Portuguese and Italian: Language Similarities
Portuguese and Italian are both Romance languages that have evolved from Latin, the ancient language of the Roman Empire.
Vocabulary similarities between Portuguese and Italian
In linguistics, lexical similarity is a statistic that indicates how similar two languages are in terms of their vocabulary.
Portuguese and Italian are more similar in their vocabulary than either of these languages is to French. (lexical similarity scores obtained from reference [1])
Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish, and Romanian are the five main Romance languages. Each of these languages has evolved from Latin, and Latin-derived words account for a large part of their vocabulary.
In terms of vocabulary Portuguese and Italian have stayed closer to Latin, compared to French (which has had Gallic and Frankish influences) and Romanian (which has had some Slavic influences).
There are many similar words between Portuguese and Italian. Here are some examples:
- “Fish” is « peixe » in Portuguese and « pesce » in Italian. The reason that these words are similar is that they both come from the Latin word « piscis ».
- “Dog” is « cão » in Portuguese and « cane » in Italian. The reason that these words are similar is that they both come from the Latin word « canis »
- “warm” is « caloroso » in Portuguese and « caldo » in Italian. These words are similar because they both come from the Latin word « calidus »
- “Moon” is « lua » in Portuguese and « luna » in Italian. These words are etymologically related, they both come from the Latin word « luna »
- “Hand” is « mão » in Portuguese and « mano » in Italian. These words are similar because they both come from the Latin word « manus »
- “Expensive” is « caro » in Portuguese and « costoso » in Italian. The similarity between these words is due to them both coming from the Latin word « carus »
- “Heart” is « coração » in Portuguese and « cuore » in Italian. These words are similar because they both come from the Latin word « cor »
- “Friend” is « amigo » in Portuguese and « amico » in Italian. These words are etymologically related, they both come from the Latin word « amicus »
- “Happiness” is « felicidade » in Portuguese and « felicità » in Italian. These words are similar because they both come from the Latin word « fēlicitas »
- “Gold” is « ouro » in Portuguese and « oro » in Italian. These words are etymologically related, they both come from the Latin word « aurum »
The vast majority of vocabulary words which are similar in Portuguese and Italian come from Latin. For more on this ancient language, see this list of the 1000 most common Latin words.
| English | Portuguese | Italian |
|---|---|---|
| green | verde | verde |
| tall | alto | alto |
| snow | neve | neve |
| sea | mar | mare |
| horse | cavalo | cavallo |
| think | pensar | pensare |
| cat | gato | gatto |
| guilt | culpa | colpa |
| slow | lento | lento |
| water | agua | acqua |
| love | amar | amore |
| finger | dedo | dito |
| shirt | camisa | camicia |
| white | branco | bianca |
| cold | frio | freddo |
| eye | olho | occhio |
| dangerous | perigoso | pericoloso |
| war | guerra | guerra |
| wise | sábio | saggio |
| week | semana | settimana |
| empty | vazio | vuoto |
| eggs | ovos | uova |
| bread | pão | pane |
| truth | verdade | verità |
| language | língua | linguaggio |
Naturally, since Portuguese and Italian are different languages, there are also some vocabulary words that are completely different between the two languages. Here are some examples:
To learn more Portuguese vocabulary, see this list of the most common Portuguese words.
Portuguese and Italian have more than one copular verb
Portuguese and Italian both have two verbs which correspond to the English verb “to be”.
- In Italian these verbs are « stare » and « essere ».
- In Portuguese these verbs are « estar » and « ser ».
Portuguese and Italian are null-subject languages
In Portuguese and in Italian, the subject is often left out of a sentence. In these cases, the subject which is omitted is implicit and can be inferred from the form of the conjugated verb.
In Linguistic terms, this means that Portuguese and Italian are null-subject languages. In contrast, in languages such as English or French leaving out the subject almost always leads to a grammatically incorrect sentence.
Here are example sentences in Portuguese and Italian where the subject pronoun is omitted:
| English | I am studying |
|---|---|
| Portuguese | Estou estudando |
| Italian | Sto studiando |
Portuguese and Italian both have two “you” pronouns
Portuguese and Italian both have 2 “you” pronouns: “tu” / “você” in Portuguese, and “tu” / “Lei” in Italian.
In Italian, the pronoun “tu” is informal while the pronoun “Lei” is formal.
In Portuguese (particularly in Brazilian Portuguese), the distinction between the pronouns “tu” and “você” is less about polite speech and more about regional differences.
Spelling differences between Portuguese and Italian
A distinguishing feature between Portuguese and Italian spelling is the use of the tilde in Portuguese (for example: 'ã').
There is a pattern between many Italian nouns ending in “-zione”, and Portuguese nouns ending in “-ção”. Often these pairs of words are derived from a common Latin word ending in “-tiō”.
Here are some examples:
| English | Italian | Portuguese |
|---|---|---|
| education | educazione | educação |
| information | informazione | informação |
| direction | direzione | direção |
| introduction | introduzione | introdução |
| solution | soluzione | solução |
| evolution | evoluzione | evolução |
| activation | attivazione | ativação |
| condition | condizione | condição |
| selection | selezione | seleção |
| position | posizione | posição |
| repetition | ripetizione | repetição |
| separation | separazione | separação |
| section | sezione | seção |
| notion | nozione | noção |
| translation | traduzione | tradução |
| generalization | generalizzazione | generalização |
| recommendation | raccomandazione | recomendação |
Portuguese and Italian nouns have genders
In Portuguese and Italian where each noun has a gender.
For example, “lua” (the Portuguese word for “moon”) is feminine. Similarly “luna” (the Italian word for “moon”) is also feminine.
Another example, “céu” (the Portuguese word for “sky”) is masculine. And similarly “cielo” (the Italian word for “sky”) is also masculine.
Although their parent language, Latin, had a third grammatical gender (neuter), Portuguese and Italian just have two (masculine and feminine).
Here too, Portuguese and Italian share some common patterns. In both these languages, nouns ending in “-o” are more likely to be masculine, and nouns ending in “-a” are more likely to be feminine.
Portuguese vs Italian language difficulty
Portuguese and Italian are both among the easiest languages for English speakers to learn.
One of the reasons for this is that English speakers can recognize some of the Latin-derived vocabulary words in Portuguese and Italian.
Although the English language does not come from Latin, there are many English words derived from Latin, which have entered the English language as loanwords from French.
Both Portuguese and Italian are widely spoken languages so there are many opportunities to practise these languages.
There are about 250 million native speakers of Portuguese (Brazil is the country with the most Portuguese speakers), and about 65 million native Italian speakers.
References:- [1] Gábor Bella, Khuyagbaatar Batsuren, and Fausto Giunchiglia. A Database and Visualization of the Similarity of Contemporary Lexicons. 24th International Conference on Text, Speech, and Dialogue. Olomouc, Czech Republic, 2021. (http://ukc.disi.unitn.it/index.php/lexsim/)