Portuguese translations

The world language from the southwest of Europe

Portuguese in the world

Portuguese (Português) belongs to the language group of Romance languages and has developed from Latin, more precisely from the Vulgar Latin. In addition to Portuguese, French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan and Romanian belong to the Romance languages. Portuguese is now considered a world language and is the official language in many countries beyond Portugal, such as Brazil and African countries like Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Mozambique or São Tomé and Príncipe. Over 230 million people worldwide speak Portuguese as their mother tongue.

Portuguese and its language variants

As a translation service provider, it is important to know for which market or country a Portuguese translation is required. Besides European Portuguese, there is mainly Brazilian Portuguese, which is colloquially called Brazilian. The two variants are the same language, but due to different historical and cultural influences they have developed in different directions.

For example, there are differences in the pronunciation of the two language variants. Brazilian Portuguese is emphasised more evenly and pronounced more clearly, which is why European Portuguese sometimes sounds a bit bumpy and unclear to foreign ears. Moreover, in Portugal the "R" is rolled more strongly and generally spoken faster than in Brazil, which is why European Portuguese is harder to learn than Brazilian in terms of pronunciation for many people.

But there are also important differences in written communication. For example, Brazilian has more Anglicisms than European Portuguese and accents are used differently. In addition, spelling and grammar of the two language variants differ to some extent.

Therefore, we recommend that our customers consider beforehand for which country a Portuguese translation is required in order to prepare the translation for the respective target group. This is because the respective reader expects atranslation adapted tothe cultural area or language region.

Portuguese in Desktop Publishing / expansion factor

Portuguese has an expansion factor of approximately 1.1-1.2 compared to German – in other words, the Portuguese target texts are slightly longer than the source texts in German. Possibly, layouts need to be adapted and require special attention from the translators and the graphic artists.

COMLOGOS delivers excellent Portuguese technical translations with Desktop Publishing (DTP)

Your websites, catalogues, brochures, operating and assembly instructions need to appear exactly the same in Portuguese as in the source language? Our experts will take care of any necessary layout adjustments so that differences in length in the individual languages do not cause you any trouble with complex layouts.

The layout of the target file is adapted by our graphic artists in consultation with our translators so that the original layout is retained even if the target language requires more space due to the expansion factor. The finished layout is then checked by our technical translators before the layouted translation is delivered to you on time.

Combinations that we offer and are requested most often:

Portuguese – German
German – Portuguese
Portuguese – English
English – Portuguese

Your desired language combination into or from Portuguese is not listed here? Then please contact our project management team. We will be happy to inform you about other possible language combinations.