How difficult is it for a non-native speaker to learn Portuguese if he already speaks Spanish?

Question

How difficult is it for someone to learn Portuguese if he already speaks Spanish (a non-native speaker) and vice versa? Assume he is not a native speaker of either language.

Answer 1

If you already know Spanish, it shouldn't be that much difficult as Portuguese is a latin language as well. It doesn't matter if you're a native speaker or not. I took French and found it not that difficult to learn because of my Spanish.

Answer 2

If you already a native speaker of Spanish, Portuguese shouldnt be too much of a stretch for you. Lexicon and syntax are both very similar between the two. Plus it's usually not that hard for a speaker of variant to be able to read written text of the other language. The biggest problem you might face is the spoken form, this varies a lot. Portuguese has a few more sounds that don't exist in Spanish (mostly nasal sounds which are not found in the Spanish language). This might cause a native Spanish speaker to have a difficult time understanding the most basic words in Portuguese. Most importantly remember, knowing Spanish is a double-edged sword. If will really help you out when it comes to understanding the rules and structure of the language, but because the ARE so similar it might become extremely difficult to avoid the use of Spanish words and terms while talking Portuguese. If you can avoid this then you should have an overall easy time learning it.
Boa sorte (Good Luck)

Answer 3

I was an undergraduate Spanish major and I studied abroad in Spain. We went on a week's trip to Portugal. I am fluent in Spanish and can read Portuguese pretty well because of the similarities, but the pronunciation is definitely very different. I couldn't understand a word! Get someone to help you with the pronunciation and the rest should be fairly easy if you already know another Romance language.

Answer 4

I already knew how to read Spanish without taking a course because I knew French. It's the same with Spanish/Portuguese. Once you know how to structure any Romance Language, all you need to do is learn vocab. And of course, the vocab. is so similar, that it will come to you easily. The other thing is you already know that Spanish sounds are pronounced differently from English, so you won't have to relearn much about pronunciation. Go for it. You'll certainly be glad you did.

Answer 5

English speakers find it hard to learn the grammar of other languages because we don't understand the grammar of our own. Students in many other countries (such as France and Spain) have to learn the grammar of their own language in school, which makes it easier for them to understand English grammar. You can help yourself a lot by figuring out English grammar before you start with anything else. If you pick a book for learners of English (try TEFL/TESOL on Amazon) it will be a lot easier to understand than one for English speakers, which would be aimed at experts like teachers or linguists. You can also buy a book called something like "English Grammar for French Learners" - I expect they have an equivalent for Spanish/Italian learners. Personally, I find speaking and listening the hardest. It all depends on your personality, the way you learn (e.g. visually, by listening, by doing etc) and how you are taught. A good teacher should work on all the skills with you and then the next step will be to take a trip to Spain or Italy to put into practice what you have learned. Good luck!

Answer 6

It is extremely easy. Portuguese and Spanish are closely related, since they both originated in a small geographic area.