Spanish is easier than Portuguese?

[portulaco]

Hello fellows. Bom dia!

Yesterday I had a very interesting rendez-vous with some Polish people and
one Spanish guy.

One of these Polish is teaching Spanish and the other is studing Spanish and
has studied Brazilian Portuguese.

General opinion is that European Portuguese is more difficult to learn than
Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish is far away more easy to learn and to
understand. They consider the European Portuguese as quite "thick" comparing.

I would like to have your opinion in this matter. Is it really true?

Greetings!

[kochasz]

sim sim sim! e muito mais facil. a coisa mais dificil de portugues e a
pronuncia... em espanhol pronuncia-se quase como em polaco. e em portugues...
possas...

beijokas

[kraksa2]

Kochaszu, moze bys przetlumaczyla dla tych co to jeszcze po portugalsku nie
gadaja ;)))

[jasiekstasiek1]

chodzilo o to ze portugalski jest trudniejszy, najtrudniejsza sprawa jest
wymowa. Dla Polakow latwiej wymawiac slowa hiszpanskie niz portugalskie.
tlumazylem po 2 miesiacach nauki, mam nadzieje ze ok :)

[kraksa2]

Well in my opinion spanish is far easier than portuguese. You can notice that
at the University, were students of portuguese understand spanish from the very
beginning even withoout actually learning it and the students of spanish...
Well, they have more problems... I remember, when I had my spanish exam ( I am
from the portuguese section) I didn't learn a lot and passed it without any
problems. And the people from the spanish section had to swot much before their
portuguese exams. A friend of mine who speaks Spanish perfectly doesn't
understand even the general meaning of spoken portuguese. I undrestand almost
everything in Spanish and believe me, I don't nor didn't learn this language
often ;)))

Spanish is easier than Portuguese.

[portulaco]

Thank you for your answers, it seems that it is realy true.

Maybe the Spanish melody is more open than Portuguese. Spanish open vowels and
in Portuguese the tendency is to close them, for instance: Portuguese
say "PURTUGAL", which is a perfect exemple of a guttural sound.

There was a comment that Spanish sounds are more like Polish ones but until now
I always listened that Portuguese sounds such as CH sound almost the same as
Polish SZ and Ś as well as the soft S.

My sister and her husband used to live in Belgium and sometimes they were asked
if they speak polish. Nowadays I know how this two languages are different ;-D

In that meeting I had with the Polish people they were surprised with some
minor tricks to speak Portuguese based in Spanish such as all words finished in
ION in Spanish finish as ÃO (more or less as Polish ą)the LL wich in Portugal
becames LH and the pronouns as ME LLAMO which in Portuguese are in the end and
unified with a - as for example CHAMO-ME.

However I'm very glad that you are interesed in my mother tongue and if I can
help you some how say something.

[endereco]

Portuguese pronunciation is much more similar to Polish one that Spanish is.
Portuguese is very nasal and rich in vowels just like Polish. The are hardly
any vowels in Spanish! And that "sz" sound, which is as strong in Portuguese as
in Polish.

[xavier111]

endereco napisała:

> Portuguese pronunciation is much more similar to Polish one that Spanish is.
> Portuguese is very nasal and rich in vowels just like Polish. The are hardly
> any vowels in Spanish! And that "sz" sound, which is as strong in Portuguese
as
>
> in Polish.


i can´t agree with you. portuguese and polish do both have nasal vowels, but
they are very different vowels, so it really doesn´t matter as far as
similarity is concerned. besides, polish is actually one of the poorest
european languages as far as the variety and frequency of vowel sounds is
concerned. polish is extremely rich in consonants not in vowels. all vowel
sounds (there are 5 of them - [a], [e], [i], [o], [u]) that exist in spanish
are relatively easy to pronounce for a pole owing to the fact that they have
almost identical equivalents in polish. the vocalic system of portuguese is
incomparably more complicated for a pole. most portuguese vowels are very
different from polish vowels. that's why poles can´t tell "avô"
from "avó", "pelo" from "pêlo", "dá" from "da". it sounds all the same for us.

and yes, "sz" sound does exist both in portuguese and polish. but it doesn´t
prove anything. it's just one sound. there are also sounds that exist both in
polish and spanish and dont exist in portuguese (i mean european standard),
like spanish "ch" or "j" sounds.

[menina]

well... according to my experiences with both languages (Portuguese and
Spanish) - it's always been easier for me to communicate in the former than in
the latter.
Portuguese sounds more familiar to me and I've never had any heart for Spanish
(lo siento).
besides - some sounds are really similar to polish or even russian.
I do agree with common opinion that Brazilian version is far easier to
understand (I think - not only because its actual sound but also thanks to
songs and telenovelas) but the "real" language with its eternal class (he he
he) still remains in Europe. just like British English which, even though
American is more popular and easier to learn, gives us the chance to taste real
snobbery and feel a bit posh. ok, ok... exaggerating - but that's what I feel
about European Portuguese.
(Comparing to which Spanish seems so banal)

I love both Spanish and Portuguese

[marcingishon]

and i love them both in their south american versions

same as with English, the continental Spanish and Portuguese are dull,
pretentious and disturbing when copmpared to the latin versions

ps
i first learned Portuguese from Bossa Nova music

[portulaco]

Hello marcingishon

Why do you consider continental Portuguese and Spanish as pretentious?

