, it takes the place of the people or objects represented by the direct or indirect objects.
For example, the direct object pronouns-me and -os:

Chart of Object Pronouns in Portuguese

Here are the direct and indirect object pronouns ("clitics") associated with each subject pronoun:

Important Notes:

Position of Object Pronouns

Before we continue learn more about object pronouns in Portuguese, we should learn about where these pronouns can be placed in relation to the verb.
There are three possible positions:

⬅️ Before the Verb

The object pronoun comes before the verb in questions (after an interrogative adverb), negative statements (after words like não), and in some other contexts we'll discuss more below.

⬇️ Middle of the Verb

Pronouns that appear in the middle of the verb look complicated at first, but the rules are actually fairly simple.
These forms are only used with two types of verbs: the future indicative tense (the first example) and the conditional (the second example). The pronoun is placed between the verb stem (e.g. entregar-, ter-) and the ending of the verb (e.g. -ei, -ia), always between two hyphens. Examples:

Future Indicative:
entregarei → entregar-lhe-ei

Conditional: (i.e. if my phone were charged)

➡️ After the Verb

Pronouns appear after the verb in simple affirmative statements (and also after an auxiliary verb that precedes a past participle). These are separated from the verb by a hyphen. For example:

Summary: Rules for Placing Object Pronouns in European Portuguese

If the rules for where to place an object pronoun seem complicated, you can start by just remembering this summary of the general guidelines:

🚫 A sentence will never begin with a clitic pronoun.

➡️ Simple affirmative statements: The pronoun comes after the verb

➡️ Auxiliary verbs before a past participle: The pronoun comes after the auxiliary verb

⬇️ Future indicative tense and the conditional tense: The pronoun is placed in the middle of the verb

⬅️ Negative statements, questions, and most other grammatical constructions: The pronoun comes before the verb

That last rule covers a lot of specific contexts, so if you want more detail, continue to the next section where you'll find a list of the situations in which the pronoun comes before the verb. (We think it's easier to learn from experience rather than memorizing every rule, but it helps to at least be familiar with these.)

The Clitic Pronoun Comes Before the Verb...

🚫 Within negative statements (following a negative word like não, nunca, nada, or ninguém)

❓ When the verb follows certain adverbs, including "question words" (interrogative adverbs and interrogative pronouns)

〰️ When the verb follows an indefinite, relative, or demonstrative pronoun

❗️ In an exclamation or when expressing a desire such as

Related Topics

As a reference, here are few related topics that are outside the scope of this unit:

Next Up!

💡 Note to Practice Portuguese members: Clitic pronouns are a tricky topic for many learners. When possible, we recommend keeping these Learning Notes open in a separate tab, so you can reference them while completing the exercises in the upcoming lessons. We'll cover the following topics throughout this Unit, but if you want to go ahead and open them now, click the links below:
Object Pronouns in Portuguese (done!) | Direct vs Indirect Objects | Me & Te | 3rd Person Clitic Pronouns (o, a, lhe, etc) | Nos & Vos | Merging Clitic Pronouns
Then click Mark as Complete here to continue on!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Object Pronouns in Portuguese | Practice Portuguese

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In this lesson, we'll have a look at direct and indirect object pronouns in Portuguese. These fall into the category of , along with reflexive pronouns, which we will cover separately, but which follow many of the same rules.

# data[].attributes.body
Eu gosto de aprender as gírias das línguas para comunicar numa maneira mais "legal" com a gente. As palavras são cortadas (especialmente as vogais) para estabelecer um método mais simplificado da comunicação. Por exemplo, você poderia ser "vc" num texto, e "tudo bem" poderia ser "td bem". Muito divertido para usar e comunicar como um falante de português "avançado."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Did you know that Brazil is the country with the fourth-largest number of Internet users in the world? Take that huge number of people online, add to it the natural creativity and humor of Brazilians, and you get a whole new world of Portuguese slang and expressions!

Some Brazilian internet slang is more common with the younger crowds, while other slang phrases are used by people of all ages. Besides that, many expressions born online and in memes end up in the daily vocabulary of Brazilians, even if just for a few months. In this article, we'll focus more on long-lasting expressions, abbreviations, and slang words. But if you're curious enough, you can always continue keeping up-to-date with new memes and engage with Portuguese speakers online.

To make sure you're up-to-speed with all the abbreviations, codes, and expressions in the Brazilian internet scene, be sure to check this guide and come back whenever you need to. After going through this guide, you'll be able to handle your internet-based conversations and understand all the Brazilian online gírias, or "slang," like a local!
Table of Contents

1. Abbreviations Used in Portuguese Texting

2. Laughing the Brazilian Way

3. Portuguese Internet Slang Derived from English

4. Internet Slangs Popular on Social Media

5. Popular Emojis in Brazil

6. Learn More Portuguese with PortuguesePod101

1. Abbreviations Used in Portuguese Texting

Vc tá no trabalho hj? ( "Are you at work today?" )

Texting is all about speed in Brazil. Abbreviations are everywhere, since they make it much quicker to write sentences. In Portuguese, it works the same way it does in English: we make the words smaller by substituting whole syllables for just one or two letters.

1 - Basic Words

The most commonly used abbreviations in Portuguese text slang are used by people of all ages in Brazil, and can be seen everywhere online from social media comments to Whatsapp messages. Considering the huge number of Brazilians connected to the internet, chances are you'll encounter these abbreviations in your next text conversation!

Man checking wristwatch
2 - Abbreviations of Expressions

The following abbreviations are a bit more popular among younger people. These are common Brazilian Portuguese text slang expressions that are used online, on social media, and when texting!

/! Note /!

You might have noticed that the different conjugations of the verb estar can appear in two ways: the original version and a shortened version.

These aren't slang words per se, and they're very common in both spoken Portuguese and in text messages or social media.

2. Laughing the Brazilian Way

A guide to Brazilian Portuguese internet slang could never be complete without an in-depth look at how Brazilians laugh online. With the vast numbers of Brazilians on the internet, the particular way in which they laugh has caused plenty of confusion online. Let's unpack the top ways in which Brazilians laugh online and get you laughing along!

The award for most confusing laughter has to go to -and all of its variations with an increasing number of k's, depending on how much fun you're having! And no, don't worry, this is not a racist salute in any way.

For some reason, in Brazil, the idea of laughing with a "qua-qua-qua" sound is an old one, as you can hear in this song of the iconic Brazilian singer Elis Regina.

This is an abbreviation of the word risos ("laughter").

This is another common way of laughing, derived from the traditional "hahaha."

Randomly pressing letters on the keyboard is also common!
huehuehue, hauhauhauhau, spoaskoaksak, kjkjkjkjkjkjkj, haushhaushshsuah
Can you tell Brazilians are happy people? A simple "LOL" is not enough to express all the dimensions of fun!

