Broadly speaking, the grammars of Portuguese and Spanish share many common features. Nevertheless, some differences between them can present hurdles to people acquainted with one and learning the other.
Gender Spanish has three forms for the singular
definite article,
el, masculine,
la, feminine, and
lo,
neuter. The last is used with adjectives to form abstract nouns employed in a generic sense, and also to intensify the meaning of adjectives. In Portuguese, there is only
o, masculine, and
a, feminine. Literary Spanish has also three corresponding third person pronouns,
él 'he',
ella 'she', and
ello 'it' (referring to a broad concept, not a named object), while Portuguese has only
ele, masculine, and
ela, feminine. The Spanish neuters
lo and
ello have no plural forms. Some words are masculine in Spanish, but feminine in Portuguese, or vice versa. A common example are nouns ended in
-aje in Spanish, which are masculine, and their Portuguese cognates ending in
-agem, which are feminine. For example, Spanish
el viaje 'the journey' (masculine, like French
le voyage and Italian
il viaggio) corresponds to the Portuguese feminine
a viagem. Similarly,
el puente 'bridge',
el dolor 'pain', or
el árbol 'tree' are masculine nouns in Modern Spanish, whereas
a ponte,
a dor, and
a árvore are feminine in Portuguese. On the other hand, the Spanish feminine
la leche 'the milk' corresponds to Portuguese
o leite (masculine, like French
le lait, Italian
il latte). Likewise,
nariz 'nose' is feminine in Spanish and masculine in Portuguese. Some Spanish words can be both masculine and feminine, with different meanings. Both meanings usually exist also in Portuguese, but with one and the same gender, so that they can't be differentiated unless further information is provided. For instance, the word
orden 'order' can mean both 'harmonious arrangement' and 'directive', like its counterparts in English and Portuguese. But the Spanish word is masculine when used with the first meaning, and feminine with the second: :
Me sorprendió el orden. ('I was surprised by
the order [i.e., by how orderly it all was].') :
Me sorprendió la orden. ('I was surprised by
the order [i.e., by the directive that was given].') In Portuguese, the equivalent word
ordem is always feminine: :
Me surpreendeu/Surpreendeu-me a ordem. ('I was surprised by
the order.') Without additional context, it is impossible to tell which meaning was intended in Portuguese and English (though other words could be substituted; in English, one would likely use
orderliness in the first case above rather than
order, which would, by itself, suggest the second case).
Use of the definite article In many varieties of Portuguese,
personal names are normally preceded by a
definite article, a trait also found in
Catalan. In Portuguese, this is a relatively recent development, which some Brazilian dialects have not adopted yet, most notably in some states of the Brazilian Northeast. In those dialects of Portuguese that do regularly use definite articles before proper nouns, the article may be omitted for extra formality, or to show distance in a literary narrative. Compare, for example, English "Mary left", Spanish
María salió, and Portuguese
A Maria saiu. Note, however, that in many Spanish dialects the definite article is used before personal names; thus,
la María salió is commonly heard. Portuguese uses the definite article before the names of some cities and almost all countries except relatively new ones, such as
Cingapura/
Singapura ('Singapore'), and those related to Portugal (or with which Portugal has historical relationships, even though this is a rough rule) and the Portuguese-speaking countries, e.g.,
a Holanda but
Portugal;
o México but
Angola,
a Suécia, but
Moçambique. The major exception to the country rule is
o Brasil. In Spanish, use of the definite article is optional with some countries:
(la) China,
(el) Japón,
(la) India,
(la) Argentina,
(el) Ecuador,
(el) Perú,
(el) Uruguay,
(el) Paraguay,
(el) Brasil,
(los) Estados Unidos, etc. The same is true with two continents:
(la) Antártida and
(el) África; with archipelagos and islands:
(las) Filipinas,
(las) Canarias,
(las) Azores, with some provinces, regions or territories:
(el) Tíbet,
(la) Toscana,
(el) Piamonte,
(el) Lacio and with some cities:
(el) Cairo,
