Interesting facts

Interesting facts about the Portuguese language

Portuguese is a beautiful language holding an enchanting history within its long existence. It is the sixth most spoken language in the world and has its impact on nearly every corner of the world.

Do you live in Singapore and keen to take a Portuguese language course in your city? If you also have fond love to this language then here, a few interesting facts about the language that can make you love the language more:

The official language of 9 countries:

Portuguese is the official language of Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Timor-Leste, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Principe, Sao Tome, Equatorial Guinea and Cape Verde. Additionally, Portuguese is also an official language of the Chinese autonomous territory Macau. According to a UNESCO report, Portuguese is a potential candidate for being an international communication language.

2nd fastest-growing European language:

After English, Portuguese is the 2nd fastest growing language in the world because of multiple speakers around the world. The language is frequently used for communication in different corners of the world like South America, Asia, Africa, Europe and many other parts.

English words from Portuguese origin:

There are numerous words in the English language that shares its soul with the Portuguese language. Here are lists of a few words that have been originated from Portuguese:-

Buffalo from Portuguese Bufalo, Cashew from Caju, Cobra from Cobra-de-capelo, Zombie form Zumbi, fetish from feitico, embarrass from embaracar and many more other words from Portuguese that has influenced English communication.

K, Y and W are the three new letters of Portuguese:

Before 2009 the letters K, Y and W were mean nothing in Portuguese language and have been not used in writing. However, with the influence of English loanwords, these three letters have been officially introduced to the official alphabet of Portuguese in 2009.

Portuguese and Arabic share a strong bond:

From 700 to 1500 CE Spain was under the rule of Moorish. Under the rule of Moorish for such a long period, the Portuguese language has been deeply affected by Arabic. Thus, there are hundreds of words in Portuguese which has the essence of Arabic like garrafa (bottle), azeitona (olive) and more.

Portugal has only 5%, Portuguese speaker:

It is quite surprising that Portuguese which is an official language of countries like Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and other, the major population of Portuguese speaker does not live in Portugal. There is only 5% of the population in Portugal who speaks the language.

The link between the Brazilian Portuguese and Portugal:

Back in 1822, Brazil declared its independence from Portugal. With the passing time, the Brazilian Portuguese has evolved from the original Portugal language. Because of the geographical distance and 200 years of independence the Brazilian and European Portuguese developed different writing systems. To manage the unity of the language in 1990 both Portugal and Brazil countries come to sign an Agreement of Orthographic. As per this agreement, both the countries establish a single Orthography for the language.

After considering all these terrific facts about the Portuguese language have you made your mind to enroll yourself for Portuguese lessons in Singapore? Whether you a naïve wish to learn the basics of the language or would like to take an advanced level of Portuguese classes, picking out an institute wisely is important. The following can help you reach a decision:

Find an institute with skilled and certified staff:

Before, enrolling for any Portuguese language course in Singapore ensures that the institute has well-qualified staff who has a deep understanding of the language from all aspects like verbally, grammatically and as per literature.

Ensure the tutor can efficiently communicate with you:

To learn a language efficiently there must be no communicational gap between you and the tutor. The tutor must be comfortable speaking both Portuguese and the other language you speak. This will help you learn quickly.

Start your Portuguese language course in Singapore with one of the reliable institutes only.