3. Portuguese Internet Slang Derived from English

Many commonly used internet slang words in Portuguese actually originate from English words! And we're not talking about the abbreviations that come straight from the English language and are used in the same context, like BFF, OMG, or plz. After all, in Brazil, things go a step further!

Most of the cases below are used as verbs, adding a Portuguese ending to an English word. This kind of expression is quite common, and there's always a new one being added to the Brazilian internet vocabulary! Let's take a look at the most popular ones.

Expression

Translation

Example/Explanation

"Whatsapp"

Originally, this is what older people called Whatsapp.

Expression

Literal translation

Explanation

Example

Deus me livre mas quem me dera
"God forbid, but I wish"

This is a paradoxical expression that refers to those situations where you want something but rationally you know you shouldn't. There is a song with this name!

"To have a total loss"

PT is short for Perda Total ("total loss"). This expression is used when someone gets very drunk.

1. Red heart ❤️

2. Heart eyes 😍

3. Clapping hands 👏

4. Cat with heart eyes 😻

5. Please / Thank you 🙏

6. Music 🎶

7. Smiling moon, which can imply flirting 🌚

8. Peace sign ✌️

9. Eyes 👀

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Step Up Your Texting Game: A Guide to Portuguese Slang - PortuguesePod101.com Blog

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Did you know that Brazil is the country with the fourth-largest number of Internet users in the world? Take that huge number of people online, add to it the natural creativity and humor of Brazilians, and you get a whole new world of Portuguese slang and expressions!

# data[].attributes.body
Em nossa aula eu sempre estou perguntando sobre as diferenças entre o português do Brasil e o português de Portugal. Esse video descreve as diferenças na gramática entre os dois tipos do português. Por exemplo, o Brasil usa "você" e Portugal usa "tu" para o pronome pessoal da segunda pessoa (você quer v. tu queres). Um outro exemplo interessante é como expressar um evento que continua. Em o Brasil, a gente falaria "eu estou trabalhando." Mas em Portugal a gente falaria "eu estou a trabalhar."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
European Portuguese vs Brazilian Portuguese GRAMMAR explained!

# data[].attributes.body
Eu uso o site "Conjuguemos" para praticar conjugações dos verbos irregulares. O site têm diferentes modos para praticar. A gente pode escolher quais tempos vai ser usados e a quantidade do tempo. Acho que essa maneira de praticar é não só útil, más também é divertido. Eu tenho trabalho para alcançar as minhas metas do português e eu posso praticar através do conjuguemos.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Practice your verb conjugations with helpful drills and quizzes.

# data[].attributes.body
Eu tenho dificuldades na lembrança das conjugações dos verbos irregulares em português. Aprendi eles no meu primeiro ano do português mas eu sempre tento de evitar o uso desses verbos. Mas nada mais! Esse artigo identifica os padrões dos verbos irregulares. O artigo é uma revisão muito útil para começar usando os verbos irregulares em português.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Are you struggling with irregular verbs? No matter how hard you try, can you simply not remember all the irregular verb conjugations in Brazilian Portuguese?

Sure, it's rough. Verb conjugations in Romance languages are a rather arduir (to go)ous endeavor for English speakers because of all the wild irregularities.

Here's the upside: For a basic level of communication in Brazilian Portuguese, you can get by with just three tenses. If you can handle the present, the imperfect and the preterite indicative, you should be able to get your point across in most contexts.

In this post, we'll focus on the present, and specifically on the irregular verbs in the present.

This post isn't for those just starting out with Portuguese, but it's suitable for those who have been studying for a bit already and have some basic vocabulary and familiarity with the regular present tense conjugations.

For our examples here, we use the variety of Portuguese from the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, which is the focus for most learners of Brazilian Portuguese.

The Portuguese for other parts of the world won't vary too much for this topic, with the addition of tu in some areas like Portugal and the very south of Brazil, plus quite different vocabulary in terms of example sentences in some of those dialects.

Having said all that, let's make sense of some irregular Brazilian Portuguese verbs.

The Importance of Learning Portuguese Irregular Verbs in the Present Tense

If your goal is just basic communication, studying present-tense indicative irregular verbs can get you a nearly maximal bang for your grammar-study-time buck.

You'd certainly not want to spend your limited time with the future tense, which is rarely used in spoken Brazilian Portuguese; the concept of the future is more often expressed by the irregular present tense verb ir that we'll see later in this article. And some perfect tense uses will make use of another irregular present tense verb that you'll see here, ter.

So even for those planning to move on eventually to more advanced concepts, you really need to know the irregular present tense conjugations well because they can become the base for other tenses that you'll learn later.

And finally, if you still need to be sold on this subject: The irregular present tense verbs became so irregular through heavy use-they're contorted precisely because they're generally the most common words in the language. Who wouldn't want to know those?

Recap: Regular Brazilian Portuguese Verb Conjugations

I'm assuming here that you know these, but they're absolutely essential for comparison to what's about to come, so here's a quick snapshot of the three regular conjugations in the present tense. (We'll include the translations for the first example but omit them in later examples, as they're self-explanatory.)

Verbs ending in - ar like comprar (to buy):

você/ele/ela compra - you/he/she buys

vocês/eles/elas compram - you (plural)/they (male or mixed gender)/they (female) buy

Verbs ending in - er like beber (to drink):

Verbs ending in - ir like abrir (to open):

As always, the alternate first-person plural a gente (literally "the people," but in this case "we") takes the você/ele/ela endings.

Good so far? Hang on, things will get weirder-but I'll start with the easy stuff.

You can see any of the words below in action on FluentU.

FluentU takes real-world videos-like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks-and turns them into personalized language learning lessons. This makes it easy to see words and concepts as they're actually used by real native speakers in everyday conversation.

A Portuguese learning program is currently in development, so stay tuned for an immersive, authentic way to learn Portuguese, coming soon!

Ever-so-slightly "Irregular" Present Tense Verbs: Spelling Changes

I might be exaggerating just a bit to use the word "irregular" here, but some verbs can look off-kilter to learners and don't at first glance seem to be following the rules above.

In this next example, see if you can spot change as compared to regular conjugation spellings.

Conhecer (to know someone or about something):
vocês/eles/elas conhecem
See how the c became a ç in the eu form? In both cases, the c is pronounced like an s-in the infinitive conhecer that's because the c is followed by an e that makes it all soft and hissy, and in the eu form it's because of that tail-like cedilla hanging from its bottom.

If you were just to speak and never write Portuguese, you wouldn't notice this irregularity at all, because conhecer when conjugated sounds just like any other -er verb. But to maintain the s sound in spelling, we need to change the c to a ç. Otherwise, we'd write a co at the end, and it would sound hard and weird and different from the infinitive, like a ku sound.

Similarly, we need to sometimes with Portuguese verbs in order to preserve the soft g sound.

For example, dirigir (to drive) in its eu form does just that:

We wouldn't want to put go at the end of that conjugation, because the o would give it a hard sound. But in terms of just pronunciation, this could be seen as a regular verb conjugation.
Dropping u
The third major spelling change to be aware of is that sometimes a letter must drop out to maintain consistent pronunciation.

