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Spanish/Portuguese ease of learning | ||
Tags: Portuguese | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5338 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona | Message 1 of 7 26 June 2010 at 5:13pm | IP Logged |
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Which of these do you find to be easier? I haven't looked at Portuguese yet or delved into serious Spanish study yet, so I can't decide.
EDIT: I am leaning to both. Portuguese because I enjoy it more, and Spanish because of the usefulness (Mexico is my neighbor) and wide range of speakers. Edited by Akao on 26 June 2010 at 5:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5924 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 2 of 7 26 June 2010 at 6:48pm | IP Logged |
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Well, I think that in terms of pronunciation Spanish would be easier. I once looked at a
book called "Portuguese in Three Months" and leafed through the part about reading the alphabet. So many exceptions on how to pronounce this and that! And some interesting sounds, too. Nothing really exotic, just nasalization and that 'r' which changes sound depending on where it is. But it surprised me! However, if you like Portuguese more, why not learn Portuguese? There are a lot of Portuguese speakers, too, thanks to Brazil. Plus, learning Portuguese will help you with Spanish if you ever choose to learn it later (at the very least, there will be some mutual intelligibility) since they have very similar grammar and words. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rodrigo Chaves Hexaglot Newbie BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5434 days ago 12 posts - 18 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, English, Spanish, Italian, Catalan Studies: Japanese, French | Message 3 of 7 26 June 2010 at 8:37pm | IP Logged |
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As Lynxrunner has already said, Spanish is easier when talking about pronunciation. Portuguese has some hard sounds for Native English Speakers like "ão", the nasal N and the R.
The grammar and vocabulary is very similiar. Both have many exceptions and irregular verbs. If I were you, I would choose only one language to study first just because you can mix them while you are a begginer. Study the one that you most like, your evolution will be faster. Then study the other when you reach a intemediate level. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5354 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 4 of 7 26 June 2010 at 9:30pm | IP Logged |
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I am a bit practical minded, so take my advice only for what it is worth, but here is what I would suggest. If you enjoy Portuguese more, yet do enjoy Spanish to some extent, I would start with Spanish. I have a few reasons for this suggestion.
Spanish is spoken widely throughout the United States, whereas it is much rarer to find Portuguese speakers, natives or learners. Furthermore, it is a lot easier to find printed material and audios in Spanish, heck some areas can even receive Spanish tv. The above being said, with more available materials (authentic and learner-based) as well as a large number of speakers with whom to practice, I believe that you would be able to advance to a higher level of Spanish quicker than with Portuguese. After getting to this level, then you could switch to Portuguese like a friend of mine did, who wanted to learn both it and Spanish. On the other hand, if you are only luke-warm about studying Spanish in the first place, then choose Portuguese. It takes a lot of time and dedication to become good at a language, and if you do not like it, you will only dislike it more, as you work through the exercises and so forth. When faced with a similar situation (I want to learn Spanish and Italian), I ultimately chose Spanish for the reasons I outlined above. It is just so much harder to find native speakers of Italian in my area than Spanish, thus I would have less chance to practice, and thus it could become a potential hinderance. Either way, good luck with your studies! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| GauchoBoaCepa Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5421 days ago 172 posts - 199 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish | Message 5 of 7 26 June 2010 at 9:58pm | IP Logged |
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Even I'm Brazilian, if I were you I'd go for Spanish....as an American and the amount of Hispanics in America, it would be a better deal for you...
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| novemberain Triglot Groupie Russian Federation Joined 5846 days ago 59 posts - 87 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC1, Italian Studies: Spanish, Portuguese | Message 6 of 7 27 June 2010 at 12:05pm | IP Logged |
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They are of about the same difficulty. Like it was stated above, the only thing that is slightly more difficult about
Portuguese is nasal sounds. Once your reach basic fluency with one, the other becomes very transparent. There are definitely more materials around the net on Spanish. However, for example, if you build out your vocabulary using Smart.fm, there is enough for both keyword=Portuguese+michaelklishin">Portuguese and keyword=Spanish+Glossaria">Spanish, also there are Pimsleur courses for both, so this difference becomes largely irrelevant. If I were you, I would go with what feels more interesting. I learned Italian before Spanish because it immediately clicked with me and do not regret doing so a single bit, even though usefulness of Spanish for me is vastly superior. Good luck with your studies! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Calaf Triglot Newbie Portugal Joined 5277 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, English | Message 7 of 7 27 June 2010 at 11:59pm | IP Logged |
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I would say Portuguese is a little bit more difficult due to pronunciation, its closed vowels, nasalization, some contractions... If you are in the US Spanish is probably more useful than Portuguese, although there is also a Portuguese community in the country.
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