Spanish speakers have an enormous head start in Portuguese — perhaps 85% mutual intelligibility in reading. That head start is also the trap. Because almost every word is a true cognate, the small set that diverged feels just as trustworthy as the rest. These falsos amigos (false friends) are sneakier than the English ones precisely because the two languages are so close: there's no visible warning sign. This page collects the high-frequency offenders, with the BR meaning and the Spanish word it deceives.
Why proximity makes it worse
With English, a learner stays a little on guard — the languages are obviously different. With Spanish, the guard drops: you read a Portuguese sentence and understand 90% of it instantly, so you assume the last 10% too. That's how a Spanish speaker confidently asks for the oficina (expecting an office) and gets pointed to a mechanic's workshop. The fix is the same as for English false friends — conscious memorization — but the psychological difficulty is higher because nothing looks wrong.
The everyday verbs
pegar (PT) = to grab, catch, take, pick up; also "to stick/catch" (e.g., a disease, glue). In Spanish pegar = to hit. So a Brazilian saying pega o ônibus means "catch the bus," not "hit the bus."
✅ Vou pegar o ônibus das oito. / Você pode pegar minha mochila ali?
I'm going to catch the eight o'clock bus. / Can you grab my backpack over there?
✅ Essa gripe pega fácil.
This flu is easy to catch. (note: not 'hits easily')
brincar (PT) = to play (as children do), to joke. In Spanish brincar = to jump/hop. To jump in PT is pular or saltar.
✅ As crianças estão brincando no quintal. / Tô só brincando, não leva a sério.
The kids are playing in the yard. / I'm just joking, don't take it seriously.
❌ A criança brincou por cima da poça. (meaning 'jumped')
Wrong sense — 'brincar' is play/joke, not jump.
✅ A criança pulou por cima da poça.
The kid jumped over the puddle.
ligar (PT) = to call (phone) and to turn on (a device); also "to care about." Spanish ligar = to flirt / hook up. So me liga depois means "call me later," not "flirt with me later."
✅ Me liga depois! / Você pode ligar a televisão?
Call me later! / Can you turn on the TV?
✅ Eu nem ligo para o que ele pensa.
I don't even care what he thinks.
The nouns
oficina (PT) = workshop / repair shop (mechanic's). Spanish oficina = office. An office in PT is escritório.
❌ Trabalho numa oficina, sou advogado.
Contradictory — an advogado works in an escritório, not a mechanic's oficina.
✅ Trabalho num escritório, sou advogado. / Deixei o carro na oficina.
I work in an office, I'm a lawyer. / I left the car at the repair shop.
polvo (PT) = octopus. Spanish polvo = dust (and polvo is a common Spanish word; PT for dust is pó).
❌ Preciso tirar o polvo dos móveis.
Bizarre — you'd be removing octopus from the furniture.
✅ Preciso tirar o pó dos móveis. / Comemos polvo grelhado.
I need to dust the furniture. / We ate grilled octopus.
cena (PT) = scene (of a film, a crime, a scene someone makes). Spanish cena = dinner/supper. Dinner in PT is jantar.
❌ Vamos sair para a cena hoje à noite?
Wrong — 'cena' is a scene, not dinner.
✅ Vamos sair para jantar hoje à noite? / A cena final do filme é inesquecível.
Shall we go out for dinner tonight? / The final scene of the movie is unforgettable.
rato (PT) = rat / mouse (the animal). Spanish rato = a little while / a moment. A while in PT is um momento / um tempinho.
❌ Espera um rato, já volto.
Wrong — this asks someone to 'wait a rat'.
✅ Espera um momento, já volto. / Tem um rato na cozinha!
Wait a moment, I'll be right back. / There's a mouse in the kitchen!
borracha (PT) = rubber / eraser. In Spanish borracha is the feminine of borracho = drunk. Drunk in PT is bêbado/bêbada.
✅ Me empresta a borracha para apagar isto?
Can you lend me the eraser to rub this out?