You might recall that sometimes a u slides in after a g to make the g hard, but the u itself isn't pronounced. But we wouldn't want to start pronouncing that u all of a sudden in conjugations where the hardness is already evident (because there's an o after it, for example), so the u drops out.

This happens with conseguir (to obtain, to achieve):

Here are some examples of the verbs we saw in this section, brought to life in full sentences:

Eu conheço todos os forrozeiros de Recife. - I know all of the forró dancers in Recife.

Eu dirijo um carro verde. - I drive a green car.

Eu nunca consigo fazer nada. - I never succeed in doing anything.

But enough of irregular-lite verbs. Let's move on to some troublemakers.

Stem-Changing Verbs in Brazilian Portuguese

There's a weakness in the hearts of some verbs. The stress (pronounced emphasis) falls on the last syllable of Portuguese infinitives, but in the conjugated eu form the stress falls on the next-to-last syllable. Sometimes, that stress can be too much- the vowel under stress ends up changing to something else.

Here, we'll cover some of the most common patterns.

Some verbs stem vowels like in vestir (to dress):

Eu visto o meu filho de roupas roxas. - I dress my son in dark purple.

Recall that this stem change only happens in the eu form (at least of the present indicative, the verb tense we're discussing here). There's no change in the other present indicative forms:

Ele veste o seu filho de roupas roxas. - He dresses his son in dark purple.

Here's another example with the verb mentir (to lie):

Eu não minto nunca; as pessoas confiam em mim. - I don't ever lie; people trust me.

Or sentir (to feel), a verb that's great for waxing romantic:

Eu sinto o calor do abraço do meu namorado como um quente raio de sol de verão na minha pele. - I feel the warmth of my boyfriend's embrace like a warm ray of summer sun on my skin.

Other very common verbs that follow the above pattern include: digerir (to digest), preferir (to prefer), repetir (to repeat) and servir (to serve).

Changing o to u (and vice versa)

Similarly, sometimes stress causes an o to flip to a u in just the eu forms of - ir verbs.

For example, take the verb tossir (to cough):

Eu tusso quando estou resfriado. - I cough when I have a cold.

The reverse is also possible, within only the second- and third-person forms of the verb (but not the eu and nós forms).

Here's an example of this in action:

Ele sempre foge do baile quando vê o seu ex ciumento. - He always escapes from the dance when he sees his jealous ex.

Other verbs with this u to o change in the second and third persons include: subir (to go up, to get on), sacudir (to shake, to boogie down) and sumir (to disappear).

Other stem changes

There are also stem-changing verbs that follow the above e to i and o to u patterns, but do so in all present tense conjugations where the stress falls on that vowel (that is, all conjugations except for the nós form).

This happens with everyone's favorite carnival verb transgredir (to transgress):
você/ele/ela transgride vocês/eles/elas transgridem
Here's an example:

Eu transgrido as normas dos bloggers em apresentar tanta informação de maneira tão animadora. - I transgress bloggers' norms by presenting so much information in such an invigorating way.

You were hoping for a wilder example with transgredir, I'm sure. Let's settle instead on me giving you the absolute craziest, most far-out screwball Portuguese present-tense verb conjugations... coming up next!

Get Your Flashcards Ready: The Most Wildly Irregular Portuguese Present Tense Verbs

You may have felt I was reaching a bit in the previous sections to find patterns and bring order to the Portuguese verbal universe-but at least pretending there's an order can help us maintain the faith needed to memorize these verbs.

But here, my gentle flock, is where you can give up all hope and turn to agnosticism-or else drop Portuguese for a nicely ordered (but invented) language like the totally regular Esperanto.

I'll still try to point out some of the patterns for the following way-out Portuguese verbs where such patterns somewhat exist. But in general, this section is a strong case for flashcards, either literally or with an app like Anki (do create your own cards in the app, rather than downloading, as doing so can in itself be a learning experience).

I remember a decade back, thumbing through my irregular Portuguese verbs on scraps of paper in a park in São Paulo-and then using those same verbs on evenings out dancing samba rock. These are the verbs you use, since they're so common and integral to any conversation.

Irregularities in the eu form

First, there are verbs whose eu form is the only irregularity in the present tense indicative, so we'll just show it here.

caber (to fit):
Example:
Eu caibo nesse espaço pequenininho! - I fit in this tiny space!

saber (to know):
Example:
Eu não sei com certeza o que você acha. -I don't know for sure what you think.

Moving on, some verbs are more broadly irregular, but at least show a bit of a pattern in the non-eu forms.

trazer (to bring):
Example:
Eu trago um vinho para o jantar. - I'm bringing a bottle of wine to supper.

dizer (to say):
Example:
Eu digo claramente o que penso. - I clearly say what I think.

fazer (to do/to make):
Examples:
Vocês fazem bagunça o dia inteiro! - You misbehave/mess things up/make messes all day long!

Ele faz os deveres com o seu filho. - He does homework with his son.

No patterns here: irregular verbs you'll just have to memorize

Let's dive further down the rabbit hole, dears. From here on out you may see some vague semblances of patterns, but it's going to get messy.

ter (to have):
Example:
Tenho vontade de terminar os deveres. - I feel like finishing my homework.

The difference between tem and têm is purely written; the pronunciation in Brazil is identical.

vir (to come):

ver (to see):

As I mentioned earlier, the following verb is useful not just for transport, but also for talking about the future.

ir (to go):
Examples:
Vamos embora às 10:00 da manhã. - We're getting out of here at 10:00 a.m.

Vocês vão dançar um xote essa noite? - Are you guys going to dance a slow forró song tonight?

ser (to be [characteristic]):
Example:
Elas são as minhas amigas. - They're my friends.

The more temporary verb for being has different forms in written and spoken Brazilian Portuguese. The written version is:

estar (to be [temporary]):

In spoken Brazilian Portuguese, the es- at the beginning of the above conjugations is only rarely pronounced. So we might write:

Ela está bem melhor. - She's feeling a lot better.

But we'd say:

Moving on, just a few more oddballs to go...

dar (to give):
Example:
E les sempre lhe dão um presente. - They always give him a present.

poder (to be able to):
Example:
No fim das contas, não posso ir, desculpa. - In the end it turns out I can't go, sorry.

querer (to want):
Example:
Quer dançar comigo? - Do you want to dance with me?

And that's it for our extensive dip into the most popular and useful irregular Portuguese verbs in the present tense.

There are some more irregular verbs out there, however. My Brazilian friends' favorite resource for conjugating any verb (it's tough for them too, sometimes) is Conjugação.com.br (if you try just Googling the verb plus "conjugation" you will, unfortunately, get Spanish verbs in many cases).

I also recommend the books "A Grammar of Spoken Brazilian Portuguese," "Portuguese: A Linguistic Introduction" and "Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar" for more detail on the patterns involved in the verbs as well as how to employ them.

