Portuguese vs Spanish: Which One is More Difficult? / Learning Languages

Exploring "Portuguese vs Spanish: Which One is More Difficult?" is a comprehensive KZbin video designed to unravel the complexities and similarities between Portuguese and Spanish, targeting English speakers keen on diving into the realm of Romance languages. With an emphasis on the linguistic challenges and benefits each language presents, the video aims to provide viewers with a thorough understanding and actionable tips to master these globally significant languages. It discusses key aspects such as lexical similarities and differences, grammatical structures, phonetics and pronunciation, and spelling nuances, ensuring a well-rounded approach to language learning. By focusing on the specific challenges English speakers might face, the video becomes an invaluable resource for beginners and intermediate learners alike, striving to make the language acquisition journey as seamless as possible.
The video delves into the heart of what makes Portuguese and Spanish both fascinating and daunting for learners. From examining grammatical gender to exploring the use of cognates across English, Portuguese, and Spanish, it offers strategic insights into vocabulary building and understanding complex grammatical tenses. Notably, it highlights the unique aspects of Portuguese, such as the personal infinitive and the future subjunctive tense, which add layers of subtlety and depth to the language. Moreover, phonetic comparisons offer a glimpse into the distinct pronunciation challenges and spelling conventions that differentiate Portuguese from Spanish, providing learners with the knowledge to navigate these hurdles effectively. With a balanced view of the difficulty level of both languages, the video encourages learners to appreciate the journey of language learning, promising a rich reward in cultural and linguistic insights regardless of which language they choose to pursue.
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[@rubicade]

I am a freshmen in highschool, and am taking Spanish, I absolutely love it. At the beginning of the year, he would ask us questions in Portuguese to see if we could tell the difference between the two languages. I can happily say that I can tell the difference, but not what anything means😅

[@polyglotdreams]

That's interesting.

[@jakjak9472]

It’s great Tim that you’ve decided to start your channel, you’ve got some knowledge to share

[@polyglotdreams]

It is an interesting but not easy journey.

[@hata6290]

The MOST underrated polyglot channel. You are a legend and an inspiration. German is the first language I’m learning ❤

[@polyglotdreams]

Wow, thank you!

[@belstar1128]

i think Portuguese is slightly harder but these days i think my Portuguese is better because i use it more and when i speak Spanish i have to stop myself from saying Portuguese words .but i noticed the difference between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese is much bigger than the difference between the different forms of Spanish

[@polyglotdreams]

Yes, the difference is much greater in terms of pronunciation.

[@256ugkalix3]

Am 99% very good in English (Speak, Read, Write) and am at 90% good in French...Am very quickly learning Português and now at 50%...Progressing very fast

[@victoraguirre5545]

There are some errors (v.g. 7:23, "hambre" is really feminine: El hambre es tremendA, LA malditA hambre, just uses article "el" to avoid cacophony "la hambre", which still may be used in somewhat careless contexts, by children or speaking colloquially, specially rendered as /lambre/). But as a native Spanish speaker and with my basic knowledge of Portuguese, I agree with the video, Portuguese is somewhat more complex if only by the wider spectrum of sounds, and any Spanish speaker who knows Portuguese is aware of that, but not necessarily the other way around: In every single congress in Latin America there's that Brazilian guy who thinks that because he understands Spanish easily, Spanish speakers also understand his fast Portuguese without problem.

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks

[@SanderIwase]

Amazing work. Thank you for the video. My native language is Brazilian Portuguese, and it was really fun looking at it from the perspective of a non native speaker…. I have always thought Portuguese to be easier than Spanish… but now I can get why we are able to understand and communicate with our country neighbors, but they seem to not understand us, even the most basic words… 😂❤

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

I suspect that might be because Spanish has syllable timing, thus all syllables are pronounced clearly, whereas Portuguese has stress timing, and some syllables are not pronounced clearly. So Spaniards sound like they pronounce too clearly, and Portuguese garble.