(la) Valeta. Spanish uses the definite article with all geographical names when they appear with an adjective or modifying phrase, as in the following examples:
la España medieval 'medieval Spain',
el Puerto Rico prehispánico 'pre-Hispanic Puerto Rico',
el Portugal de Salazar 'Portugal during Salazar's dictatorship', etc. :
Santiago es la capital de Chile. (Spanish) :
Santiago é a capital do Chile. (Portuguese) :'Santiago is the capital of Chile.' :
Él es de Costa Rica, que está en América Central. (Spanish) :
Ele é da Costa Rica, que fica na América Central. (Portuguese) :'He is from Costa Rica, which is in Central America.' :
Tengo un boleto para (los) Estados Unidos de América. (Spanish) :
Tenho um bilhete para os Estados Unidos da América. (Portuguese) :'I have a ticket to
the United States of America.' :
Nueva Delhi no es la ciudad más poblada de (la) India. (Spanish) :
Nova Déli não é a cidade mais populosa da Índia. (Portuguese) :'New Delhi is not the most populous city in India.' :
La Europa medieval pertenecía a monarcas absolutos. (Spanish) :
A Europa medieval pertencia a monarcas absolutos. (Portuguese) :'Medieval Europe belonged to absolute monarchs.' Portuguese omits the definite article in stating the time of day unless
para as is used. :
Son las nueve y cuarto, but also
Son nueve y quince or
Son nueve quince. (Spanish) :
São (as) nove (horas) e quinze (minutos). (Portuguese) (parenthesical parts often omitted) :'It's nine fifteen.' Or:'It's a quarter past/after nine.' In addition, in most dialects of Portuguese the definite article is used before
possessive adjectives (as it is used in
Italian), which is not possible in Spanish. For instance, the sentence 'This is my brother' is
Este es mi hermano in Spanish, but may be
Este é o meu irmão in Portuguese. Nevertheless, in many Brazilian dialects (mostly in the Northeast) and in casual Brazilian Portuguese the article is not used in sentences such as:
Este é meu irmão (although it usually reappears in sentences such as "
O meu irmão está lá").
Possessives In Portuguese,
possessive adjectives have the same form as
possessive pronouns, and they all agree with the gender of the possessed item. In Spanish, the same is true of
nuestro/
nuestra ("our") and
vuestro/
vuestra ("your" [plural]), but for all other possessives, the pronoun has a longer form that agrees with the gender of the possessed item, while the adjective has a shorter form that does not change for gender. The possessive adjectives are normally preceded by a definite article in Continental Portuguese, less so in Brazilian Portuguese, and never in Spanish. The possessive pronouns are preceded by a definite article in all dialects of both languages. See examples in the table below.
Pronouns Object pronouns In Portuguese, third-person
clitic pronouns have special variants used after certain types of verb endings, which does not happen in Spanish. The default object pronouns
o/
a/
os/
as change to
lo/
la/
los/
las when they follow a verb that ends in ⟨r⟩, ⟨s⟩ or ⟨z⟩, and to
no/
na/
nos/
nas when they follow a verb that ends in a nasal sound. In Brazilian Portuguese, these forms are uncommon, since the pronoun normally precedes the verb (i.e.,
você o mantenha in the above example), and third-person subject pronouns are used informally as object pronouns (
mantenha ele). However, as it has been considered ungrammatical to begin a sentence with an object pronoun, the above examples are, on rare occasion, used in Brazil as well.
Clitic personal pronouns European Portuguese differs from Brazilian Portuguese with regard to the placement of
clitic personal pronouns, and Spanish is in turn different from both of them. • In Spanish, clitic pronouns normally come before the verb, except with the imperative, the infinitive, and the
gerund. In verbal periphrases, they precede the
auxiliary verb. • In spoken Brazilian Portuguese, clitic pronouns normally come before the
main verb. In verbal periphrases, they come between the auxiliary verb and the main verb. This occurs even with the imperative, the infinitive, the gerund, and the past participle. • In European Portuguese, clitic pronouns may come before or after the verb, depending on the type of
clause. In verbal periphrases, they may precede or follow the auxiliary verb, or follow the main verb (when this is in the infinitive or the gerund).
