Brazil, the largest Portuguese-speaking country (by area and number of speakers) is part of Latin America. That’s an indication that Portuguese and Latin are languages that might have something in common. And indeed they do.
Portuguese is a language that evolved from Latin.
Many Portuguese vocabulary words originate from Latin, but they often have undergone some changes in spelling. These spelling differences display some interesting patterns.
A pattern in the spelling differences between Portuguese and Latin concerns Latin nouns ending in “-tio”. The Portuguese nouns which are derived from these often end in “-ção”.
Below are some examples of Portuguese nouns which end in “-ção” and the corresponding Latin noun ending in “-tio”.
| Portuguese | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| educação | ēducātiō | education |
| informação | informatio | information |
| invitação | invitatio | invitation |
| decisão | dēcīsio | decision |
| animação | animātiō | animation |
| perfeição | perfectiō | perfection |
| evolução | ēvolūtiō | evolution |
| atenção | attentio | attention |
| obrigação | obligatio | obligation |
| condição | conditiō | condition |
| intenção | intentiō | intention |
| translação | trānslātiō | translation |
| ocupação | occupatio | occupation |
| missão | missio | mission |
| discussão | discussio | discussion |
| imitação | imitātiō | imitation |
Another pattern in the spelling differences between Portuguese and Latin concerns Latin adjectives which end in “-bilis”. The Portuguese adjectives which are derived from these often end in “-vel”.
Here are some examples of Portuguese adjectives which end in “-vel” and the corresponding Latin adjective ending in “-bilis”:
| Portuguese | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| adorável | adorabilis | adorable |
| admirável | admirabilis | admirable |
| formidável | formīdābilis | formidable |
| possível | possibilis | possible |
| amável | amābilis | kind |
| improvável | improbabilis | unlikely |
| invisível | invīsibilis | invisible |
| lamentável | lamentabilis | unfortunate |
| durável | dūrābilis | durable |
| comparável | comparābilis | comparable |
| defensável | dēfensābilis | defensible |
| instável | īnstabilis | unstable |
| tolerável | tolerābilis | tolerable |
| habitável | habitābilis | habitable |
| respeitável | respectābilis | respectable |
| flexível | flexibilis | flexible |
| afável | affābilis | affable |
| evitável | ēvītābilis | preventable |
| inteligível | intelligibilis | intelligible |
| terrível | terribilis | terrible |
| sociável | sociābilis | sociable |
| credível | crēdibilis | credible |
There is another pattern in the spelling differences between Portuguese and Latin which concerns Latin nouns ending in ”-ium” or “-ius”. The corresponding Portuguese nouns often end in “-io”.
Below are some examples of Portuguese nouns ending in “-io” which are derived from the Latin nouns ending in ”-ium” or “-ius”.
| Portuguese | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| salário | salārium | wage |
| estádio | stadium | stadium |
| auditório | audītōrium | auditorium |
| ordinário | ōrdinārius | ordinary |
| aniversário | anniversarius | birthday |
| usuário | ūsuārius | user |
| adversário | adversārius | adversary |
| solitário | sōlitārius | lonely |
| monetário | monetarius | monetary |
| itinerário | itinerarius | itinerary |
| necessário | necessārius | necessary |
| aquário | aquārium | aquarium |
Classical Latin distinguishes between short and long consonant sounds, with the latter denoted by doubling the consonant letter. As a result, Latin vocabulary words frequently contain double consonants in their spelling.
In contrast, the use of double consonants in Portuguese is mostly restricted to the letter ‘r’ and ‘s’ (although the doubling of other consonants can occur in some borrowed words, for example, “pizza”).
As a result, a common pattern in the spelling differences between Portuguese and Latin vocabulary words is the loss of the double consonant in Portuguese. Here are some examples:
| Latin | Portuguese | English |
|---|---|---|
| Words that are spelled with 'ff' in Latin vs. single 'f' in Portuguese: | ||
| differo | diferente | different |
| difficilis | difícil | difficult |
| offero | oferta | offer |
| offensio | ofensa | offense |
| officialis | oficial | official |
| effectus | efeito | effect |
| Words that are spelled with 'pp' in Latin vs. single 'p' in Portuguese: | ||
| opportunitas | oportunidade | opportunity |
| appropriare | apropriado/a | appropriate |
| approbare | aprovar | approve |
| Words that are spelled with 'mm' in Latin vs. single 'm' in Portuguese | ||
| communis | comum | common |
| accommodo | acomodar | accommodate |
| consummatio | consumo | consumption |
| Words that are spelled with 'cc' in Latin vs. single 'c' in Portuguese | ||
| acceptus | aceitável | acceptable |
| occupo | ocupar | occupy |
| accuso | acusar | accuse |
| successio | sucessão | succession |
| peccatum | pecado | sin |
To continue exploring the vocabulary similarities and differences between Portuguese and Latin, have a look at these lists of the 1000 most common Latin words, and the 1000 most common Portuguese words.
Latin nouns are inflected to indicate their grammatical role in a sentence, whereas Portuguese nouns are not inflected.
The most common word order in Latin is SOV (subject-object-verb) whereas the most common word order in Portuguese is SVO (subject-verb-object).
Latin has a more flexible word order than Portuguese. This is because Latin indicates the grammatical function of nouns through inflections - and as a result doesn’t need to rely as much on word order to indicate grammatical function.
Portuguese and Latin are both languages in which nouns have grammatical gender. For example, the word for “moon” is feminine in both Latin and Portuguese. And the word for “sun” is masculine in both languages.
With regards to grammatical gender, there is still a difference between Latin and Portuguese: Latin has a third grammatical gender (neuter).
Portuguese has both definite and definite articles. For example, “the book” translates to “o livro”, while “a book” translates to “um livro”.
Latin is different from Portuguese in this respect because Latin is a language that has neither definite nor indefinite articles. For example, both “the king” and “a king” translate to “rex” in Latin.
Portuguese has 2 main verbs which correspond to the English verb “to be”. These verbs are “ser” and “estar”.
One of the nuances between these two verbs is that the verb “ser” is used for permanent states, while the verb “estar” is used for temporary states.
For example, the phrase “How are you today?” translates to “Como você está hoje?” in Portuguese. Notice the use of the verb “estar,” which indicates a temporary state.
Another example: the phrase “How tall are you?” translates to “Quão alto é você?” in Portuguese. Notice the use of the verb “ser,” which indicates a permanent state.
In contrast to Portuguese, Classical Latin has one main verb which corresponds to the English verb “to be” - this verb is “esse”. Its conjugation is quite irregular, as can be seen in Descartes' famous phrase: “cogito, ergo sum” (“I think, therefore I am”).
The Portuguese verb “estar” is derived from the Latin word “stāre” which is a form of the Latin verb “stō” meaning “stand”, “stay” or “remain”.
ConclusionPortuguese is a language that originates from Latin, and as a result Portuguese and Latin share many similar vocabulary words. There are interesting patterns in the spelling differences between the two languages - we have pointed out a few in this article.
In terms of grammar, Portuguese and Latin display significant differences in many areas including grammatical cases, word order, grammatical gender, and articles.
For more on how Latin compares to other languages, see the following articles:
Interesting fact: English is a Germanic language which means that it does not originate from Latin. There are however many Latin-derived words in English. Many of these have entered the English language as loanwords from French.
These Latin-derived words in English are one of the reasons why Portuguese is among the easiest languages for English speakers to learn.