Who this path is for
You speak Portuguese (Brazilian or European). The good news is enormous: you already understand 70% of written Spanish before you start. The bad news is small but real: the parts you don't share with Spanish are exactly the parts where you'll keep slipping. This path is not a complete grammar course — it's a focused tour of the differences. False friends, the present perfect that means something different, você-versus-tú habits, the commands that look almost-but-not-quite the same. Read this path early and you will avoid the embarrassing mistakes that mark a Lusophone speaker as a Lusophone speaker.
The path
1. False Friends Overview
The single most important page on this path. Embarazada, exquisito, largo, rato — words that look familiar and mean something else. Memorise the high-stakes ones first.
2. False Friends Catalog
A longer reference list. Skim it once, then come back to it when a particular word feels suspicious.
3. Cognates
The reassurance: thousands of words are nearly identical. A short list of how to convert Portuguese endings into Spanish ones reliably.
4. Latin American Pronunciation
The places where your Portuguese accent will show through, and the simple adjustments that fix them.
5. Seseo
In Latin America, c before e/i and z are pronounced /s/ — never the European /θ/. This actually matches Brazilian Portuguese, so it's an easy win.
6. Yeísmo
Ll and y are pronounced the same way in Latin American Spanish. The exact realisation varies by region.
7. Ser vs Estar Overview
Both Portuguese and Spanish split to be, but the boundary is not identical. Spanish uses estar in some places where Portuguese uses ser, and vice versa.
8. Common Ser vs Estar Mistakes
The exact contexts where your Portuguese instinct will pick the wrong verb.
9. Tú vs Usted
Brazilian Portuguese mostly uses você with third-person verbs; Latin American Spanish uses tú with second-person verbs. The verb forms feel different even when the meaning is the same.
10. Vosotros vs Ustedes
In Latin America the plural "you" is always ustedes — there is no vosotros. This matches your Portuguese habit of using vocês.
11. Ustedes-Only Regions
A useful reference: in Latin America you'll never need vosotros. One fewer conjugation to learn.
12. Voseo Countries
In some countries (Argentina, Uruguay, parts of Central America) vos replaces tú. The conjugations are different. If you'll be in those regions, learn this.
13. Regular -ar Preterite
The Spanish preterite is similar to the Portuguese pretérito perfeito simples but the endings differ in places. Learn the small differences explicitly.
14. Preterite Complete Reference
A consolidated table. Use it to compare Spanish and Portuguese forms side by side mentally.
15. Present Perfect vs Preterite
Critical difference: in Latin American Spanish, the present perfect is much rarer than in Brazilian or European Portuguese. Hoy comí (not he comido) is the norm.
16. Present Perfect Regional Variation
Where in Latin America the present perfect is used more, and where it is used less. A useful map.
17. Imperative Complete Guide
Spanish commands behave differently from Portuguese ones, especially in the negative. Read this carefully.
18. Tú Negative Commands
In Spanish, negative tú commands use the present subjunctive — no hables, not no habla. The Portuguese equivalent is much closer to the indicative.
19. Direct Object Pronouns
The pronoun set is not identical to Portuguese. Learn the exact Spanish forms — especially the lo/la distinction and the absence of clitic forms like o/a.
20. Pronoun Placement
In Brazilian Portuguese pronouns often go before the verb in spoken speech; in Spanish the rule is more rigid. Learn the Spanish placement rules cleanly.
21. Combined Object Pronouns
Me lo dio — when two pronouns appear together, the indirect comes first. Portuguese has its own rules; the Spanish ones are simpler.
22. Personal A
Portuguese does not mark direct-object people with a preposition; Spanish does. A small word that changes a sentence.
23. Por vs Para
Portuguese and Spanish por/para are similar — but not identical. The differences are subtle and tend to cause specific errors.
24. Subjunctive Triggers Overview
Both languages use the subjunctive heavily, but not always in the same places. A short comparative read will save you many errors.
Next step
After this path, follow the level paths starting from where your Spanish actually is — usually Path: A2 Consolidation or Path: B1 Intermediate for Portuguese speakers, since you can usually skip much of the A1 material.
Related Topics
- False FriendsB1 — Spanish words that look like English but mean something very different.
- Common Mistakes: False FriendsA2 — The Spanish words that look exactly like English words but mean something completely different, and the embarrassing mistakes they cause.
- Regular -ar VerbsA2 — Regular -ar verbs in the preterite take the endings -é, -aste, -ó, -amos, -aron, with written accents on the yo and él forms.
- Present Perfect vs PreteriteB1 — In Latin America, the preterite often stands in for the present perfect — here is how to choose between them.
- Ser vs Estar: OverviewA2 — A decision framework for choosing between ser and estar, with mnemonics and a decision tree.
- Ustedes for Formal and Informal PluralA2 — How Latin American Spanish uses ustedes as the only second-person plural, replacing vosotros entirely.
- Tú vs UstedA1 — The informal (tú) and formal (usted) singular 'you' and when to use each
- Imperative: Complete GuideB1 — A full master reference for Spanish commands, covering every form, irregular, pronoun placement, and alternative for softened or indirect requests
- Latin American Pronunciation FeaturesA1 — Key pronunciation differences between Latin American Spanish and Castilian Spanish
- SeseoA1 — The universal Latin American pronunciation where c (before e, i), s, and z are all [s].