Mesoclisis In Portuguese, verbs in the future indicative or conditional tense may be split into
morphemes, and the clitic pronoun can be inserted between them, a feature known as
mesoclisis. This also occurred in
Old Spanish, but no comparable phenomenon takes place in modern Spanish: :
Lo traerá. (Spanish) :
Trá-lo-á. (European Portuguese and formal written Brazilian Portuguese) :'He/She will bring
it.' However, these tenses are often replaced with others in the spoken language. Future indicative is sometimes replaced by present indicative; conditional is very often replaced by imperfect indicative. In colloquial language, most Portuguese would state
trá-lo-á as
vai trazê-lo ('going to bring it') or
irá trazê-lo ('will bring it'). In Brazilian Portuguese, "vai trazer ele" would be the vernacular use.
Combining pronouns in Spanish The Spanish construction,
se lo dio, means either '[He/She] gave it to [him/her]' or '[He/She] gave it to himself/herself'. The expected pattern for the former would be *
le lo dio, but such a construction does not exist. This is unique to Spanish. • Latin: → (early
Vulgar Latin) → (Late Vulgar Latin) • Spanish:
dio (i)lli (el)lo →
dio ge lo →
diógelo (arch.) →
dióselo →
se lo dio • Portuguese:
deu (i)lli (l)o →
deu lhe (l)o →
deu-lho Thus, modern Spanish makes no distinction between the
reflexive pronoun se and the
dative personal pronoun
se, whereas in Portuguese it would be "deu-so" for the reflexive pronoun and "deu-lho" for the dative case. Note that this did not happen in old Spanish:
diógelo, 'he gave it to him',
dióselo, 'he gave it to himself'. The medieval
g sound (similar to that of French) was replaced with
s in the 14th-15th centuries (cf. Spanish
coger, 'to catch', but
cosecha, 'harvest', Port.
colher and
colheita, both from Lat. ).
Use of stressed pronouns for inanimate subjects In standard Spanish, stressed pronouns in the subject position are never used for inanimate subjects (i.e., things, as opposed to people or animals), not even for clarity or disambiguation purposes, except when modified by an attribute (
él solito may mean 'he by himself' or 'it by itself'). Portuguese knows no such restriction, so that stressed pronouns referring to inanimate subjects can either be used or dropped: :
¿Dónde están las llaves? (Están) En la mesa. (Spanish – pronoun should be dropped, not
*Ellas están...; verb is often dropped) :
O que é das chaves?/
Cadê as chaves? (Elas estão) Na mesa. (Portuguese – pronoun and verb are optional, the verb can be used without the pronoun:
Estão...) :'Where are the keys? (
They are) On the table.' (English – pronoun and verb are not necessarily required, but the verb requires the pronoun, not
*Are...)
Second-person pronouns The use of second-person pronouns differs dramatically between Spanish and Portuguese, and even more so between European and Brazilian Portuguese. Spanish
tú and
usted correspond etymologically to Portuguese
tu and
você, but Portuguese has gained a third, even more formal form
o(s) senhor(es), a(s) senhora(s), demoting
você to an "equalizing" rather than respectful register. The old familiar forms have been largely lost in the Portuguese-speaking world, as the Portuguese equalizing forms
você or
vocês have displaced
tu to a large extent and
vós almost entirely; and even where
tu is still used, the second-person verb forms that historically corresponded to it are often replaced by the same (third-person) forms that are used with "você". In the plural, Portuguese familiar
vós is archaic nearly everywhere (as with the old English second singular "thou"), and both the subject pronoun and its corresponding second-person plural verb forms are generally limited to the Bible, traditional prayers, and spoken varieties of certain regions of rural Portugal; normally, the familiar (and equalizing) form is now
vocês, although in Portugal the second person plural forms are retained for both object and possessive pronouns (e.g.,
vocês e a vossa família). In the case of northern and central Peninsular Spanish,
tú,
usted,
vosotros, and
ustedes have more or less kept their original functions; if anything,
tú is displacing
usted out of common use and
usted is coming to be used only for formal situations (like
o senhor in Portuguese). Latin American Spanish is more complicated:
vosotros has fallen out of use in favor of
ustedes, but certain regions of Spanish America also use
vos as a
singular informal pronoun, displacing
tú out of its original role to a greater or lesser extent (see
voseo). Spoken Brazilian Portuguese has dramatically simplified the pronoun system, with
