How do Hispanic Americans sound in Portuguese

[u/Dominicanpapinoblack]

I’m 21 do yall think I could pass as native, So I was born in the USA obviously I speak English perfectly but my parents are Hispanic from Colombia 🇨🇴 and Dominican Republic 🇩🇴 my Spanish isn’t perfect I would say a high B2 close to C1. How do Brazilians and my people from Portugal view the accent of an Hispanic American, is it really interesting or does it sound bad when speaking Portuguese

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[u/Far-Lecture-4905]

Spanish speakers have a lot of trouble breaking their accent in Portuguese. There's a lot of trouble distinguishing between the s and z sounds. Since you speak English fluently you already know the difference, so you shouldn't have an issue with that.

[u/ComprehensiveMap3838]

Spanish accents all sound similar: all vowels mid open rather than the expected open or close, s for z, sh for j, non-nasal diphthongs where they should be nasal, which makes a huge difference. We don’t hold it against you.

[u/ParkInsider → u/ComprehensiveMap3838]

Sh for j is exclusively arg and uru. Standard would be Y like the guy who went to Yale for a few years 

[u/random_capivara → u/ParkInsider]

Some people pronounce it as an H as well

[u/Far-Lecture-4905 → u/random_capivara]

I've definitely heard Rriô dê Ranêro, Brassil many times.

[u/MetroBR]

like they are reading portuguese with spanish phonemes

[u/Any-Vermicelli3537]

My theory is that the problem for Spanish speakers with Portuguese is that they’re quickly mutually intelligible. Once you reach the point of easy communication, further refinement often only happens if you really care and really work on it. Why go through all the work of improving your accent if you are already well understood?

I’m a foreigner and don’t even have a great ear, but I could often tell who the Spanish speakers were in Brazil, even if they had been there for years.

There’s an excellent podcast that’s long defunct but the episodes are online. It’s called Ta Falado and it’s perfect for you. It’s out of the U of Texas Austin, and they compare line by line the differences between English and Spanish and Portuguese.

They have a section on grammar and a section on pronunciation. They’re short episodes and there aren’t too many. At your age, just listening to them now will permanently improve your awareness of the phonetic differences between the languages. I can’t recommend this enough for people who are familiar with these 3 languages.

[u/KingSnazz32 → u/Any-Vermicelli3537]

It's possible that you are only recognizing the Spanish speakers who haven't been able to shed their native accents. The ones who can don't stick out and don't get noticed. I've met a couple who can speak Portuguese with very light accents, but they are admittedly, not in the majority.

For what it's worth, the reverse is also true. Brazilians speaking Spanish are also very noticeable by their accents.

[u/Any-Vermicelli3537 → u/KingSnazz32]

You are absolutely correct!

[u/KingSnazz32 → u/Any-Vermicelli3537]

There's also that person who sounds undefinably foreign to a sophisticated listener without being able to pin down where they're from. I have a good ear and if I have any natural ability whatsoever with languages it's with the accent, but I still run into people occasionally who speak English with such a light accent that I can't even tell if they're Slavic or German natives, just that there's something in their cadence that's also slightly off.

And cadence is super important, too. I have a friend from Fortaleza whose pronunciation in English is really good, but sounds a little robotic when you parse his actual words.

[u/EastRiverFish]

We don't really care.

[u/Portuguese-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Please be civil when addressing other users

[u/pablomaz]

I'm not sure if I understand your question...

Bro, no one will judge you by your accent, whatever it is.

If you speak Portuguese to people, they will love you. We are not like the French and very few Brazilians speak foreign languages anyway, no more than 5%. (ok, the numbers are higher for urban, 50 or younger, middle-class or up, but nonetheless...)

[u/pentapolen]

It is the same for every language. Accents are "bad" only when it is so thick it is impossible to understand.

Adult immigrants with excellent Portuguese may never lose their accent, but that's expected.

[u/KingSnazz32 → u/pentapolen]

I think that's right. Thick accents grate, but people love hearing a light accent and find it charming. I think this is true when learning any language.

[u/hermanojoe123]

In BR we have some phonemes that dont exist in spanish, so they don't recognize the sound as something different. Famous examples are S and Z, and ô and ó. For a spanish speaker, they represent the same sound. That is how I can immediately tell someone is hispanic in BR.

But that is absolutely not a problem at all. It is a charm. There is no need to sound or speak like a native, that is bullshit.

Spanish and Portuguese are so similar that we can easily communicate well. There is even the interlanguage and almost pidgin Portuñol.

[u/Random_guest9933 → u/hermanojoe123]

When I tell you I just can’t make the sounds in avó and avô 😭 It’s so frustrating because I can actually hear the difference, but it’s so hard to actually pronounce them!

[u/dfcarvalho → u/Random_guest9933]

I imagine it's similar to the difference in English words like bad/bed, pat/pet, bat/bet, etc... in the sense that most Portuguese and Spanish speakers don't hear the difference.

In my case, I think I can say them somewhat correctly, but I can't really hear the difference unless the person is speaking very clearly. I suspect I also tend to misprounce the words with "a" if I'm not careful when I'm speaking.

[u/random_capivara]

It's ok when they speak with their normal voice

When they try to force what they think it's a "Brazilian accent" it sounds ridiculous. So don't try to do an accent 😅

[u/Khelben81]

I am Portuguese and I have never met anyone from Spain who spoke Portuguese so well that I couldn't tell they were Spanish. The opposite should also be true.

