ESL Blogs

  Hello bloggers and readers over here ;) I want to tell you my view on the differences between my mother language - Portuguese - and my target studying language, the beloved English.

  So, first, I can mention that the differences start in the HISTORIC PAST, that is, the history behind both languages. The roots of English are a bit different from Portuguese, even though, English has suffered influence of French and Latin in some aspects. English has in its groundwork, mainly germanic roots and Portuguese mainly latin roots.

  In second place, I can mention the NUMBER OF SPEAKERS of each language. Portuguese has approximately  218,000,000 speakers all over the world, It is the sixth language most spoken in the world. Include countries like: Portugal, Angola and Brazil, my homeland. In contrast, English is the third most spoken language, with about  545,000,000 speakers, including places like USA, UK, parts of Oceania and many other to quote here.

  Not least important, I'd say  VOCABULARY. Portuguese has a vast collection of words. Many of them, aren't so used nowadays, but, we can say, we "Portuguese speakers" have a large dictionary of words. In English, I dunno if it's just an impression mine, the words have multiples, several meanings for just one thing, the English words, oftentimes, stand for many things, while in Portuguese that doesn't happen. In Portuguese, for each meaning, idea, or whatever be, you have a specific word for it. Whereas, in English, you can count on, sometimes, just one word for expressing several meanings, definitions. That's what I think Its so cool in English, word's economy! That should exist in Portuguese too, that helps to facilitate for us, users of a language, when expressing our reasoning.

  Next, I put as more one of the differences between the two languages, SPELLING AND INTONATION. I decided to put together these two aspects, because I consider the spelling of a word very linked to its intonation when speaking. Every single word in a only word, can, at times, modify the sound which it is pronounced a word, and even, change its meaning, depending on, that word has homonyms words. For me, English has a hard spelling, because uses a lot of consonants, what doesn't happen in my mother tongue. As for intonation, I consider English with a more hard intonation, just because, we Portuguese native speakers, have difficulties with some sounds in English. For instance, I had and I still have , a big difficult with the supression of the letter "r" at the end of some words of the Brittish English intonation. In sum, English is a more vocalised language than Portuguese. Haha!!! At times, we - English learners -  have to have a small "singer side" inside us for being able to speak simple daily words!

  Lastly, I'd speak more about GRAMMAR RULES. This point I'd say English is more easy to memorise than Portuguese is. Portuguese has a battalion of rules in its grammar, detail: I get confused with so many Portuguese verb tenses!!! Even though, English has too, several rules, in my personal taste, English is more simplified as to this aspect.

   So, I think these are the main differences for me, between my native language and a second language like English is for me. Thank you for reading, see you!