Monday, November 8, 2010

Brazil - Who knew?

5. Portuguese is a curious language! I knew it was similar to various other romance languages, but I didn't realize what a mixture of vocabulary  from Spanish, French and Italian that it had! Generally it is closest to Spanish, so a lot of words are very similar but may be pronounced differently. Then there are words that are completely different! 

English : dog.  Spanish: perro. Portuguese: cachorro.  (What the?!)
English : window.  Spanish: ventana. Portuguese: janela.
English : to forget.  Spanish: olvidar. Portuguese: esquecer.
And on and on.



Here are some French similarities:
English: waiter.  Portuguese: garçom.
English: vegetables.  Portuguese/French:légumes
And many more.

Italian Similarities?
English: I can.  Portuguese/Italian: Posso.
English: 'Bye.  Portuguese: Tchau. Italian: Ciao.


there are more I can't think of them right now!

See links below for 

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