I don't recommend conjugation list books, as that information is all available more readily on the conjugation site I mentioned and others.

Be careful as you're learning not to fall into the trap of only learning the conjugations out of context. You want to be able to actually use these odd words in conversation, not just spit them out in order when prompted with the infinitive.

As I mentioned before, for me that meant lacing up my dance shoes at the end of the day, meeting people and spitting out whatever sad little Portuguese phrases I could. For you that might mean any number of other activities (learning-related or not) that get you actually employing these verbs in sentences.

The irregular verbs are so common that you're bound to use them just about any time you open your mouth in the company of Brazilians.

Mose Hayward also writes about his Brazilian dancing adventures for Forró Club.

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn a language with real-world videos.
Experience language immersion online
Portuguese Coming Soon!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Demystifying Present-tense Portuguese Irregular Verbs: Patterns in Irregularity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Are you struggling with irregular verbs? No matter how hard you try, can you simply not remember all the irregular verb conjugations in Brazilian Portuguese? Sure, it's rough. Verb conjugations in Romance languages are a rather arduir (to go)ous endeavor for English speakers because of all the wi

# data[].attributes.body
Eu descobri esse artigo sobre o "R" português e foi perfeito para entender melhor as varias pronunciações da letra. Acordando do artigo, os sons de "r" são muitos diversos e são uma das marcas mais forts dos sotaques regionais. São seis maneiras de pronunciação do "R" em línguas europeus: o "R americano" [ɹ], o "R espanhol estrondoso" [r], o "tap/flap" [ɾ], o "R francês gutural" [ʁ], o "R mudo gutural" [h, χ, x], e o "R silencioso." O Português usa todas essas formas de "R," e os contextos do uso depende no dialeto ou no sotaque do falante. Esse artigo é muito útil para rever as pronunciações diferentes do "R" em português.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
While sitting in the Panama City airport, waiting for my flight to Rio, one of Copa Airline's Panamanian employees came on the intercom to announce that the flight to "Rrrrio de Haneiro" would be boarding soon. The long rolled R caused several of the Brazilians around me to turn to each other and chuckle. Later, while waiting to take off, the Brazilian flight crew announced that the trip to "Hiu gee Zhaneiru" would take about 7 hours.

Nothing could better highlight the stark differences in pronunciation between Portuguese and Spanish, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the sound of R. A flight like this might be one of the first situations in which many tourists encounter the beautiful, enigmatic Portuguese R.

As with many languages, R in Portuguese can take on a kaleidoscope of different sounds depending on its placement within a word and the dialect of the speaker. It's pretty much impossible to give any hard and fast rules that apply across all dialects. But I'm going to try here to give you a sense of the huge variation that exists.

(If you are not as fascinated by rhotics as I am, or are looking at this article and thinking "tl;dr", you may prefer the short version of this article)

Rhotics

Ok, let's just consider for a moment how weird and cool R is. Linguists have a special name for all the R sounds of the world: rhotics, which are a rather elusive category because there is no definitive phonological way to define what is and isn't a rhotic - there's not a single trait that all rhotic sounds have in common, except for some kind of association with the letter R in one or more languages. A sound represented by the letter R in one language could be represented by a completely different letter in another language, or it could be missing from that other language altogether.

R sounds are fascinating to me not just because they are so diverse, but because they are one of the strongest markers of regional dialect, native vs non-native accent, and social class within any single language (consider a posh Queen's English "yahd" vs. a nasal midwestern American "yard" vs. a rolling Scottish "yarrrd").

If you're really interested in the mysteries of rhotics (and man, who isn't?), I encourage you to check out the Wikipedia articles on Rhotic Consonants and Gutteral R. The latter includes an excellent discussion of R in Portuguese and how it has varied across time and place. And these two wonderful episodes of the podcast Tá Falado are all about variations in the Brazilian R, letting you hear how three very different speakers from Pernambuco, São Paulo, and Rio pronounce their R's.

Before we get into Portuguese specifically, let's talk about a few of the diverse ways R can be pronounced in European languages. Learning a bit about what distinguishes these sounds, and what your tongue and vocal cords are doing when they pronounce them, can help you with your pronunciation in all kinds of languages.

I'll be using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet to unambiguously refer to each sound, since some of the names I give the sounds are my own invention and not widely used. I'll use [square brackets] to indicate sounds using IPA symbols. Later on, I will use <angle brackets> to indicate phonemes - that is, where the letter r comes in a word. We'll then discuss how the sound used for each phoneme can be different in different parts of the lusophone world.

The Six R's

There are six ways that people who speak European languages commonly pronounce their R's. First up are three alveolar R's:

The American R

The common midwestern R, used pretty much exclusively by Americans. Linguists call this a voiced alveolar approximant or a retroflex R because the mid part of the tongue rises up to approach (but does not actually touch) the alveolar ridge - that bumpy part on the roof of your mouth. Meanwhile, the lips are rounded into an O shape, and the vocal cords are vibrating. This is a rather difficult consonant for non-native speakers to achieve; Americans, on the other hand, may need to train themselves to not make this sound, because nothing makes you sound like an American like an alveolar approximant.

Rolling R

This is known as the "rolling r" or voiced alveolar trill. The tip of the tongue is placed near the alveolar ridge and air is directed over it so it vibrates. Meanwhile, the lips are neutral and the vocal cords vibrate. It's a sound found in dozens of languages, but most famously in Spanish, Italian, and Scots English.

The Tap (or Flap)

This sound, used in dozens of languages from Spanish to Turkish to Japanese, is called a voiced alveolar tap or flap. It's very similar to the rolling R, except that the tip of the tongue taps the alveolar ridge just one time, very quickly, instead of a sustained roll. This is the other common R sound in Spanish, and it's one that you'll need to be very comfortable with in order to speak Portuguese.

This video shows the difference between the three alveolar R sounds: the approximant, the trill, and the tap.

We just looked at three different alveolar R sounds that are pronounced with the tongue raised towards the top of the mouth. These next two sounds are articulated more in the back of the mouth, so I'll call them gutteral R's:

Guttural R

This is the classic French/German R which has challenged many an English speaker attempting to find their way to a restaurant in Paris. Unlike the three alveolar R's we've covered above, this R is a thick sound produced in the back of the throat. Linguists call it a voiced uvular fricative. The tongue is pulled down and back toward the uvula, the mouth is very open compared to an American R, and the vocal cords are vibrating. What comes out is sometimes described as a gargling sound.

This video gives an example.

