Because both Portuguese and English are Indo-European languages, some words in Portuguese have a similar spelling to English, and thus it is easy to identify them and guess their meaning. Look at the following list and see how many words you are already familiar with. Then listen to how the words sound when spoken on the CD.

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• acidente

• ator

• adorável

• animal

• automóvel

• bagagem

• catedral

• central

• ciclista

• condutor

• conversível

• criatura

• crime

• cruel

• elefante

• famoso

• favor

• físico

• futebol

• hospital

• hotel

• humor

• idéia

• importante

• inevitável

• informação

• inventar

• local

• motor

• música

• natural

• plano

• popular

• potente

• presidente

• rádio

• respeitável

• sinistro

• táxi

• telefone

Aside from the interesting ways that some of these words end, they can be easily associated with the same word in English. You can figure out their meanings as you read them because they are cognates. Later, you will learn how to pronounce them in Portuguese.

You must have noticed that a few words have the exact same spelling as in English, such as favor, hotel, local, motor. These are true pure cognates because they are orthographically identical and have the same meaning in both languages. Others on the list have close to the same spelling, and also have the same meaning, such as adorável (adorable), bagagem (baggage), rádio (radio), and telefone (telephone). These are called true cognates, meaning that they have similar but not identical spelling.

The way languages evolve led to orthographic as well as semantic (i.e., meaning-related) changes throughout the ages. These changes inadvertently created pairs of words that have similar spelling but different or closely related meanings in both languages. Don't be misled by these “false” cognates. Here is a short list, which you can add to as you learn Portuguese.

False Cognates

Common Suffixes

As you learn to decipher words in Portuguese, some “clues” may help you along the way. Pay attention to the endings of words and related them to corresponding endings in English. This technique makes your life easier when learning new words, and it will help you guess the meaning of words, as well as their grammatical class.

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Common Suffixes and Their Meanings

These endings are referred to as suffixes. These suffixes often enlighten you as to the meanings of the words. A complete list of examples would be too long, but here are a few:

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Portuguese Cognates with Suffixes — ável/ — ível, — al, and — or

Portuguese Cognates with Suffixes — ável/ — ível, — al, and — or

There are also other types of cognates that are similar to English, though not identical:

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Suffixes Similar to English

Congratulations! You were just able to read a great number of words in Portuguese, and you probably understood most of them. Try to see the patterns of similar words as you encounter them in the language. Go back to these words often and try to incorporate them into your active Portuguese vocabulary. If you feel that some of them are too obvious, then you know you don't have to look them up again in the dictionary.

Exercise: Suffixes

Now, try your best to complete this short suffix challenge! Write down the Portuguese translations of the following English words. Check your answers in Appendix C.

• incident:   ____________________________________________

• mechanical:  ____________________________________________

• identity:   ____________________________________________

• unfortunately:  ____________________________________________

• resistance:   ____________________________________________