você(s) tending to displace all other forms. Although a few parts of Brazil still use
tu and the corresponding second-person singular verb forms, most areas either use
tu with third-person verb forms or (increasingly) drop
tu entirely in favor of
você. This has in turn caused the original third-person possessive
seu, sua to shift to primarily second-person use, alongside the appearance of a new third-person possessive
dele, dela (plural
deles, delas, "their") that follows the noun (thus paraphrases such as
o carro dele "his car",
o carro dela "her car"). The formal
o senhor is also increasingly restricted to certain situations, such as that of a storekeeper addressing a customer, or a child or teenager addressing an adult stranger. More conservative in this regard is the
fluminense dialect of Brazilian Portuguese (spoken in
Rio de Janeiro,
Espírito Santo and in the
Zona da Mata of the state of
Minas Gerais) – especially its
carioca sociolect. This dialect generally preserves intimate or familiar
tu, the standard equalizing form
você, and the respectful or formal
o senhor/
a senhora, together with their related possessives, to such an extent that almost all speakers use these forms, according to context. Nevertheless, a minority of educated speakers correctly conjugates all of the
tu pronouns formally; otherwise, it is mostly conjugated as
você. Standard Portuguese usage has
vocês and
os senhores/as senhoras as plurals of
você and
o senhor/
a senhora, but the vernacular has also produced new forms with the second-person familiar plural function, such as
gente (compare
a gente as a possible colloquial variation of
nós, "we"/"us", that should be conjugated—but commonly is not—as third-person singular),
pessoas,
pessoal,
[meu] povo,
cês (
eye dialect for
vocês in colloquial pronunciation), and
galera (the latter mainly associated with youth slang). It is often said that the
gaúcho,
nordestino and
amazofonia dialects, as well as some sociolects elsewhere, such as that in and around the city of
Santos, have preserved
tu; but unlike in
fluminense, the use of
você is very limited, and entirely absent among some speakers, and
tu takes its place. In these areas, the verb with
tu is conjugated in the third-person form (as with
você) – except among educated speakers in some urban centers such as
Porto Alegre and, especially,
Belém. See
Brazilian Portuguese.
Verbs "To be" Spanish and Portuguese have two main
copulas,
ser and
estar. For the most part, the use of these verbs is the same in both languages, but there are a few cases where it differs. The main difference between Spanish and Portuguese is in the interpretation of the concept of state versus essence and in the generalizations one way or another that are made in certain constructions. For instance, :
Está prohibido fumar. (Spanish) [estar] :
É proibido fumar. (Portuguese) [ser] :'Smoking
is forbidden.' :
La silla está hecha de madera. (Spanish) [estar] :
A cadeira é feita de madeira. (Portuguese) [ser] :'The chair
is made of wood.' :
Sólo uno es correcto. (Spanish) [ser] :
Só um está correcto. (Portuguese) [estar] :'Only one
is correct.' Also, the use of
ser regarding a permanent location is much more accepted in Portuguese. Conversely,
estar is often permanent in Spanish regarding a location, while in Portuguese, it implies being temporary or something within the immediate vicinity (same house, building, etc.) :
Nuestra oficina queda (or
está)
muy lejos. (Spanish) [quedar/estar] :
O nosso escritório é (or
fica)
muito longe. (Portuguese) [ser/ficar] : 'Our office
is very far away.' :
¿Dónde está (or
queda)
el aeropuerto? (Spanish) [estar/quedar] :
Onde fica (or
é)
o aeroporto? (Portuguese) [ficar/ser] :'Where
is the airport?' Because the airport is obviously not anywhere nearby,
ficar is used in Portuguese (most common), though
ser can also be used. Secondary copulas are
quedar(se) in Spanish and
ficar in Portuguese. Each can also mean 'to stay' or 'to remain.' :
Me quedé dentro de la casa todo el día. (Spanish) :
Fiquei dentro de casa todo o dia. (Portuguese) : '
I stayed inside the house all day.' The Spanish sentence using the reflexive form of the verb (
quedarse) implies that staying inside the house was voluntary, while Portuguese and English are quite ambiguous on this matter without any additional context. (See also the next section.) Both Spanish
quedar(se) and Portuguese
ficar can mean 'become': :
Mi abuela se está quedando sorda. (Spanish) :
(A) Minha avó está ficando surda. (Brazilian Portuguese and some dialects of European Portuguese) :
(A) minha avó está a ficar surda. (European Portuguese) :'My grandmother
is becoming deaf.'