Voiceless Gutteral R

This is the other gutteral R, which is so common in Brazil it could almost be called the "Brazilian R". Depending on where you are in Brazil, you'll hear one of three different sounds for this particular phoneme, and they're all produced in the back of the throat like the French Gutteral R, but the difference is that unlike the French R, these are all voiceless. The three sounds are:

the voiceless velar fricative [x]

the voiceless uvular fricative [χ]

the voiceless glottal fricative [h]

The [h] sound is just that, a normal English h in words like hello and hope. [χ] is a thicker "hissing cat" sound, identical to the h in English human, humid, hue, hew. It's kind of like an h and a y sound put together. English speakers make this sound all the time, but because we only pronounce it when we see the letters "hu" or "pu", it can be confusing to encounter it in other contexts - say, at the start of a word like Rio. The third sound [x] isn't found in English, but many English speakers are familiar with this sound from common words in other languages.

The difference between the velar [x] and uvular [χ] fricatives is subtle. Both are represented in most languages (not Portuguese) by the letters ch or x. But the uvular fricative [χ] is a very smooth sound, just as smooth as [f] or [s], like the ch in German ich. It's the sound you make to imitate a hissing cat. The velar fricative [x], on the other hand, sounds more rough, scratchy or gargle-y, like the ch in Hebrew Channukah, the ch in Welsh achos, ch in Scots loch, the x in Russian хороший or the x in Greek xi. You can also think of [x] as the unvoiced version of the French Gutteral R. For example, compare French and Portuguese on Forvo. Or listen to how Gal Costa pronounces with [χ] in Samba do Avião, but João Gilberto uses [x].

Anyway, the important thing to know is that you don't necessarily need to be able to hear the difference between the three unvoiced gutteral Rs, because all three are interchangeable in Portuguese - none is more right than the others.

Silent R

Finally, some speakers may just drop their R's altogether, as in the British English pronunciation of "yard" [yahd] or a Bostoner saying "car" [ka:h]. This is a defining characteristic of British/Australian English as well as the New England dialect in the U.S. - so characteristic that linguists call these the non-rhotic dialects of English. While these speakers don't pronounce the R in certain situations, they usually do lengthen the preceding vowel "the caah is in the yaahd" or insert a very slight h sound in place of the R. French speakers also drop their R's in certain circumstances, often at the end of a word like regarder. Brazilians may also drop R's when they come at the end of an infinitive like falar.

R in Portuguese

So let's review the six common ways of pronouncing R in European languages:

American R [ɹ]

Spanish Rolling R [r]

Tap/Flap [ɾ]

French Gutteral R [ʁ]

Voiceless Gutteral R [h, χ, x]

Silent R

By now you may be wondering which of these apply to Portuguese. The answer?

All of them.

Yup. Depending on where you go in the lusophone world, you can find Portuguese speakers pronouncing their R's in just about any way imaginable. What this means for Portuguese learners is that there is no wrong way to pronounce an R, as long as you stick to a few simple rules which I'm about to go over. You can choose based on which sound is easiest for you to produce, which is most euphonious to your ear, which dialect your tutor or spouse or friend speaks, or which country or region you're going to visit. I'll give some broad generalizations below about which parts of the lusophone world use which types of R.

Which sound is used for R depends on where the letter R falls in a word. This is the idea behind phonemes. Here is where I'm going to start using <angle brackets> to indicate phonemes, but remember, this is just another way of indicating where the letter R appears in a word.

In all Portuguese dialects, there are three different phonemes associated with the letter R. Let's call them <r>, <rr> and <-r>. Phonemes are not exactly the same thing as sounds, and they're not exactly the same thing as letters. They are kind of like connecting categories that map letters to sounds:

Letter -> (phoneme) -> Sound

Phonemes are a way of saying, If you see a letter "r" is this situation, use Sound A for it. If you see "r" in this other situation, use a different Sound B for it. But Sound A and B are not fixed - they will vary depending on the specific dialect.

Letter r at the beginning of a word = Phoneme <rr> = Sound A

Letter r in between two vowels = Phoneme <r> = Sound B

For example, both the letter "r" in rio and in garrafa represent the <rr> phoneme. The letter "r" in barato, on the other hand, represents the <r> phoneme. Depending on where you go in the Portuguese-speaking world, different people will use different sounds for the <rr> phoneme. But whatever sound they use, it will be different from the sound they use for the <r> phoneme.

If you speak Spanish, you'll see that the usage of <rr> vs <r> in Portuguese exactly parallels the situations when you would and would not roll your R's.

Phoneme 1: <r>

When it comes to <r>, all Portuguese speakers all over the world are in agreement: use a Tap [ɾ]. It's exactly the same sound as the r in Spanish words like barato, corona, and cristo. Your tongue should tap the roof of your mouth just once, very lightly - but you should not roll or trill the r.

You use the [ɾ] sound in two situations:

whenever r appears between two vowels (barata, tarifa)

whenever r appears after a consonant but before a vowel (cristo, fábrica)

Basically, it's any r that comes in the middle of a syllable, so long as it's not double rr. These are the same two situations in which you would use the tap in Spanish. Now try saying these Portuguese words with a crisp alveolar tap:
quatro, trem, carioca, caro, para, barato, preço, praia, siri, xadrez
Phoneme 2: <rr>

The second rhotic phoneme in Portuguese, <rr>, occurs in three situations:

whenever letter Ris doubled (guerra, correr, carregar)

whenever R appears at the beginning of a word (rio, restaurante, roda)

whenever it appears at the beginning of a syllable, after a consonant (honrar, Israel) - this doesn't happen too often in Portuguese.

These are the same situations in which Spanish speakers use a Rolling R.

When it comes to <rr>, Portuguese speakers cannot agree at all - there is no single sound that everyone uses. How a speaker actually pronounces <rr> varies widely depending on the dialect, the region of the world, and the idiosyncrasies of the speaker. Cariocas will use a thick gutteral [χ], gaúchos from the south will roll it [r], and European Portuguese speakers will use a very French/German sounding [ʁ]. If I had to guess, I would say [χ] (the hissing cat sound) is the most standardized.

Phoneme 3: <-r>

The last phoneme is used when R appears at the end of a syllable ( corpo, parte, quarto) or the end of a word ( falar, doutor).

Here too there is great variety. Some Portuguese speakers pronounce it as [ɾ]; others (cariocas for example) pronounce it as a light [h] or a thick [χ]; still others (paulistanos and caipiras) will actually use a nasal American R sound [ɹ]; and others will drop it entirely - a Silent R! Unless you're going for a paulistano/caipira accent, a good suggestion is that this sound should be lighter than the <rr> phoneme.

Just to make things a little more complicated, it's good to remind ourselves that words are rarely found in isolation, but usually appear between other words. <-r> can turn into <r> when it's followed by a word that starts with a vowel, as in ligar o computador. Then it's as if that final R in ligar falls in between two vowels, as in ligarocomputador, so you would use a flap. This tends to happen naturally when speaking at a normal pace, so it's not something to worry about.

Ok. So everyone uses a tap for <r>, but what are some of the ways you might hear the variable phonemes <rr> and <-r>? Let's take a regional tour of the different sounds:
Brazil
The most common Brazilian pronunciation of <rr> and <-r> is the Voiceless Gutteral R: [ χ], [ x], or [ h]. If you're doing something along these lines you really can't go wrong in Brazil. These three sounds are pretty similar in practice; the only difference is how heavy or thick they sound.