Give me a good reason.

pa!

[marcingishon]

I dunno. Thats just my impression. ALSO: Pretentious when compared to brasilian
and argentinian etc

[endereco]

I find European Portuguese classic and beautiful. As for Brazilian, I like it,
too but it seems a little bit childish to me...

[endereco]

Don't forget about "ą" & "ę" in Polish (nasal vowels, I guess). Spanish doesn't
have any nasal vowels, does it? You're right that Polish is richer in
consonants than Portuguese, but all my foreign friends (not Portuguese) agree
that taking into account all the languages they have heard Portuguese is the
most similar to Polish as far as pronunciation (or maybe general sound
impression) is concerned. I would rather say that Spanish is easier to learn
because it contains less vowels and consonants (at least it seems to me so)
than Portuguese. On the other hand, in the foreign languages school, where I
attended Portuguses lessons in Lisbon the Poles were usually considered as good
at Portuguese pronunciation, which couldn't have been said about Spanish,
German or English students.
It is said that nations whose mother tongue is rich in sounds are better
foreign language speakers than the other. In general I agree with this opinion
with one exception. If it really were like this, the French would be the best
foreign language speakers in Europe! But they are not.

to portulaco

[endereco]

I must admit that when the Portuguese or Spaniards speak their languages really
very fast, I have some difficulties in understanding both.
It is said that the fastest speakers in Europe are the French. But it seems to
me that the Portuguese and the Spanish are even faster.
And by the way, who speaks faster, the Portuguese or Spanish???

[portulaco]

Bom dia

Spanish is definatly faster especially when they're entusiastic or hangry.

In my opinion Polish and Portuguese melody is quite neutral making our
pronounciations in foreign languages sound better than Spanish, Italian and
French wich - due do their "singing" melody - are quite recognizable.

Portuguese when speaking with each other "eat" lot of sounds, for exemple:

Estas a ver? Percebes o que estou a dizer? (Are you seeing? Do you understand
what I'm saying?)

Fast we say: TAZAVER? PECEBES O Q'TOU A DZER?

Together with this comes the jargon - like saying GAJO instead of person or
finishing sentences with PA (abbreviation of Rapaz, boy)or MEU.

Unfortunetly I think Portuguese - generally - abbuse with durty language saying
like:

TAZAVER C*****? F***-**! PECEBES O Q'TOU A DZER C******?

Ate ja!

[ryskowalczyk]

Todos dizem que sim. Aqui na Finlandia tambem. Aprendi ja algumas linguas
europeias, como o letonio e finlandes, e penso que o portugues e muito mais
dificil do que essas duas linguas.

[portulaco]

Ola ryskowalczy!

Mas tu escreves perfeitamente em portugues! Es "tuga" ou polaco? Mais dificil
que o finlandes? umm... Aqui na Polonia estudei com uns finlandeses e lembro-me
que era bastante complicado e tinha muitos sons guturais, i.e, provenientes da
garganta. Näkemiin!

[ryskowalczyk]

Puhutko sinä suomea?:)Bem, eu ja nao sei o que sou. Quando ja se andou por
muitos sitios aprendendo suas linguas, ja se fica muito adulterado. Brinco
apenas:) eu sou portugues, mas estudo na Finlandia, apesar de tambem ter
estudado na Polonia.
Eu digo que o portugues continental e muito mais dificil. Mas o portugues tem
muitas vantagens: possui uma cultura muito aberta, a nossa historia foi
diferente e hoje ha varios paises que mantem o portugues como lingua oficial. O
Finlandes tem apenas um pais- o pais finlandes, apesar de ter varios dialectos.
A pronuncia nao e complicada. Mas as alteracoes da pressao dos sons das
palavras revelam ao finlandes que nos nao somos da terra dele; e o finlandes
passa para ingles. Enquanto que nos nao nos importamos com essas alteracoes, e
ate incentivamos o uso da nossa lingua; estamos habituados a contactos
culturais desde ha muito. Por exemplo: no seculo XVI/XVII o portugues era a
lingua oficial e internacional nas questoes economicas,politicas, religiosas e
culturais na Asia e em Africa. Temos a nocao de que o outro pode usar a nossa
lingua. O finlandes nao. E e por isso que o finlandes nesse caso e mais dificil
do que o portugues, mas isso explica-se pela sua cultura que esta fechada aos
estrangeiros. Se virmos alguem a falar portugues, mesmo mal, ficamos com a
sensacao que ele e um nosso; e falamos portugues. Mas para falar bem portugues
e outra historia, teriamos de ser bem tao exigentes do que os finlandeses.

[portulaco]

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