When You Speak Portuñol Without Realizing It: 10 Word Pairs That Give You Away

You know that moment when you think your Portuguese is flawless and a Brazilian just stares at you? That's usually confusing Portuguese words at work: change one letter and "saudade" (missing someone) turns into "saúde" (health), or "razão" (reason) becomes "ração", which is dog food. If you also speak Spanish, this is exactly what speaking portuñol looks like: your brain blends the two languages without asking permission.

Here's the thing: these slips are rarely a grammar problem. They come from Portuguese words that sound alike but mean completely different things (Portuguese paronyms, if you want the textbook term). I see it all the time, especially with anyone who's a Spanish speaker learning Portuguese: they say the sentence with total confidence, and we Brazilians on the other end have no idea what they meant. And even if you've never spoken a word of Spanish, these commonly confused Portuguese words trip up English speakers too.

In this lesson I'll walk you through 10 portuñol mistakes you make without noticing, each one built around a pair of similar Portuguese words, with example sentences and the video where I explain the difference. By the end, you'll know exactly what to say and what to avoid the next time you talk to someone from Brazil.

Video: When You Speak Portuñol Without Realizing It

In this video I show you 10 portuñol phrases that Spanish speakers say without realizing it, each one built on one of these Portuguese word pairs. If you want a deeper look at what portuñol is with more examples, or want to review other common mistakes in Portuguese, I have full guides on both.

Sentences to practice your Portuguese

ISSO – ESSO

Isso means "that" and is spelled with an I, while Esso is just a brand of gas stations. The I in "isso" sounds like the "ee" in "see", so if you pronounce it with an E, like Spanish "eso", a Brazilian hears the name of the posto (gas station). That's why it's worth reviewing the Portuguese vowels.

• O que é isso que ele tá fazendo? (What's that he's doing?)
• Vou abastecer o carro no posto ESSO, a gasolina tá mais barata. (I'm going to fill up the car at the ESSO station, gas is cheaper there.)

ELE – ELO

Ele means "he" and elo means a bond or link, like the tie that connects two people. Watch the pronunciation: in Brazil a final E sounds almost like "ee" and a final O like "oo", so "ele" sounds like "EH-lee" and "elo" like "EH-loo". I explain it in my guide to Portuguese letter pronunciation.

• O elo entre eles foi quebrado no momento que ele soube que tudo era uma farsa. (The bond between them was broken the moment he found out it was all a sham.)
• Essa notícia me pegou de surpresa, ele nunca comentou nada sobre isso. (That news caught me by surprise, he never mentioned anything about it.)

How to use PEGAR in Portuguese.

AVALIAÇÃO – EVOLUÇÃO

Avaliação is an evaluation or assessment, like the fitness assessment you do before you start training, and evolução is evolution or progress. Also watch out for "academia": in Brazil it means the gym, not an academy. It's one of those false friends in Portuguese that confuse a lot of learners.

• Quando é que você vai fazer a avaliação pra começar a treinar na academia? (When are you going to do your assessment so you can start training at the gym?)
• Nossa, em apenas 3 meses de academia já deu pra perceber a sua evolução, parabéns. (Wow, after just 3 months at the gym you can already see your progress, congrats.)

SAÚDE – SAUDADE

Saúde means health (it's also what we say in Brazil when someone sneezes, like "bless you"), and saudade is that feeling of missing someone or something, a word with no exact translation in English. Both start the same way, so if you say "estou com saúde de você" instead of "saudade", the message changes completely. Check out more differences between Spanish and Portuguese.

• O médico falou que minha saúde vai melhorar em algumas semanas, o tratamento demora um pouco pra surtir efeito. (The doctor said my health will get better in a few weeks, the treatment takes a while to kick in.)
• A prima de Carol tava com tanta saudade dela que viajou 800km de carro pra visitá-la durante o fim de semana. (Carol's cousin missed her so much that she drove 800 km, about 500 miles, to visit her over the weekend.)

RAZÃO – RAÇÃO

Razão means reason and ração is pet food, so the whole difference comes down to one letter. The Z in "razão" is voiced and buzzy, like the "z" in "zoo", and the Ç in "ração" sounds like the "s" in "sun". Since the Z sounds like an S in Latin American Spanish, Spanish speakers easily say "ração" when they mean "razão". I break it all down in how to pronounce Z, S, SS and Ç in Portuguese.

