Would speaking some Spanish be useful in Portugal.?

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Stephanie C

Useful yes, appreciated not always! Portuguese people understand Spanish although it does not work so well the other way round.... Although they will not all appreciate the assumption that you can just speak Spanish to them so be sensitive.

j12

UHHH
OK first of all
leeincognito IS COMPLETELY WRONG.
I am Portuguese and I speak English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Catalan and I'm learning other languages. Is that not a lot?? Lol. Oops apparently not.

You can speak Spanish in Portugal, it's fine. We understand 90% of Spanish anyway, it'd probably be harder to understand you if you were Uruguayan or Argentine or something but other then that it'd be pretty easy. Plus, a lootttt of us speak Spanish in addition to Portuguese.

That leeincognito guy is so wrong, it's really standard in Portugal to speak at leaastt Portuguese, English & French and a LOT of us know Spanish.

So if you don't know Portuguese then speaking Spanish (even English!) is fine. Try learning basic Portuguese phrases at least though... if you want to be ahead.

Will

maybe but you should probably try to learn Portuguese as a lot of people there find it rude if you assume they speak Spanish.

El Cid

You can make yourself understood, but you will probably understand little of the Portuguese spoken you. There are some similar words, but many differences.

Margarida L

Don't worry in learning spanish to be understood in Portugal. People will think you are making fun of them. Portuguese hate spanish.
You can speak english anywhere and people will try their best to understand you. Even bartenders in small coffee shops speak english.
Hugs

Jojotraveller

Definately.... most countries appreciate some form of attempting communication. We went to Lisbon last year and my husband spoke a lot of Spanish and they undersood him well.

The_4ox

You dare!! It might be useful to 'understand' but to 'speak' will might be considered quite rude... quite understandibly.
Why don't people just try learning at least the basice?? You would in France, Spain, Italy... so what's so different about Portugal??
I also am Portuguese and speak English, Spanish, Italian and French, sort of. I would recommend a phrase book to start with.
Boa viagem :o)

Kisses an Wishes

Yes..but not vice versa.Portuguese people are very warm and make an effort to understand.

vanillafrosting

yes. english and french also.

Big John

About the same as in Brazil !

KRAV MAGA

Sure it is useful. There are several common words and both languages come from Latin. But, there are a lot of differences between Portuguese and Spanish. If you can learn some Portuguese its better.

Older people (60 +) have difficulties speaking foreign languages. And middle age (40-50) besides Portuguese speak French. Younger people (<35) Speak English and bit of french.
Spanish is understood by everybody but most don't speak it.

The number of languages spoken by Portuguese people is growing. I speak English and French and a bit of Italian, Spanish and Slovenian.

In the cities you easily can speak English, French or German that you will easily find some one who understands you.

Chris

Yes.

joÃ£o b

As useful as English. Some Portuguese prefer to speak English rather than Spanish.

Now, in Portugal, English is teached in the first years of school. Unless you wanted to learn by yourself, you will never be taught Spanish.

People about 40, most of them, knows and speaks reasonable English.

Marcelo F

i think english will be more helpfull for 2 reasons
1- if you talk spanish to a portuguese they'll think u're from spain so probalily thry will answer you in portuguese( supoused they can unserstand eachother)-
2 as Margarida said Portuguese hate spanhis so if you ask something in spanish they might tell u to f****off in portuguese besides english is much more easier to understand and there are musch more people with acurate aknowlege of english than spahisn i mean we all can say "gracias" "buenas tardes" "como te iamas" but few pople can speak more than this english is leared at school spanhis not.

SUE G online

portugese is different to spanish, similar but different

Frank

Yes, although you will find many, many people speak English as a second language, and fairly well.

GEOFF W

just a tiny bit

porthunny

Indeed it will, Spanish and Portuguese are cousin languages with many similarities.

rmmenta

Yes it would. I'm Spaniard and I have no clue about Portuguese but as I was there, I asked simple question in my mother tongue and people understood me. Besides inclusive the waiters prefered to speak Spanish instead of English or French.

Lynne

I live in Portugal and the answer is definitely NO. The Portuguese do not like the Spanish. Try it at your peril!!

Phil McCracken

Portuguese is the way to go, but Spanish could be useful. Small countries often adopt the neighbour's language.

BTW the Iberian peninsula, specifically Spain, is officially the laziest area of Europe with regards to learning foreign languages. Not many Spaniards (outside tourist areas) speak any language but Spanish, and Portugal is similar in that respect.

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