My own <rr>'s alternate fairly indiscriminately between these three, though I usually opt for a heavier, more velar [x] at the beginning of a word like Rio, a lighter uvular [χ] at the end of a syllable like corpo, and a very light [h] or [χ] at the end of a word like falar. Many Brazilians pronounce the -ar, -er, -ir endings of verb infinitives extremely lightly, to the point where the Rs are only barely discernable or disappear entirely ( falar = "fa laah" or even just "fa la "). Others, like cariocas, put a thick [χ] sound on the end.

My advice, then, is to choose the dialect and accent you want to learn, and listen to how speakers with that accent pronounce their Rs. For example, on Forvo you can listen to how a few dozen Brazilians pronounce the initial R in Rio de Janeiro. (While you're listening, notice too that some palatalize the de and others don't). But don't sweat it too much: no matter which R you say, you'll be understood just fine all across Brazil.

That said, there are some distinctive regional variations that deserve a mention here:
Rio de Janeiro
Residents of Rio ( cariocas) speak a very distinctive dialect, which is also called carioca. Aside from abundant palatalization and vowel raising ( de > gee), epenthetic vowels ( mas > maish) and a lisping chiado ( duas copas > duashh copashh), a defining aspect is the use of a very thick velar [x] or uvular [χ] for all <rr> and <-r> phonemes, including and especially those in the middle and end of a word. So corpo becomes " cohhpu", falar becomes "fal achh ". The distinction between <r> and <rr>/<-r> in carioca Portuguese is dramatic. To hear the difference, listen to (<r>) and then (<-r>). On the other hand, <rr> and <-r> are pretty much indistinguishable in this dialect. Semántica's videos are a great place to hear this accent since they film in Rio with carioca actors.
São Paulo and the interior of Brazil
The residents of the rural, hilly interior areas of central Brazil speak with what is known as a caipira accent, which best translates to English as "hillbilly". This accent is unmistakable because of the use of the alveolar approximant [ɹ], aka the American English R, for <-r> (but not <rr>!) phonemes. This sound will only happen at the end of a syllable ( corpo) or the end of a word ( condutor, tocar). Residents of São Paulo state have their own variation, the paulistano accent, which takes this to an extreme, with a sonorous nasal R - it sounds a little comical to my ear. For a fantastic example of this accent, listen to Michelle, who is from São Paulo state, speaking in this Tá Falado podcast.

<rr> is pronounced [h] or [χ] as in most of Brazil.
Rio Grande do Sul and the south of Brazil
The farther south you go in Brazil, the more the local dialect tends to resemble Spanish. I'm not sure of the exact reasons for this, but my guess is it has something to do with the fact that Brazil has always had strong trade connections with the Spanish-speaking countries of Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay along it's southern border, whereas the other parts of Brazil are very isolated from their Spanish speaking neighbors.

In Brazil's southern states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná, where many German and Italian immigrants to Brazil settled and cattle ranching ( pecuária) dominates the economy, people speak with a dialect known as [ga'ushu] (cowboy). This dialect is defined, in part, by the use of the Spanish Rolling R (alveolar trill) for the <rr> phoneme. You're most likely to hear the Rolling R at the beginning of a word like Rio, whereas <-r> phonemes that come in the middle or at the end of a word ( parque, falar) are often pronounced as a Tap, just like the <r> phoneme.

Aside from the pronunciation of R, Gaúchos don't palatalize de/di/te/ti at the ends of words, so cidade sounds like [si'dadi] instead of standard Brazilian [si'dadʒi]. Along the border between Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay, this gaúcho dialect mixes with riverense Spanish, creating a hybrid Portunhol dialect called fronteiriço. In the video below, listen for the Rolling R and the Tap in words like carteira and parque:
Mineiro
Residents of the mountainous state of Minas Gerais speak a choppy dialect marked by distinctive vocabulary and clipped words. They'll often just drop the <-r> entirely from the ends of words ( falar > fal a).
Portugal
Take this with a grain of salt, because I am not as familiar with the European dialect. But as I understand it, the most common pronunciation of <rr>, at least in the metropolitan areas in the south of Portugal, is a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] like the French Guttural R. Listen to this speaker from Portugal pronounce Rio - I think he might even be using an uvular trill [ ʀ].

In more rural parts of Portugal, especially the north, the Rolling R/alveolar trill [r] is used, which parallels the use of the trill in the neighboring Galician-speaking parts of Spain. In all areas, R appearing at the end of a syllable, before a consonant ( corpo, parque) is pronounced with a Tap. Listen to this Galician speaker pronouncing Rio.
Lusophone Africa
I confess I know next to nothing about usage in Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tome e Príncipe. But if you believe wikipedia, this is the situation: Since luso Africa was colonized by the Portuguese in the 1500-1700s, the older continental pronunciation dominates: a voiced alveolar trill [r] like the Spanish Rolling R.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The enigmatic Portuguese R (long version)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
While sitting in the Panama City airport, waiting for my flight to Rio, one of Copa Airline's Panamanian employees came on the intercom to announce that the flight to "Rrrrio de Haneiro" would be boarding soon. The long rolled R caused several of the Brazilians around me to turn to each other and chuckle.

# data[].attributes.body
Esse artigo escreve sobre como pronunciar a letra "x" em diferentes contextos em português. O "x" tem quatro sons diferentes em português: /ʃ/ (como ship), /ks/ (como max), /z/ (como zap), e /s/ (como sad). O artigo também tem exemplos de todas essas pronunciações, como xícara/texto/baixo (/ʃ/ ), tóxico (/ks/), e exame (/z/). Eu tenho dificuldades com os sons apropriados do "x" e esse artigo me ajudou muito.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Regarding pronunciation, the letter X is definitely a tricky one for those learning Portuguese. You probably know what I mean if you've been learning this language for while, right?

If you don't, here is why:
In Portuguese, the letter X stands for four different language sounds, namely, the /ʃ/-sound (as in shape), the /ks/-sound (as in tax ), the /z/-sound (as in zen), and the /s/-sound (as in sun).
Luckily, there are a few spelling patterns that will make it easier for you. Learning these patterns and keeping them in the back of your mind will allow you, in most cases, to guess it right. Read on.

/ʃ/-sound

The most common language sound produced by X is, by far, the /ʃ/-sound (as is a es). Let's look at a few spelling patterns rendering the /ʃ/-sound.

Words starting with X

Virtually all Portuguese words starting with an X render the /ʃ/-sound. Here're a few examples:

X in front of a consonant

Also, whenever the letter X stands right in front of another consonant, it will produce the /ʃ/-sound. Many of the words in this group have English cognates wherein the X renders a /ks/-sound instead:

X in between vowels

The letter X is more devious when it is stuck in between vowels. In that case, there are three possibilities and no definitive rules. Yet, in most cases, X will render the /ʃ/-sound as before. Take a look at the following examples:

Again, when stuck in between vowels, the letter X can also render language sounds other than the /ʃ/-sound. Let's take a look at those cases.

