Portuguese language facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Portuguese |
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| português | ||||
| Pronunciation | ||||
| Native to | Portugal | |||
| Native speakers | 215 million (2010) | |||
| Language family | ||||
| Early forms: |
Medieval Galician
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| Writing system | Latin (Portuguese alphabet) Portuguese Braille |
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| Official status | ||||
| Official language in |
9 countries
Many international organisations |
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| Regulated by | International Portuguese Language Institute Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazil) Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras (Portugal) CPLP |
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| Linguasphere | 51-AAA-a | |||
Native language
Official and administrative language Cultural or secondary language Portuguese speaking minorities Portuguese-based creole languages |
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Portuguese (Portuguese: português) is a Romance language. It came from Galician-Portuguese, which was first spoken in Northwestern Iberia. It then spread south and split. During the colonial era, Portuguese was also spread to Brazil and other parts of the world.
Where it is spoken
The Portuguese language is the third-most spoken western language (after English and Spanish). There are about 240 million native speakers, including the people of Portugal, Brazil, and Cape Verde (Cabo Verde). It is also the official language of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique (Moçambique), and São Tomé and Príncipe (São Tomé e Príncipe), which have Portuguese as the lingua franca, but native languages are also spoken. It is also an official language in East Timor and Macau.
Also, some enclaves in Asia, such as Goa and Daman and Diu, in India; Flores, Indonesia; and Malacca, Malaysia, have Portuguese-speakers, and it is a minority language in Venezuela, Canada, Uruguay, Namibia, and the United States.
Vocabulary
Portuguese and English have words that mean the same and are similar as well. The words came from the same languages (usually Latin, Greek or French).
- Visão Vision
- Informação Information
- Confuso Confused
- Baptismo Baptism
- Artigo Article
- Capital Capital
- Total Total
- Mapa Map
- Problema Problem
- História History
Some English words come from Portuguese, such as tank (tanque), cacao (cacau), marmalade (marmelada from marmelo "quince"), caramel, molasses, mosquito, cobra, breeze (brisa), albino, coconut, zebra, pagoda, Mandarin, buccaneer, tapioca and commando.
The Portuguese word parentes is similar to the English word "parents", but it means "relatives", and the Portuguese word to mean "parents" is pais.
Sample phrases
- Olá! Hello!
- Oi! Hi!
- Tudo ok? Everything ok?
- Tudo bem, obrigado. Everything is fine, thanks.
- Como está/estás? How are you?
- Você fala português? Do you speak Portuguese?
- Eu falo português. I speak Portuguese.
- Eu não falo português. I do not speak Portuguese.
- Tenho de ir, adeus! I have to go, goodbye!
- Até logo! See you soon!
- Tchau! Bye!
- O que está fazendo/estás a fazer? What are you doing?
- Eu tenho 18 anos. I'm 18 years old.
Different versions
Portuguese is the official language of all countries of the CPLP (Comunidade dos países de língua portuguesa, "Community of Portuguese Language Countries"). The Portuguese-speaking countries have more than 240 million people across the world. The CPLP was formed in 1996 with seven countries: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. East Timor joined in 2002.
The CPLP nations speak Portuguese with different accents. In some regions of Brazil (the country has 81% of the world's Portuguese-speakers), tu'("you" but used only to family and close friends) is not used as much as in Portugal. Also, regional slang can be found in different areas. The Portuguese Orthographic Agreement of 1990 (Acordo Ortográfico de 1990) tries to get rid of some of the differences in spelling.
Images for kids
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Sign in Japanese, Portuguese, and English in Oizumi, Japan, which has a large lusophone community due to return immigration of Japanese Brazilians.
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Multilingual signage in Chinese, Portuguese and English at the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge port building in Macau. Portuguese is a co-official language in Macau.
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Ethnically diverse East Timor has Portuguese as one of its official languages.
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Statue of the Portuguese Poet Luís de Camões at the entrence of the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura in Rio de Janeiro.
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Museum of the Portuguese Language in São Paulo.
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Portugal's Portuguese Dialects.
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Percentage of worldwide Portuguese speakers per country.
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The main post office building of Macau
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Linguistic map of Pre-Roman Iberia.
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The Bissau-Guinean Presidential Palace, with its Portuguese colonial architecture, is a building that has a library, a small theater and was formerly the palace of the colonial governor of Portuguese-Guinea, seen from the PAIGC-building (formerly the seat of the local commercial association Associação Comercial, Industrial e Agrícola de Bissau), located at the Praça dos Heróis Nacionais square (formerly Praça do Império square), in downtown Bissau.
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A sign at Goa Central Library, in Panaji, India, listing three Portuguese-language newspapers
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Map showing mostly contemporary West Iberian and Occitano-Romance languages, as well many of their mainland European dialects (areas colored green, gold or pink/purple represent languages deemed endangered by UNESCO, so this may be outdated in less than a few decades). It shows European Portuguese, Galician, Eonavian, Mirandese and the Fala as not only closely related but as dialect continuum, though it excludes dialects spoken in insular Portugal (Azores and Madeira–Canaries is not shown either).
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An Old Portuguese Memento mori memorial sign in Malacca City.
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The Natural History Museum of Mozambique (Manueline) in Maputo.
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The Fundação Oriente of Fontainhas, India. The Fundação Oriente, along with Instituto Camões, Instituto Menezes Bragança among others, are institutions dedicated to the worldwide promotion of the Portuguese language and culture.
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The International Portuguese Language Institute headquarters, in Praia.
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See also
In Spanish: Idioma portugués para niños
