Portuguese for Catalan speakers
You already know more Portuguese than you think. Of the 2,264 everyday words in Cognata, 1,626 have a Catalan cognate — the same word, reshaped by centuries of speech. Start from those, learn the regular changes that link the two languages, and keep the false friends in sight.
Sets your pairing to Catalan → Portuguese and opens the cognates.
- share a source
- 72%
- inherited on both sides
- 25%
- to learn fresh
- 28%
2,264 words compared
Words you already know
Everyday words whose Catalan and Portuguese forms come from the same source.
The sound laws between them
Regular changes that turn a Catalan word into its Portuguese cognate — learn one and it pays out across hundreds of words.
- Stressed short E breaks into iee [ɛ] (no diphthong); i next to a palatal (llit)e [ɛ] (no diphthong)PETRAMpedrapedra
- Stressed short O breaks into ue / uo / euo [ɔ] (no diphthong)o [ɔ] (no diphthong)NOVUMnounovo
- French stressed free A becomes ea (kept)a (kept)MAREmarmar
- French fronts long U to [y]u [u] (kept)u [u] (kept)LŪNAMllunalua
- AU becomes ooou (said [o] in Brazil)AURUMorouro
- French vowel + nasal becomes a nasal voweloral vowel; final n after the stress lost (pa, vi)nasal vowel or diphthong too (pão, bom, fim)PĀNEMpapão
- Spanish initial F- becomes h- (silent)f- keptf- keptFĪLIUM (fr. from nom. FĪLIUS)fillfilho
- Voiceless stops between vowels softenb (v) d g; p t c again at the end of a word (amic, agut)b (v) d gVĪTAMvidavida
- C before E and Is (c, ç); between vowels lost, or u at the end (veí, deu)s (c, ç); z [z] between vowelsCAELUMcelcéu
- French CA becomes chaca keptca keptCABALLUMcavallcavalo
- Initial I- (J-) and G before E, Ij, g [ʒ]j, g [ʒ]IOCUMjocjogo
- B and V merge in Spanishmerged as in Spanish (Central Catalan); v kept in Balearic and parts of Valenciav kept; B between vowels → vVĪNUMvivinho
- Germanic W- becomes gu- / g-gu- ([gw] before a, o; [g] before e, i)gu- ([gw] before a, o; [g] before e, i)Germanic *WERRAguerraguerra
- L before a consonant becomes ul kept (altre, falç)al → ou, oi in some words (outro, foice); written l elsewhere, said [w] in BrazilALTERUMaltreoutro
- CTit, t (the i absorbed by the vowel: nit, fet)it (i + t)NOCTEMnitnoite
- L + yodll [ʎ]lh [ʎ]FOLIAMfullafolha
- C'L inside a wordll [ʎ]lh [ʎ]OCULUMullolho
- CL-, PL-, FL- at the start of a wordcl- pl- fl- (kept)ch- [ʃ]CLĀVEMclauchave
- NN, GN and N + yodny [ɲ], also from NN (any)nh [ɲ]; NN → nANNUManyano
- S + consonant at the start of a wordes-es-STELLAMestrellaestrela
- French loses S before a consonant (^)s kepts keptFESTAMfestafesta
- Italian assimilates clusterssimplified: pt → t, mn → n; x → ix [ʃ]simplified: pt → t, mn → n; x → ss or ix [jʃ]SEPTEMsetsete
- Final vowelsdropped except -a (said [ə]); -e kept after clusters-o, -a, -e kept (said [u], [ɐ], [i]); -e dropped after a single r, l, s, z, nLUPUMlloplobo
- Plurals: -s or -i-s, -es (from the accusative)-s, -es (from the accusative)LUPŌS (acc.) / LUPĪ (nom.)llopslobos
- -TĀTEM: -dad, -té, -tà-tat-dade (-tade after a consonant)CĪVITĀTEMciutatcidade
- -TIŌNEM: learned -ción, inherited -zón-ció (learned); inherited -ó (raó, tió)-ção (learned and inherited alike: nação, razão)RATIŌNEMraórazão
- -ĀRIUM: -ero, -ier, -aio-er, -era-eiro, -eiraCABALLĀRIUMcavallercavaleiro
- Adverbs in -mente / -ment-ment-menteCLĀRĀ MENTEclaramentclaramente
- Single L between vowels: lost in Portuguese, r in Romanianl keptlost (céu, fio, cor)FĪLUMfilfio
- Portuguese loses single N between vowelsn kept; lost where it became final (mà; see final-n)lost, nasalizing the vowel (lã, mão); later often oral (lua, boa) or nh (vinho)LĀNAMllanalã
- Romanian turns velars into labialsit/t, ix [ʃ], ny; qu, guit, x [ʃ], nh; qu, guOCTŌvuitoito
- Romanian T, D, S before i become ț, z, șt, d, s keptkept; t, d said [tʃ], [dʒ] before i in Brazil (dia)DĪCEREdirdizer
- Catalan drops -n at the end of a wordlost (pa, vi); back in the plural (pans, vins)nasal vowel or diphthong (pão, vinho, bom)PĀNEMpapão
False friends to watch
No classic traps between these two in Cognata yet — but every word page flags the ones it knows.
Words to learn fresh
Common words where Portuguese went its own way.