/ks/-sound

The letter X produces a /ks/-sound (as in a ident) when stuck in between vowels. Often, these words have English cognates that are also pronounced with the same /ks/-sound. Take a look at these examples:

/z/-sound

The letter X can also stand for the /z/-sound (as in ealous). Typically, these words have English cognates *, although the latter will render the /gz/-sound instead:

/s/-sound

Finally, the letter X can also stand for the /s/-sound (as in ow). However, this is rare and you should look at it as an exception:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Here's How You Pronounce the Letter X in Portuguese " Portuguesepedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Regarding pronunciation, the letter X is definitely a tricky one for those learning Portuguese. You probably know what I mean if you've been learning this language for while, right? If you don't, here is why: In Portuguese, the letter X stands for four different language sounds, namely, the /ʃ/-sound (as in shape), the /ks/-sound (as in tax ), the /z/-sound (as in zen), and the /s/-sound (as in sun).

# data[].attributes.body
Esse vídeo engraçado demonstra os ritmos e pronunciações diferentes entre os sotaques brasileiros e portugueses. Eu estava pensando nas varias maneiras de pronunciação das certas palavras portugueses que a gente fez na aula. É muito legal que a gente pode falar uma lingua em muitas maneiras acordando com o ritmo, a pronunciação dos sons, e a ênfase.

# data[].attributes.body
Eu adoro esse artigo porque identifica palavras em português que são difíceis de pronunciar para as pessoas que não são brasileiros. As palavras são exceção, amanhã, lagartixa, trocadilho, cabeleireiro, paralelepípedo, e otorrinolaringologista. Nossa! O artigo explica as razões porque as palavras são difíceis de pronunciar, e os sons que as aprendizes do português precisam de aprender.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Interest in Brazil and the Portuguese language has skyrocketed over the past few years. With major events such as the 2014 World Cup and the Games taking place in Brazil this summer, more people than ever before are either learning Portuguese, or simply trying to get to know more about the 6th largest language in the world (in terms of native speakers).

In the video above, 7 non-native Portuguese speakers from 7 different countries (some already fluent in Portuguese, others not so much) give everything they've got to pronounce some tricky words in Portuguese.

Think you could do better? To help you master the art of Portuguese pronunciation, here are a few tips on conquering those pesky tongue-twisting Portuguese words.

1. Exceção (exception)

xc - The letter "x" can be a big problem for people learning Portuguese. There are 5 different ways of pronouncing it, and the rules governing when to use each pronunciation have so many exceptions that it's better not to bother. We recommend consulting a dictionary with phonetic transcriptions. For example, when "x" is combined with "c," it sounds like "s" as in "soap."

ç - This symbol under the "c" is called cedilla (or "cedilha," in Portuguese) and it changes the way the "c" is pronounced in languages like Portuguese, French and Catalan. In some languages, like Turkish and Kurdish, it exists as a proper letter in its own right - the "Ꝣ." In Portuguese, it's pronounced like an "s" as in "Saturday."

ão - This one is a real nightmare for non-native Portuguese speakers. There is no exact match for it in the English language, but if you think of "oun" being spoken in a very nasal way you're getting close. The symbol on top of the "a" is called tilde (also "til" in Portuguese), and indicates that the vowel is pronounced nasally.

2. Amanhã (tomorrow)

nh - Another sound with no real equivalent in English, it is pronounced in a similar way as "ny" in "Enya."

ã - Also pronounced nasally, this is somewhat similar to "an."

3. Lagartixa (tropical house gecko)

x - As explained above, the "x" in Portuguese can be pronounced in 5 different ways. Here, it is pronounced in the same way as the "sh" in "shocked."

4. Trocadilho (word pun)

lh - The "h" after the "l" is pronounced like a very short "i."

5. Cabeleireiro (hairdresser)

ei - Pronounced like the "ay" in "lay." This sound is repeated for both the "lei" and "rei" parts of this word.

r - When placed between two vowels, the "r" makes a sound similar to a "d". Say repeatedly "dadadada." The "d" becomes softer and softer until you naturally start hearing "dadararara." Ta-da!

6. Paralelepípedo (paving stone, parallelepiped)

It may have simple phonemes, but the real difficulty of this word lies in its repeated switching of vowels and consonants. The stressed syllable, as the acute accent indicates, is on "pí."

7. Otorrinolaringologista (otolaryngologist)

The main issue here of course is the size of the word, but let's take a look at a few of the sounds in particular:

rr - Pronounced the same way as the "h" in "house," this rule also applies to a single "r" if it's placed at the beginning of a word. So, if you'd like to pronounce the name of the host city of the 2016 Olympics like an authentic Brazilian, you should say something like "Hio de Janeido."

go - When placed before the vowels "o," "a" and "u," the "g" in Portuguese sounds like the "g" in the words "gorilla," "garlic" and "gun."

gi - When it comes before the vowels "e" and "i," the "g" has a sound that can be described as something between the "g" in "gigolo" and the "sh" in "she." This soft "g" is also similar to the way the "s" is pronounced in "unusual."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
7 Portuguese Words You'll Struggle To Pronounce (If You're Not Brazilian)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Interest in Brazil and the Portuguese language has skyrocketed over the past few years. With major events such as the 2014 World Cup and the Games taking place in Brazil this summer, more people than ever before are either learning Portuguese, or simply trying to get to know more about the 6th largest language in the world (in terms of native speakers).

# data[].attributes.body
Morna é um tipo de música em Cabo Verde que foi reconhecido como uma intangível herança cultural da humanidade de UNESCO. É considerado a música nacional de Cabo Verde, e é cantado em CVC. Eu adoro que Morna é parte da identidade de Cabo Verde e as comunidades migrantes. Morna demostra como música interage com a língua e também a identidade das comunidades.

# data[].attributes.body
Papiamentu é uma língua crioulo que está falada em Curação, Bonaire e Aruba de quase 250,000 pessoas. A língua emergiu nas colônias holandeses mas o vocabulário central é uma mistura de português e espanhol. Esse artigo diz que é possível que Papiamentu origine duma lingua franca baseado em português, que foi usado em África Ocidental e eventualmente Curação. Acho que a origem de Papiamentu é fascinante e contribui a nossa conversação sobre crioulos portugueses.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Willemstad Journal

Curaçaoans played dominoes near the harbor in the Punda area of Willemstad, capital of the Netherlands Antilles. Credit... Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

WILLEMSTAD, Curaçao — Thousands of languages spoken by small numbers of people, including many of the Creole languages born in the last centuries of human history, are facing extinction. But a little-known language spoken on a handful of islands near the coast of Venezuela may be an exception.