Reflexive verbs Reflexive verbs are somewhat more frequent in Spanish than in Portuguese, especially with actions relating to parts of the body: :
Guillermo se quebró la pierna jugando al fútbol. (Spanish) :
(O) Guilherme quebrou(-se) a perna jogando futebol. (Brazilian Portuguese) :
(O) Guilherme partiu a perna a jogar futebol. (European Portuguese) : 'Guilherme broke his leg playing soccer.'
"To like" The Portuguese and Spanish verbs for expressing "liking" are similar in form (
gostar and
gustar respectively) but different in their arrangement of
arguments. Arguments in linguistics are expressions that enable a verb to complete its meaning. Expressions of liking typically require two arguments: (1) a person who likes something (sometimes called the
"experiencer"), and (2) something that the person likes (sometimes called the
"theme"). Portuguese and Spanish (as well as English) assign different
grammatical cases to these arguments, as shown in the following table: The Portuguese sentence can be translated literally as "[I] [take satisfaction] [from] [the music]", while the Spanish corresponds to "[To me] [(it) is pleasing] [the music]." It is also possible in Spanish to express it as: "(Yo) gusto de la música", although this use has become antiquated.
Auxiliary verbs with the perfect In Spanish, the compound
perfect is constructed with the
auxiliary verb haber ( will need to hurry.' :
Para chegarmos cedo, tínhamos/teríamos que nos apressar. (Portuguese) [personal infinitive] :
Para que llegáramos/llegásemos temprano, necesitaríamos apresurarnos. (Spanish) [imperfect subjunctive] :'For
us to arrive early, we would need to hurry.' As shown, the personal infinitive can be used at times to replace both the impersonal infinitive and the subjunctive. Spanish has no such alternative.
Future subjunctive The future subjunctive, now virtually obsolete in Spanish, or circumscribed to legal documents, continues in use in both written and spoken Portuguese. It is used in
subordinate clauses referring to a hypothetical future event or state – either
adverbial clauses (usually introduced by
se 'if ' or
quando 'when') or
adjective clauses that modify nouns referring to a hypothetical future entity. Spanish, in the analogous if-clauses, uses the present indicative, and in the
cuando- and adjective clauses uses the present subjunctive. :
Se eu for eleito presidente, mudarei a lei. (Portuguese) :
Si yo soy (also
fuere)
elegido presidente, cambiaré la ley. (Spanish) :'If I
am elected president, I will change the law.' :
Quando fores mais velho, compreenderás/hás-de compreender. (Portuguese) :
Cuando seas (also
fueres)
mayor, comprenderás. (Spanish) :'When you
are older, you'll understand.' :
Dar-se-á/Se dará o prémio à primeira pessoa que disser a resposta correta. (Portuguese) :
Se dará el premio a la primera persona que diga (also dijere) la respuesta correcta. (Spanish) :'The prize will be given to the first person who
says the right answer.'
Irregular verbs In the preterite tense, a number of irregular verbs in Portuguese change the stem vowel to indicate differences between first and third person singular:
fiz 'I did' vs.
fez 'he did',
pude 'I could' vs.
pôde 'he could',
fui 'I was' vs.
foi 'he was',
tive 'I had' vs.
teve 'he had', etc. Historically, these vowel differences are due to vowel raising (
metaphony) triggered by the final of the first-person singular in Latin. Spanish maintains such a difference only in
fui 'I was' vs.
fue 'he was'. In all other cases in Spanish, the stem vowel has been regularized throughout the conjugation and a new third-person ending
-o adopted:
hice 'I did' vs.
