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Why is Portuguese harder than Spanish?

 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
25 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3
Camundonguinho
Triglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 4559 days ago

273 posts - 500 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish
Studies: Swedish

 
 Message 25 of 25
03 February 2012 at 10:38am | IP Logged 
Portuguese is not harder than Spanish, verbs are more regular (you can predict the present of verbs in 90% of cases unlike in Spanish in which you have to worry about the diphthongs: defender [defiendo] vs depender [dependo]).

As for the verbal system, compare
the present tense of BEBER

colloquial European Spanish:

yo bebo, tu bebes, él bebe
nosotros bebemos, vosotros bebéis, ellos beben
6 different verbal forms



colloquial Brazilian Portuguese:

eu bebo,

você bebe
ele bebe
a gente bebe

vocês bebem
eles bebem

only 3 different forms: bebo, bebe, bebem
2 times easier ;)

(in speech A GENTE is used instead of NÓS, similar to ON in French:
A gente está cansado = We're tired. )


And you don't have to worry about PAST SIMPLE vs PRESENT PERFECT.
In Spanish it is very complicated because of regional and stylistic reasons.
In Portuguese the present perfect is used only in situations where English uses
present perfect continuous (Tenho bebido muito = I've been drinking a lot).
In all other cases, the past simple is used: O quê você disse? = What did you say?
Eu já fiz isso. = I've already done it. Nunca estive no Japão = I've never been to Japan.

In Spanish, no one really uses these tenses according to rules in grammar books.
In European Spanish you should say
''Tú has siempre sido duro de pelar...Ahora el tiempo me ha cambiado''
but Rebeca from Barcelona sings
''Tú siempre fuiste duro de pelar. Ahora el tiempo me cambió'' as if she were from Buenos Aires. ;)

So many Madrileños say: -Ayer he ido - y -Ya me lo dijiste-
which is exactly opposite to what we learned in Spanish class.

Edited by Camundonguinho on 03 February 2012 at 10:50am



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