Papiamentu, a Creole language influenced over the centuries by African slaves, Sephardic merchants and Dutch colonists, is now spoken by only about 250,000 people on the islands of Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba. But compared with many of the world's other Creoles, the hybrid languages that emerge in colonial settings, it shows rare signs of vibrancy and official acceptance.

Most of Curaçao's newspapers publish in Papiamentu. Music stores do brisk business in CDs recorded in Papiamentu by musicians like the protest singer Oswin Chin Behilia or the jazz vocalist Izaline Calister.

"Mi pais ta un isla hopi dushi, kaminda mi lombrishi pa semper ta derá," goes a passage in Ms. Calister's hit song "Mi Pais." (That roughly translates as "My island is a lovely place, where my umbilical cord forever lies.")

Of 30 or so radio stations here, nearly all broadcast in Papiamentu. Legislators in Parliament debate in Papiamentu. Bookstores sell novels and poetry collections in Papiamentu. Turn on the television and there, too, one hears Papiamentu.

Transforming status quo into law, officials here recognized Papiamentu as an official language in 2007, with Dutch and English. That was a rare distinction for a Creole, and one made in few other countries. Papua New Guinea made its English Creole, Tok Pisin, official, as the island nation of Seychelles did with its French Creole, Seselwa.

Still, linguists say the endurance of Papiamentu stands out at a time when many Creoles face the threat of being swallowed up by dominant world languages like English or French. Definitions vary, but Creoles are generally considered to be restructured languages formed in the last several centuries from contact with colonial languages like English, Portuguese or Arabic.

"While English and French Creoles get more attention, the extension of Papiamentu into different domains like writing, education and policy is incredibly high," said Bart Jacobs, a Dutch linguist who studies Papiamentu. "This bodes very well for the language's chances to survive, and possibly even thrive well into the future."

Scholars, writers and composers here say Papiamentu's resilience has roots in a mixture of radical politics and pragmatic planning. They often tie Papiamentu's resurgence to a violent uprising against symbols of Dutch power on May 30, 1969, known here as Trinta di Mei.

"Trinta di Mei allowed us to recognize the subversive treasure we had in our language, which existed for centuries so we could keep secrets from the Dutch," said Frank Martinus, 73, a Curaçaoan writer and founder of Kolegio Erasmo, a grade school where Papiamentu is the main language.

Papiamentu still has a way to go in usurping Dutch from some spheres. Curaçao's laws are still written in Dutch. Some schools start out teaching children in Papiamentu, but then transition to Dutch, bowing to the economic opportunities the Netherlands still provide for many islanders.

Even Mr. Martinus wrote his 1973 novel "Double Play," considered the masterpiece of modern Curaçaoan literature, in Dutch. He said that was a necessity at the time he wrote it, since he needed money fast while living in the Netherlands.

Now the novel is being translated into Papiamentu by Lucille Berry-Haseth, a Curaçaoan poet. Ms. Berry-Haseth, 73, revels in Papiamentu's playfulness and capacity to absorb new influences, joking in an interview, for instance, that she was a "puitu killer," or "cradle robber," since she was a few years older than her husband. "Puitu" (pronounced poo-EE-too), she explained, came from the Spanish word "pollito," for "little chicken" or "chick," while "killer" came from English.

Papiamentu's origins fascinate linguists; it emerged in a Dutch colony but its core vocabulary is a mix of Portuguese and Spanish. (Dutch Creoles crystallized elsewhere in the Dutch empire.)

Some scholars say Papiamentu evolved from a Portuguese-based lingua franca once used in West Africa, developing further in the 17th century when Curaçao was an entrepôt for South America's slave trade and a cosmopolitan Dutch outpost settled in part by Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking Jews. Whatever its origins, Papiamentu today evokes a bit of the rhythm of Brazilian Portuguese, sprinkled with words from Dutch and English but also largely from the Spanish of Venezuela.

Papiamentu speakers frequently employ racy slang that would seem out of place in the pages of a family newspaper but not on the streets of Caracas. Moreover, many Curaçaoans are remarkably polyglot, fluently speaking Papiamentu, Dutch, English and Spanish.

Papiamentu's vibrancy is related to the creation in 1998 of the Fundashon pa Planifikashon di Idioma, a language institute that maintains an orthography. Papiamentu also thrives on the street level, with immigrants from Haiti and Suriname often picking up the language quickly and using it instead of Dutch.

Derek Bickerton, an American scholar of Creoles (he defines them as "bastard tongues" of "dubious and disputed parentage"), suggests other reasons for Papiamentu's strength, including the weakness of Dutch compared with other colonial languages. Other linguists say the language thrives because of its use in trade and the relative prosperity of Papiamentu-speaking islands, which have per capita incomes of more than $16,000 a year.

Officials here said Papiamentu will keep its official status when the Netherlands Antilles is dissolved in October, a largely anticlimactic political rearrangement. Curaçao and the Dutch half of St. Maarten will become independent nations in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, while three other islands become the equivalent of Dutch municipalities. The Netherlands will continue to oversee the defense and foreign affairs of all the islands involved, as it does now with Aruba.

For some here, the secret of Papiamentu's survival lies in its use as a language of both resistance and renewal.

Helmin Wiels, 51, leader of the leftist party Pueblo Soberano, which favors a complete break from the Netherlands, said that if Curaçao were to achieve full independence, its official language should be Papiamentu, along with English and Spanish. As for Dutch, he said: "No way. Dutch is a dead language the same as Greek or Latin."

"The preservation of Papiamentu would allow us to absorb the influences of our South American brothers," he said, "while keeping alive that which makes us unique."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Language Thrives in Its Caribbean Home (Published 2010)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Willemstad Journal WILLEMSTAD, Curaçao - Thousands of languages spoken by small numbers of people, including many of the Creole languages born in the last centuries of human history, are facing extinction. But a little-known language spoken on a handful of islands near the coast of Venezuela may be an exception.

# data[].attributes.body
Esse artigo e video fala sobre a importância do crioulo em sociedade, arte, e política em Portugal, Cabo Verde, e outros partes do mundo. Muitas pessoas no video dizem que crioulo não é um dialeto mais é uma língua distinta. A "crioulização" das certas partes da sociedade em Lisboa, como jornais escritas em crioulo e músicas populares em crioulo demostra que talvez crioulo deve ser uma língua. Acho que esse reconhecimento demostra o debate que considera "o que é uma língua? o que é um dialeto? quais são as diferenças?"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Creole: soon an official language in Cape Verde? | Africanews

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Among all the languages heard in Lisbon-there is one that has been in fashion since the 16th century and is here to stay.

# data[].attributes.body
Eu gosto desse explicação as semelhanças entre Cape Verdean Creole e Papiamentu. Algumas palavras, pronomes e preposições são similares entre CVC e Papiamentu. O fato que muitas classes gramaticais têm semelhanças entre as duas línguas indicam as raízes compartilhados entre elas. Acho que esse video demostra o conceito da diferenciação das línguas muito bem.