[@polyglotdreams]

Great point... thanks.

[@caiorossi4776]

​Not really! Brazilian Portuguese is pretty much syllable based, as opposed to the European version.

[@mihaijulien]

Knowing Romanian and French, I understand Spanish more (maybe more exposure to this one?) than Portuguese. But, personally, I like Brazilian Portuguese more than Spanish.

[@polyglotdreams]

I love Brazilian Portuguese!

[@namibianodetombua]

Nice canal. Portuguese speaker here. Please note: in Portuguese, the word capital has both genders. For example, Brasília é a capital do Brasil. Lisboa é a capital de Portugal. (feminine) Karl Marx escreveu "O Capital". Perdi todo o meu capital ao comprar ações na bolsa. (masculine). Congratulations for your good work. 😊

[@polyglotdreams]

Thank you so much for that input

[@donc7349]

Great video and I agree on that Brazilian Portuguese is beautiful,. A few comments. When I use "taza" in Spanish, I use "copo" un Portuguese. And "fierro" in Spanish is "ferro" in Portuguese, and "hierro" is used in written Spanish and used mostly in spoken Spanish from central to northern Spain, i.e. official Spanish. The original "f" has a tendency to be lost in Spanish and is often converted to "h", and it's not the other way around. "Cuando seas mayor vas a entender/comprender" may not be correct standard Spanish but is used. The softening of consonants in (most? variants of) Spanish is evident e.g. de, decir/dizer, água, grande. The word for ananas that I'm used to hear in Portuguese is ananás. To Catch: it may be inappropriate to use "cojer" in American Spanish, and you are better of using "recojer" or "agarrar". A notably minority (c- 10%) of Spanish speakers make distinction between "s" and "z/c", the latter two realized as "θ". In Spanish "El capital" is money and "la capital" is the capital city. When reading Portuguese from Portugal I se the use of capital with feminine gender: "A capital oficial do país é Coimbra". In official or standard Spanish there are only one nasal, the "ñ", but it should not come as a surprise that there are more nasals in spoken Spanish e.g. camión can sound as camiõ or camiong i various variants of Spanish.

[@GuillermoCota11]

Great tips but I'd like to mention that "correct standard Spanish" doesn't exist... unless you wanna use it to discriminate against people with a different dialect than yours. All that exist in languages are dialects and conventions. I'd also wouldn't use the term "official Spanish" (again there's no such thing), in the case of the word "hierro", it's mostly used in academic context to refer to the element of the periodic table similar to the way English uses "carbon" and "charcoal", and yet no one would say "carbon" is the "official English" whatever that means.

[@polyglotdreams]

Nevertheless there are multiple standards... even for minor dialects... there has to be or communication would be hindered.

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks for pointing out the multiple variations.

[@martagrandilla9186]

​@@GuillermoCota11Tienes razón pero hierro no es académico, es la palabra que la mayoría de los hispanohablantes usan.

[@GuillermoCota11]

@@martagrandilla9186 Todos los hispanohablantes que no son mexicanos, tal vez. Yo soy mexicano y así lo usamos.

[@francorodriguez3903]

I'm an Argentinian living in Portugal, we share similarities but is another language believe me jaja

[@polyglotdreams]

Yes for sure quite different, especially if you speak Rio Platense.

[@francorodriguez3903]

@@polyglotdreams In Argentina we don't speak Spanish we speak Castellano 🤣 You and Steve Kaufman are my tutors, thank you for your videos and for sharing your interesting life 🙌

[@Petr_97]

Hola Tim ! Muchas gracias por esa comparación completa ! En mi opinión, el portugués es más dificil por su pronunciación. Yo sé español al nivel intermedio y lo aprendí más rápido por su pronunciación fonética y logica. Pero puedo entender "portugués escrito" bastante bien, especialmente portugués de Brasil. Por eso no tengo ganas de aprender portugués y confundir los dos.

