Portuguese (Português)

Portuguese is a Romance language spoken by about 191 million people mainly in Brazil (Brasil) and Portugal. There are also Portuguese speakers in France (França), Angola, Mozambique (Moçambique), Cape Verde (Cabo Verde), Guinea-Bissau (Guiné-Bissau), São Tomé e Principe, East Timor (Timor-Leste), Macau, the USA, UK, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Venezuela, South Africa, Canada, Australia and the Channel Islands, particularly Jersey and Guernsey.

Portuguese is a descendent of Vulgar Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by Roman soldiers, settlers and merchants from 218 BC. The earliest records of a distinctly Portuguese language appear in administrative documents dating from the 9th century AD. In 1290 King Denis decreed that Portuguese, then simply called the "Vulgar language" should be known as the Portuguese language and should be officially used.

A reformed Portuguese orthography (nova ortografia), in which words were spelled more in accordance with their pronunciation, was adopted is Portugal in 1916. A slightly modified form was adopted in Brazil in 1943 and revised in 1970.

Portuguese alphabet (alfabeto português)
A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	F f	G g	H h	I i	J j	K k	L l	M m
á	bê	cê	dê	é	efe	gê	agá	i	jota	cá/capa	ele	eme
N n	O o	P p	Q q	R r	S s	T t	U u	V v	W w	X x	Y y	Z z
ene	ó	pê	quê	erre	esse	tê	u	vê	dábliu, dáblio, duplo-vê	xis	ípsilon, ipsilão, i grego	zê

The letters K, W and Y are used only in foreign loanwords.

Listen to the Portuguese alphabet read by a Brazilian (Heitor de Moraes)

Pronunciation of the Portuguese of Portugal

Pronunciation of the Portuguese of Brazil

Listen to the consonants of Brazilian Portuguese

Notes on Portuguese pronunciation

Sample text in Portuguese

Todos os seres humanos nascem livres e iguais em dignidade e em direitos. Dotados de razão e de consciência, devem agir uns para com os outros em espírito de fraternidade.

Listen to recording of this text by a Portuguese speaker from Portugal

Sample text in Brazilian Portuguese

Todos os seres humanos nascem livres e iguais em dignidade e direitos. São dotados de razão e consciência e devem agir em relação uns aos outros com espírito de fraternidade.

Listen to a recording of this text

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Useful phrases in European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese

books Portuguese language courses, dictionaries, etc.

Contributors to this page: Marcelo Manschein, Mário André Coelho da Silva and Heitor de Moraes from Brazil, and Renato Serôdio from Portugal

Links

A Língua Portuguesa (a history of the Portuguese language in Portuguese, English and French): http://www.linguaportuguesa.ufrn.br/

Os sons da Língua portuguesa / The pronunciation of the Portuguese of Portugal
http://www.rudhar.com/foneport/en/foneport.htm

Online Portuguese lessons
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/portuguese/talk/
http://www.portugueseclasses.com/
http://alfarrabio.um.geira.pt/spl/index.html
http://www.sci.fi/~huuhilo/portuguese/
http://www.geocities.com/email_theguy/newportweb/porthome.htm
http://www.easyportuguese.com
http://www.learningportuguese.co.uk
http://www.learn-to-speak-portuguese.com/free-online-lessons.html
http://learnportuguese.elanguageschool.net

Online Portuguese dictionaries
http://www.dicionarios-online.com
http://www.priberam.pt/dlpo/dlpo.aspx
http://biblioteca.uol.com.br/
http://www.freedict.com/onldict/por.html

Portuguese-English Electronic talking dictionaries
http://www.ectaco.com

Online Portuguese language radio
http://www.musikcity.mus.br/radiosdobrasil.html
http://www.radios.com.br
http://www.rtp.pt
http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/

Online Portuguese language newspapers
http://www.expresso.pt
http://dn.sapo.pt
http://www.dm.com.br
http://oglobo.globo.com
http://www.uol.com.br
http://www.uol.com.br/fsp
http://www.agestado.com.br
http://www.estadao.com.br
http://www.bonde.com.br

Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa
http://www.cplp.org

Related languages

Aranese, Aromanian, Asturian, Catalan, Corsican, French, Friulian, Galician, Genoese, Italian, Jèrriais, Latin, Lombard, Mirandese, Moldovan, Occitan, Piedmontese, Portuguese, Romanian, Romansh, Sardinian, Sicilian, Spanish, Venetian, Walloon

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet