Why can Portuguese speakers understand Spanish but not the other way around?

Plus the consonants in Portuguese tend to change sound depending on where they are in the word, particularly in Brazilian Portuguese. While in Spanish, vowels and consonants do have a more constant pronunciation. A Spanish speaker has difficulty decoding the sounds of spoken Portuguese for this reason.

Can native Spanish speakers understand Portuguese?

While there are some differences between the two languages, most native Spanish and Portuguese speakers can understand each other if each party speaks clearly.

Can a Portuguese speaker understand a Spanish speaker?

Originally Answered: Can Portuguese speakers naturally understand Spanish? Yes, they can. The Portuguese understand Spanish quite well, even if they have not studied it. When I had not yet learned Portuguese, when I visited this country I spoke Spanish and I had no problem.

Do Portuguese speakers understand us better than we understand them?

Portuguese speakers can understand us better than we understand them because the Portuguese language has a lot more sounds which don’t exist in Spanish, particularly the very difficult “ão” sound. I will compare Latin American Spanish vs Brazilian Portuguese, since it’s the ones I have experience on and I can speak for.

What is the relationship between Spanish and Portuguese?

Portuguese and Spanish are in a state of what’s called “asymetrical mutual intelligibility”: speakers of one language, in this case, Portuguese, understand the target language (in this case, Castilian, or Spanish) better than speakers of the target language understand theirs.

Why don’t Portuguese people speak Spanish?

They don’t understand why portuguese don´t speak their language and, like they do everywhere, they think all the others shoul speak spanish. They don’t make a single effort to understand and speak other languages. Sorry but I think they are lazy…. Many words are equal, very similar, or similar between both languages.

How many phonemes does Spanish have compared to Portuguese?

But Spanish only has 24 phonemes, whereas European Portuguese has an whooping 37. And what this mean for modern-day speakers? Spanish speakers who have never been exposed to Portuguese will have a hard time understanding the spoken language.