• Ele disse que seguiu seus conselhos e que você tinha razão, por isso que ele conseguiu resolver o problema que tinha em casa. (He said he followed your advice and that you were right, that's how he managed to fix the problem he had at home.)
• Qual é a marca da ração que você dá pro seu cachorro? (What brand of food do you give your dog?)

13 Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation TIPS

MAGRA - FRACA

Magra means thin or skinny, while fraca means weak, with no strength. A lot of Spanish speakers say "fraca" thinking of "flaca" (Spanish for skinny), and that's the portuñol mistake. A handy memory trick for English speakers: "fraca" sounds a bit like "frail", and that's the meaning. It's one of those false cognates in Portuguese that betray you when you talk fast.

• Acho que ela já perdeu uns 5kg desde que ficou doente, você viu como ela tá magra? (I think she's lost about 5 kg, around 11 pounds, since she got sick, did you see how thin she is?)
• A avó dela já tá tão velhinha e fraca que nem consegue se levantar da cama sozinha. (Her grandma is so old and weak now that she can't even get out of bed on her own.)

ADORMECIDA – DORMIDA

Adormecida describes someone who fell asleep (and also a body part that's gone numb, like when your foot falls asleep), while dormida, in the expression "dar uma dormida", means taking a nap. In English you'd just say "she fell asleep", and Spanish speakers tend to translate "se quedó dormida" word for word, but in Brazil the most natural way to say it is "ela adormeceu" or "ela pegou no sono".

• A mãe dele tava tão cansada que quando chegou em casa do trabalho ficou adormecida no sofá. (His mom was so tired that when she got home from work she fell asleep on the couch.)
• Você deu uma dormida boa hoje à tarde né? Ainda com a ressaca de ontem? (You took a good nap this afternoon, huh? Still hungover from last night?)

7 ways to use AINDA in Portuguese.

Ways to say I FELL ASLEEP in Portuguese.

POSSA – PODA

Possa is the subjunctive form of the verb poder, the "can" you use after "pra que" (so that), and poda comes from the verb podar, to prune a tree. Since poder is one of the irregular verbs in Portuguese, it's easy to make up "poda" (Spanish speakers are thinking of "pueda") when you actually mean "possa".

• Você pode deixar o seu carro estacionado um pouco mais pra frente pra que eu possa sair sem problema mais tarde? (Can you park your car a little further up so I can get out without any trouble later?)
• Pode deixar que ele poda a árvore mais tarde. (verb podar) (Don't worry, he'll prune the tree later.)

GUARDAR – SALVAR

Guardar means to put away or keep something somewhere safe, even parking your car in a garage, while salvar means to rescue someone from danger. Here's the fun part for English speakers: in English "save" covers everything, but Portuguese splits it up. For a file on your computer, in Brazil we say "salvar o arquivo", just like in English (Spanish speakers usually say "guardar" here), but "guardar dinheiro" means saving money.

• Eu posso guardar meu carro na tua casa até amanhã? É que vou pra um barzinho que é perto daí. (Can I leave my car at your place until tomorrow? I'm going to a bar near you.)
• Esse filme tá um suspense sem fim, será que ele vai se salvar? (This movie is nonstop suspense, do you think he's going to make it out alive?)

Words and expressions about money in Portuguese.

PEÇO/PEÇA

Peço means "I ask (for)", the first person present of the verb pedir, and peça is the subjunctive and command form, as in "ask him to". Pedir is irregular, so "pido" (the Spanish form) doesn't exist in Portuguese. Take a look at other Portuguese conjugations that sound like serious mistakes.

• Sempre que peço pra ele me ajudar com qualquer coisa relacionada ao trabalho ele me diz que não tem tempo. (Every time I ask him to help me with anything work-related, he tells me he doesn't have time.)
• Peça pro seu irmão ir no açougue comprar a carne pro churrasco desse fim de semana. (Ask your brother to go to the butcher shop and buy the meat for this weekend's churrasco.)

20 irregular verbs in Portuguese.

What Is Portuñol?

Portuñol (or portunhol, as we spell it in Brazil) is what happens when you mix Portuguese with Spanish: you make spelling and pronunciation mistakes and, of course, you end up embarrassing yourself with "false friends". In this video I explain everything you need to improve your Portuguese and stop speaking portuñol for good.

Videos focused on more confusing Portuguese words that look a lot like Spanish but have different meanings.