✅ Ela estava bêbada na festa.
She was drunk at the party. (not 'borracha')
salada (PT) = salad. Spanish salada = salted/savory (feminine adjective). Salty in PT is salgado/salgada.
✅ Pedi uma salada de folhas. / A comida está salgada demais.
I ordered a green salad. / The food is too salty.
The dangerous one: embaraçada
embaraçada (PT) = embarrassed (also tangled/entangled). Spanish embarazada = pregnant. This is the classic accident: a Spanish speaker meaning "embarrassed" might worry it implies pregnancy — but in Portuguese it's safe and correct for "embarrassed." The danger runs the other way: a Brazilian visiting a Spanish-speaking country must not say embarazada meaning embarrassed. Pregnant in PT is grávida.
✅ Fiquei embaraçada quando esqueci o nome dele.
I got embarrassed when I forgot his name. (correct PT — embarrassed)
✅ Ela está grávida de cinco meses.
She's five months pregnant. (NOT embaraçada)
A spelling note: esquisito vs exquisito
esquisito (PT) = weird / strange — the same false friend English speakers hit. Spanish exquisito = exquisite, delicious. So a Spanish speaker praising food as esquisito in Portuguese is actually calling it weird. Exquisite in PT is requintado / delicioso.
❌ Que jantar esquisito, parabéns ao chef!
Insulting by accident — 'esquisito' means weird, not exquisite.
✅ Que jantar delicioso, parabéns ao chef!
What a delicious dinner, congratulations to the chef!
Quick reference table
| Word | Means in PT | Spanish lookalike means | PT word for the Spanish sense |
|---|---|---|---|
| pegar | grab / catch | hit (pegar) | bater |
| brincar | play / joke | jump (brincar) | pular, saltar |
| ligar | call / turn on | flirt (ligar) | paquerar, dar em cima |
| oficina | workshop | office (oficina) | escritório |
| polvo | octopus | dust (polvo) | pó |
| cena | scene | dinner (cena) | jantar |
| rato | mouse / rat | a while (rato) | momento, tempinho |
| borracha | eraser / rubber | drunk-fem (borracha) | bêbada |
| salada | salad | salted-fem (salada) | salgada |
| embaraçada | embarrassed | pregnant (embarazada) | grávida |
| esquisito | weird | exquisite (exquisito) | requintado, delicioso |
Common Mistakes recap
❌ Espera um rato, vou pegar o gato e tirar o polvo da estante.
Three false friends — rato (mouse, not 'a while'), pegar (grab, not hit), polvo (octopus, not dust).
✅ Espera um momento, vou pegar o gato e tirar o pó da estante.
Wait a moment, I'll grab the cat and dust the shelf.
❌ Trabalho numa oficina e hoje vou sair para a cena.
Incorrect — oficina (workshop, not office) and cena (scene, not dinner).
✅ Trabalho num escritório e hoje vou sair para jantar.
I work in an office and today I'm going out for dinner.
The closeness of Spanish and Portuguese is a gift you must use with discipline: lean on the cognates, but keep this short list of traitors flagged in active memory. For the English-speaker's version of this problem see False Friends with English; for regionally specific vocabulary swaps see Regional Lexical Borrowings.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- False Friends with EnglishA2 — The Brazilian Portuguese words that look English but mean something else — pretender (intend), puxar (pull!), assistir (watch), livraria (bookstore), atualmente (currently).
- Regional Lexical BorrowingsB2 — How Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary is layered by contact history — Tupi, Yoruba/Bantu, Italian, German, River-Plate Spanish, and Japanese — so a region's loanwords map who settled there.
- Cognate Patterns with EnglishA2 — Regular suffix swaps that convert thousands of English words into Brazilian Portuguese — and the false friends the pattern doesn't cover.
- Common Mistakes: OverviewA2 — A map of the errors Brazilian Portuguese learners actually make, sorted by first language — because English speakers and Spanish speakers trip over completely different things.