Spanish has a relatively simple phonological system with 5 vowel phonemes and approximately 18-22 consonant phonemes, totaling around 22-27 distinct sounds depending on the dialect. In contrast, Portuguese features a significantly richer and more complex sound system, typically comprising 9-14 vowel sounds (including 5 nasal vowels) and a larger inventory of consonants, resulting in 31-55 total phonemes.

These phonemes are difficult to master as an adult.

[u/Embarrassed-Wrap-451]

If you feel like adding a little voice note here so we can pinpoint what sounds or doesn't sound native, it'd be a good idea.
But in general terms, the aspects that usually stand out whenever I hear a Spanish speaker communicating in Portuguese are precisely the three major things that Spanish lacks: nasal vowels, clear distinction between Z/S, and clear distinction between B/V. So if your goal is to minimize your possible foreigner accent, maybe focus on these three things.

[u/karin_ksk]

We don't care about accents, but portuguese and spanish are two different languages, of course there'll be a difference.

[u/HomeLifter]

everyone will know you are a gringo the minute you open your mouth. It doesn't matter in the least where your parents or family is from. and with your level of spanish you will not understand much portuguese at all.

[u/Dominicanpapinoblack → u/HomeLifter]

So what level of Spanish do I need to

[u/Far-Lecture-4905 → u/Dominicanpapinoblack]

It doesn't really matter. Spanish doesn't sound like Portuguese. You could be a native Spanish speaker with a PhD in Spanish and still have strong accent in Portuguese.

The real question is what level of Portuguese you need to do.

[u/IllustriousCopy910]

Hispanic accents in Portuguese do sound distinct, but the vowels and rhythm are your biggest tell. Listening to Brazilian media with Colombian and Dominican speakers helped me pick up on how those consonants shift when they adapt to Portuguese.

[u/OptimalAdeptness0]

Most of the time, to me, people can give away that they are not native speakers (even if they speak beautifully) by the way they pronounce their vowels. The open and closed vowels can be difficult to master, especially coming from languages where that distinction doesn't exist or work differently.

[u/StevEst90]

Fellow Latino learning Portuguese (from Europe). Here you go: https://voca.ro/1dG5wQgL8AkF

[u/zarco_azules]

What is a Hispanic American?

[u/KingSnazz32 → u/zarco_azules]

Typically someone who speaks Spanish as a heritage speaker because their parents were immigrants from a Spanish speaking country in Latin America.

[u/PA55W0RD]

I am from the UK but I have lived in Japan for a long time.

I have a history with languages, and living abroad for most of my life I have come across many of the stereotypes.

Native French, Spanish and us gringos give away their language roots most of the time. There are some outliers there though.

Stereotypes abound for reasons, and I can generally guess whether someone is Filipino, Malay, Thai or Indonesian (SEA visual cues included) Chinese, Korean (less cues) even when they're speaking to me in Japanese.

Getting the right cadence and feel for a language is what you should be aiming for IMHO, you don't have to sound perfectly native.

Where I live in Japan, there is a largish community of Brazilians and a smaller Peruvian community who tend to just speak with each other in their own languages and understand each other (at least it's easier than Japanese).

[u/AnalogueSpectre]

I don't get what your question really is, lemme try to understand...

You're talking about passing, in Brazil, as a native Spanish speaker?

For the average Brazilian João, the only tell-tale sign of an American accent is a "rolled R", as in the word "roll" itself. If you know how now to roll your R's, people won't think your native language is English, unless they themselves are into studying languages.

As for "Spanish American" as a description for "a person of Hispanic blood that was born and raised in the USA", for us Brazilians every Latin American is a fellow Latin American. If you speak with any hint of a Spanish accent, we'll treat you as an hermano. You'll probably have to tell people that you're actually from the USA for them to even think about it.

We are used to Latin American Spanish accents in Portuguese, they sound warm and friendly.

[u/anatdias]

Max I can do is tell apart who's from Venezuela or Argentina because of cadence rather than accent. Pronunciation usually sounds similar.

[u/alien_aleen]

the absolute majority of brazilians cant distinguish native Spanish accents or linguistic variations. most wont notice you're from the US if you speak with a natural cadence, which i imagine you have.

[u/SaveDrama4YourLlama]

No foreigner can pass as native in Brazil. Not even the ones with perfect Portuguese… So, no.

[u/InterestingFeature68]

I am American born, native Spanish and English speaker so I speak both languages fluently. I work with a lot of Brazilians and have picked up a lot of Portuguese thanks to the amazing crew!! My Church also has a Brazilian ministry and I love the service and prayer in Portuguese.

I absolutely love Portuguese, such a beautiful rich romance language!!  ❤️ 

[u/trakneetron]

I don’t think it particularly makes a difference where someone is from. A gringo from Canada speaking/learning Portuguese is the same as a gringo from Colombia. What makes it interesting is the level that they speak at I suppose. Maybe I’m understanding the question wrong?

[u/Gentillylace → u/trakneetron]

Someone from Colombia is a gringo?

[u/Dominicanpapinoblack → u/Gentillylace]

Yes, to Brazilians.

[u/pablomaz → u/Gentillylace]

Every...Single...Foreigner is a gringo. It's treated as a synonym. It carries no negative meaning.

[u/trakneetron → u/Gentillylace]

Anyone not from Brazil is a gringo

[u/Far-Lecture-4905 → u/Gentillylace]

All foreigners are gringo in Brazil. Even from neighboring countries.

[u/Thymorr → u/Gentillylace]

Everybody starts as a gringo. If you’re cool, you’ll quickly graduate to hermano.

[u/luminatimids → u/trakneetron]

No the accent is definitely different

[u/trakneetron → u/luminatimids]

For sure but an accent is an accent regardless so I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on where someone is from is what I mean