[@polyglotdreams]

Obrigado

[@clarencehammer3556]

One of my Spanish professors in college was Portuguese and he spoke beautiful Spanish.

[@polyglotdreams]

Great accent too?

[@bantorio6525]

... (12:34) ... ... ... en español también podemos decir 'si fueras más viejo, entenderías' ... o sea que hay cierto paralelismo ... !!!

[@polyglotdreams]

Cierto

[@HaduroMI]

Can you discuss Malaysia and Indonesia like you discuss Spain and Portugal

[@polyglotdreams]

I am working on that today!

[@HughGaines]

We Love you Tim!!

[@polyglotdreams]

That is very encouraging 👏 😀

[@nexypl]

I feel like this is the best bang for your buck combo in Romance languages. French of course is interesting but central/latin America and Iberian peninsula are just more interesting to me than France and post colonial Africa. If anything for Africa I’d want to learn Swahili (hoping to climb Kilimanjaro one day).

[@polyglotdreams]

And they are easier to learn together.

[@256ugkalix3]

Am an East African from Uganda, Kampala... Swahili is very very simple to learn if you know/learn any of the Africa "Bantu" languages..Alot of cognitives / similarities in both

[@joseamategarcia9276]

Como curiosidad comento que cuando alguien que habla otro idioma llega a España, aprende un español entendible pero, muchas veces, este no es el caso de portugueses e italianos, estos cambian las palabras que son completamente diferentes y siguen usando en sus idiomas los cognatos y esto dificulta la comprensión cuando hablan rápido. Resultado: Entiendo mejor a mis vecinos holandeses que a los portugueses. A veces estoy tomando algo en el pub con los portugueses y las palabras que más uso son "cómo", "qué" y "puedes repetir"

[@polyglotdreams]

Interesante!

[@pierreabbat6157]

"Hambre" is feminine; the article is "el" because it begins with a stressed /a/ sound. The English cognate is "famine". The future subjunctive does exist in Spanish, but is rare. The -ra form is a past subjunctive in Spanish, a past perfect in Portuguese, and nonexistent in French. The -se form is a past subjunctive in all three languages.

[@BucyKalman]

Spanish "Hambre" is translated as "fome" in Portuguese. "Fome" is also a feminine noun in Portuguese, but it is used with the normal feminine article ("a fome").

[@polyglotdreams]

Like agua?

[@pierreabbat6157]

@@polyglotdreams El agua, el alma, el hacha, el hambre. I had a puzzlement figuring out whether it should be "el app" or "la app". It's feminine, but is it stressed on its first and only syllable? The only other feminine monosyllable beginning with /a/ that I could think of is "haz", and both words have a consonant other than 's' and 'n' after the vowel.

[@MikePailleur]

I love your videos but the recents ones sound too loud like havin some distortion with your mic.

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks for the input.

[@clarencehammer3556]

I have heard that Portuguese speakers can understand Spanish better than Spanish speakers can understand Portuguese. Is this true and if so why?

[@polyglotdreams]

Because of the more complicated pronunciation of Portuguese. When it is written, it's not so difficult for Spanish speakers to understand

[@pierreabbat6157]

"Día" is *not* a cognate of "day". The only inherited cognate AFAIK (excluding words like "diary") of "día" in English is the "t" in "Lent". Another false cognate is "haber"/"have"; the Spanish cognate of "have" is "caber", and it's not clear whether "haber" has an inherited cognate in English.

