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Portuguese Vocabulary: Same but Different – Part 1

Portuguese Vocabulary: Same but Different – Part 1

posted on September 15, 2014

Word-Venn

Back in May, I wrote a two-part series called Simple Words, Double Meanings. Along the same lines, there are similar words with (sometimes) different meanings and that’s what I’d like to go over in this two-part series now.

In Brazilian Portuguese, there are words that may seem similar but exist outside the scope of synonyms. You may have learned about these in school growing up but, like me, you might have been daydreaming when the lesson was given. Below I will go through some illustrative examples of different types of words, how they’re similar and how they’re different.

 

Homonyms

First, there are words known as homonyms, which sound the same, are written the same, but have different meanings. In English, this could be the difference between stalk (part of a plant) and stalk (to follow/harass someone). With Brazilian Portuguese, some examples might be:

– manga (shirt sleeve) and manga (the mango fruit)

 


Check out the article: Brazilian Culture – Manga and Milk

Flaschards: Fruits you must try in Brazil


 

– grama (grass) and grama (measurement unit)

– planta (vegetable) and planta (floor plan)

– amo (master) and amo (from amar, to love)

– rio (river) and rio (from rir, to laugh)

– canto (corner) and canto (from cantar, to sing)

 

Homographs

These are a sub-group of Homonyms, and are words where same written form is shared but the meaning and pronunciation are different (ie, bass and bass). Some examples:

– dúvida (doubt, question) and duvida (from duvidar, to doubt)

– sábia (wise) and sabia (from saber, to know)

 

Homophones

We shouldn’t forget homophones, which are similar in pronunciation but can have different spelling and meaning (ie, pause and paws).

– assento (seat) and acento (written accent)

– cheque (check) and xeque (checkmate)

– paço (palace) and passo (step)

Related Posts:

  • Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: Words beginning in PS
  • My Favorite Online Dictionaries to Learn Portuguese
  • 4 language learning hacks for your Portuguese

About Adam Lee

Adam is a writer and a researcher who has studied Brazilian culture for over a decade and created several Brazil-themed blogs going back to 2008. Having taught himself Portuguese, he put it to practical use by spending three years doing Brazil on a budget (and living in favelas), from Rio de Janeiro to the Amazon.

He now resides in Lisbon, Portugal, developing a startup and dreaming about having a beachside B&B in the Northeast of Brazil.

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  1. Douglas Muralha

    October 22, 2021 at 1:19 am

    Hey man I just ran across your information on this website streetsmart brazil.com and I think it’s cool and helped me a little bit but I’m still polishing my Portuguese and trying to create English rap Portuguese rap crossover I don’t know I was trying to find some thing that would show me words in Portuguese the sound the same because there are still a lot of words that I don’t remember from growing up or things that I’m still learning any ideas be great.

    Reply

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