No, Brazilians do not speak Spanish as their official language is Portuguese.
Explanatory question
No, Brazilians do not speak Spanish as their official language is Portuguese. According to Ethnologue, around 99% of the population speaks Portuguese as their first language. Even though Brazil is located in South America, it is the only country on the continent where Portuguese is the official language.
Interestingly, Brazil has the largest number of Portuguese speakers in the world. In fact, the country has more than five times the number of Portuguese speakers than Portugal itself.
It is common for Brazilians to learn Spanish as a second language due to the proximity and cultural influence of Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas. However, there are some notable differences between the two languages. As the BBC explains, “Spanish and Portuguese, despite being two languages that sound similar, are in reality quite different. Even though they are both derived from Latin, they evolved in two different ways, and that is why they have different grammar rules, vocabulary, and pronunciation.”
Here is a brief comparison of Portuguese and Spanish:
Portuguese | Spanish | |
---|---|---|
Official in | Brazil, Portugal | Spain, most of Latin America |
Alphabet | Uses diacritics (e.g. á, ê) | Uses acute accents (e.g. á, é) |
Word order | Subject-verb-object | Subject-object-verb |
Pronunciation | Nasal vowels | Non-nasal vowels |
In conclusion, while Brazilians do not speak Spanish as their official language, many may learn it as a second language due to cultural and historical ties with Spanish-speaking countries. As the journalist and author of Brazil: A Biography, Lilia M. Schwarcz, puts it: “It is interesting to note that the proximity between Brazil and Spanish-speaking South American countries and the fact that Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world helps generate a sort of bilingualism in the country.”
See further online responses
Does anyone in Brazil speak Spanish?In fact, around 460,000 Brazilians speak Spanish, according to Ethnologue. The two languages are similar in many ways, though more in their written form than their pronunciation. As such, many Brazilians are able to understand Spanish, though they may not speak it fluently.
The answer to the user query is no, Brazilians do not speak Spanish as their official language. They speak Brazilian Portuguese, which is similar to Spanish in writing but not in pronunciation. Some Brazilians may use a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese called Portuñol to communicate with their neighbors from Spanish-speaking countries, but they still speak Portuguese at home. Spanish has become more popular as a second or third language in Brazil for economic reasons.
In some parts of Brazil, close to the border of Brazil with Spanish-speaking countries, Brazilians will use a rough mixture of Spanish and Portuguese that is sometimes known as Portuñol to communicate with their neighbors on the other side of the border; however, these Brazilians continue to speak Portuguese at home. In recent years, Spanish has become more popular as a second or third language in Brazil due in large part to…
In fact, around 460,000 Brazilians speak Spanish, according to Ethnologue. The two languages are similar in many ways, though more in their written form than their pronunciation. As such, many Brazilians are able to understand Spanish, though they may not speak it fluently.
Brazil is a country of 210 million inhabitants and they almost all speak Brazilian Portuguese (98%). In fact, Brazil is the reason that Portuguese is the most spoken language in South America even though most of its neighboring countries speak Spanish.
Answer in video
The reason why Brazilians speak Portuguese instead of Spanish is explained in this video. The Treaty of Tordesillas in the late 15th century gave Spain exclusive rights to all lands in the west, allowing them to colonize and spread the Spanish language throughout Latin America. Portugal was given the rights to conquer anything to the east, which only left a sliver of land, now known as Brazil. Brazil remained largely unoccupied until Portugal’s renewed interest in the region in 1530 when they discovered Brazilwood. Sugarcane became its cash crop, and its economy relied heavily on it, leading to further expansion. Although there are slight differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese, the languages remain very similar.
Also, individuals are curious
Similar
Portuguese is by far the most widely spoken language in Brazil with 97.9% of the population speaking it as their primary language. Brazil is the only predominantly Portuguese-speaking country in South America.
With 207 million people living in Brazil, it’s safe to say the main language is definitely Portuguese.