[@polyglotdreams]

The assertion about the relationship between "día" (Spanish for "day") and "day" in English, as well as the connection between "haber," "have," and "caber," requires some clarification grounded in etymology and historical linguistics. Firstly, "día" and "day" are indeed cognates, both descending from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *dʰegʷh-, which means "to burn" or "to be hot." The evolution to "day" in English came through the Germanic branch, from Old English "dæg," while "día" in Spanish came from Latin "dies," with both terms referring to the concept of a 24-hour period. The shift from PIE to these words involves a complex evolution of sounds and meanings but maintains a common ancestry. Regarding the claim that the "t" in "Lent" is the only inherited cognate of "día" in English, it's more accurate to say that "Lent" (referring to the liturgical season of fasting and preparation before Easter) comes from Old English "lencten," meaning "springtime" or "spring," the season during which Lent typically occurs. This connection does not directly relate to "día." For "haber" and "have," the situation is a bit more nuanced. "Haber" and "have" are indeed cognates, both deriving from the PIE root *kap- ("to grasp"). Over time, these words evolved in the Romance and Germanic language families, respectively, leading to their current forms and usages, where "haber" is primarily used as an auxiliary verb in Spanish, and "have" serves multiple functions in English, including as a main verb indicating possession. "Caber" (Spanish for "to fit"), on the other hand, comes from the Latin "capere," meaning "to take," which is a different root. It's essential to recognize that language evolution is complex, with words diverging, converging, and undergoing semantic shifts across millennia. The connections between words in different languages of the same family (like Spanish and English, both Indo-European languages) can be intricate, with many exceptions and peculiarities.

[@tamaboutlife]

Learn both haha

[@polyglotdreams]

Yes for sure

[@sebastienlopezmassoni8107]

The spanish phonetic is easier and this language have less vocabulary but Spanish conjugation is a little bit harder than Portuguese conjugation.

[@polyglotdreams]

Why do you think so?

[@sebastienlopezmassoni8107]

@@polyglotdreams because like French portuguese is more tricky to pronounce with a lot of silent/close letters.But the most of the vocabulary is very close 84% or more.

[@Krka1716]

Why do you find it harder to conjugate?🤔

[@sebastienlopezmassoni8107]

@@Krka1716 that depend from your mothertongue and your motivation. But spanish has got more imperative and use more the past simple on the daily life. Portuguese is possible to understand from Spanish because if you drop some letter your can understand the words => leyenda/lenda, persona/pesoa tener/ter

[@Krka1716]

@@sebastienlopezmassoni8107 Thank you! Yes, it's generally true... luna/lua, general/geral etc.🙂 Portuguese only uses the simple past (pretérito perfeito) for actions in the past already concluded (i.e. 'cantei') while Spanish may use the simple and the present perfect for past actions (this last parallel form in PT has a different imperfect meaning) In Spanish, the future subjunctive is rarely used while in Portuguese, it is extremely common (even colloquially). In PT, the traditional form of the m. q. perfeito (i.e. 'cantara') is often replaced by the composite form 'tinha cantado'', especially in oral speech.. Finally there is the personal infinitive which Spanish lacks. All in all, I would have thought PT would be a little bit harder with the conjugations....🤫

[@vlachlemnmichail]

Portuguese, although its orthography sucks, is a superior language as it is faster and less repetitive in sounds. I'm obviously talking about EUROPEAN Portuguese, for the Brazilian variant has been influenced by many negroid traits, such as -te and -de turned into those horrible sounding -chee and -gee, together with a generally slower and dumber, more repetitive tone. Spanish though is in general inferior to Portuguese, it doesn't cut on those redundant final -os and -as, and it just has too many repetitive s's. And it is obvious that European Spanish is also superior to Latin American Spanish, but if you have to take a choice between Spanish and Portuguese, choose Portuguese, it's almost as poetic as Italian, but faster.

[@polyglotdreams]

Nevertheless, Brazilian Portuguese is my favorite.

[@martagrandilla9186]

We got here a racist Dacian 😂

[@bantorio6525]

@@polyglotdreams ... WRONG-WRONG-WRONG ... there's no such thing as a unique Brazilian Portuguese as to the 'sotaques' ... there's a lot of variants ... so, you have to redefine your affirmation ... !!! ...