hizo 'he did',
pude 'I could' vs.
pudo 'he could', etc. Portuguese verbs ending in
-duzir are regular in the preterite, while their Spanish counterparts in
-ducir undergo a consonant change and are stressed on the stem; thus Portuguese
reduzi vs. Spanish
reduje ('I reduced'). Similarly, the preterite of
andar is regular in Portuguese (
andaste), but irregular in Spanish (
anduviste, 'you went'). Meanwhile, Spanish maintains many more irregular forms in the future and conditional:
saldré 'I will leave',
pondré 'I will put',
vendré 'I will come',
diré 'I will say', etc. Portuguese has only three:
farei 'I will do',
direi 'I will say',
trarei 'I will carry'. Portuguese drops -
e in "irregular" third-person singular present indicative forms after ⟨z⟩ and ⟨r⟩, according to phonological rules:
faz 'he does',
diz 'he says',
quer 'he wants', etc. Spanish has restored -
e by analogy with other verbs:
hace 'he does',
dice 'he says',
quiere 'he wants', etc. (The same type of analogy accounts for
fiz vs
hice 'I did' in the past tense. In nouns such as
paz 'peace',
luz 'light',
amor 'love', etc.
-e was dropped in both languages and never restored).
Prepositions Contractions In Spanish the prepositions
a ('to') and
de ('of, from') form
contractions with a following masculine singular definite article (
el 'the'):
a +
el >
al, and
de +
el >
del. This kind of contraction is much more extensive in Portuguese, involving the prepositions
a ('to'),
de ('of, from'),
em ('in'), and
por ('for') with
articles and
demonstratives regardless of number or gender. All four of these prepositions join with the definite article, as shown in the following table: 1These Portuguese contractions include some potential "
false friends" for the reader of Spanish, such as
no (Port. 'in the', Sp. 'no, not') and
dos (Port. 'of the', Sp. 'two'). 2These Portuguese contractions have different meanings in Spanish, but their Portuguese cognates are spelled with diacritics;
pelo (Port. 'for the', Sp. 'hair' (equivalent to Port.
pêlo)) and
nos (Port. 'in the', Sp. 'ourselves' (equivalent to Port.
nós)). 3In European Portuguese,
a is pronounced , while
à is pronounced . Both are generally in most of Brazil, although in some accents such as
carioca and
florianopolitano there may be distinction. Additionally, the prepositions
de and
em combine with the demonstrative adjectives and pronouns as shown below: The neuter demonstrative pronouns (
isto 'this'
isso,
aquilo 'that') likewise combine with
de and
em – thus,
disto,
nisto, etc. And the preposition
a combines with the "distal" demonstratives (those that begin with
a-) to form
àquele,
àquilo, etc. The Portuguese contractions mentioned thus far are obligatory. Contractions can also be optionally formed from
em and
de with the indefinite article (
um,
uma,
uns,
umas), resulting in
num,
numa,
dum,
duma, etc. and from the third person pronouns (
ele,
ela,
eles,
elas), resulting in
nele,
nela,
dele,
dela, etc. Other optional contractions include
de with
aqui >
daqui ('from here'). The Spanish
con ('with',
com in Portuguese) combines with the prepositional pronouns
mí,
ti, and
sí to form
conmigo,
contigo,
consigo ('with me', 'with you', 'with him-/herself '). In Portuguese this process not only applies to the pronouns
mim,
ti, and
si (giving
comigo,
contigo, and
consigo), but also is extended to
nós and, in those varieties which use it,
vós, producing
connosco (
conosco in Brazilian Portuguese) and
convosco.
Personal "a" Spanish employs a preposition, the so-called "personal
a", before the
direct object of a
transitive verb (except
tener) when it denotes a specific person(s), or domestic
pet; thus
Veo a Juan 'I see John';
Hemos invitado a los estudiantes 'We've invited the students.' In Portuguese, personal
a is virtually non-existent, except before
Deus 'God':
louvar a Deus 'to praise God',
amar a Deus 'to love God'.
Ir a versus ir para Quite common in both languages are the prepositions
a (which often translates as "to") and
para (which often translates as "for"). However, European Portuguese and Spanish distinguish between going somewhere for a short while versus a longer stay, especially if it is an intended destination, in the latter case using
para instead of
a. While there is no specified duration of stay before a European Portuguese speaker must switch prepositions,
a implies one will return sooner, rather than later, relative to the context. This distinction is not made in English and Brazilian Portuguese. In Spanish the distinction is not made if the duration is given in the context (maybe implicitly), and in this case
a is generally preferred. :
Fui al mercado cerca de mi casa. (Spanish) :
Fui ao mercado perto de/da minha casa./
Fui para o mercado perto de/da minha casa. (European and Brazilian Portuguese) :'I went
to the market near my house.' [temporary displacement] :
El presidente anterior fue exiliado a Portugal. (Spanish) :
O presidente anterior foi exilado para Portugal. (European and Brazilian Portuguese) :'The former president was exiled
to Portugal.' [permanent, or more lasting displacement] Note, though, in the first example,
para could be used in Portuguese if in contrast to a very brief period of time. :
Não fico muito tempo, só um minuto. Tenho que/de ir para o mercado. (Portuguese) :'I can't stay long, only a minute. I have to go
to the market.' [pending task or appointment] In informal, non-standard Brazilian Portuguese,
em (in its original form or combined with a given article in a contraction, yielding
no,
na,
numa, etc.), often replaces the preposition
a from standard Portuguese. :
Vou na padaria. (non-standard Brazilian Portuguese) :
Vou à padaria. (standard Portuguese) :'I'm going
to the bakery.' :
Fui numa festa ontem. (non-standard Brazilian Portuguese) :
Fui a uma festa ontem. (standard Portuguese) :'I went
to a party yesterday.' Such a construction is not used in Spanish or in European Portuguese. In Portuguese the preposition
até can also be used when the duration of the stay is expected to be short or when there is a specific reason for going somewhere. In Spanish
hasta has the same meaning and function. :
Vou até à praia. :
Voy hasta la playa. :'I'm going to the beach.'
Hacia and para Spanish has two prepositions of direction:
para ('for', including 'headed for [a destination]') and
hacia ('toward [not necessarily implying arrival]'). Of them, only
para exists in Portuguese, covering both meanings. :
Este regalo es para ti. (Spanish) :
Este presente é para ti. (Portuguese) :'This gift is
for you.' :
Aquel/Ese avión va hacia Brasilia. (Spanish) :
Aquele avião voa para Brasília. (Portuguese) :'That airplane is flying
toward Brasília.' Colloquially,
para is often reduced in both languages: to
pa in Spanish, and to
pra (sometimes written ''p'ra
and this form may be used in literature) or pa
(only in slang in Portugal and Rio de Janeiro, and not permitted in writing) in Portuguese. Portuguese pra
, in turn, may join with the definite article: pra
+ o
> pro
(BP) or prò
(EP), pra
+ a
> pra
(BP) or prà
(EP), etc. In reference to the slang option pa
, these become: pa
+ o
> pò
, pa
+ a
> pà'', etc.
"Going to" future Both languages have a construction similar to the
English "going-to" future. Spanish includes the preposition
a between the conjugated form of
ir "to go" and the infinitive:
Vamos a cantar "We're going to sing" or "Let's sing" (present tense of
ir +
a + infinitive). Usually, in Portuguese, there is no preposition between the helping verb and the main verb:
Vamos cantar (present tense of
ir + infinitive). This also applies when the verb is in other tenses: :
Ayer yo iba a leer el libro, pero no tuve la oportunidad. (Spanish) :
Ontem eu ia ler o livro, mas não tive a oportunidade. (Portuguese) : Yesterday I was going
to read the book, but never had the chance.
Other differences in preposition usage While as a rule the same prepositions are used in the same contexts in both languages, there are many exceptions. :
Nuestros gastos de energía. (Spanish) :
(Os) nossos gastos com/de energia. (Portuguese) :Our energy expenses. :
Voy a votar por/a Juan. (Spanish) :
Vou votar em/no João. (Portuguese) :I'm going to vote
for John. ==Orthography==