Portuguese for French speakers
You already know more Portuguese than you think. Of the 2,264 everyday words in Cognata, 1,528 have a French 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 French → Portuguese and opens the cognates.
- share a source
- 67%
- inherited on both sides
- 23%
- to learn fresh
- 33%
2,264 words compared
Words you already know
Everyday words whose French and Portuguese forms come from the same source.
The sound laws between them
Regular changes that turn a French word into its Portuguese cognate — learn one and it pays out across hundreds of words.
- Stressed short E breaks into ieie, i (open syllable); e (closed)e [ɛ] (no diphthong)PETRAMpierrepedra
- Stressed short O breaks into ue / uo / eueu, œu (open syllable); o (closed)o [ɔ] (no diphthong)NOVUMneufnovo
- French stressed free A becomes ee, è, é; ie after a palatal (chien)a (kept)MAREmermar
- French fronts long U to [y]u [y]u [u] (kept)LŪNAMlunelua
- AU becomes oo (spelled o or au)ou (said [o] in Brazil)AURUMorouro
- French vowel + nasal becomes a nasal vowelnasal vowel (ɑ̃ ɔ̃ ɛ̃); n/m silentnasal vowel or diphthong too (pão, bom, fim)PĀNEMpainpão
- Spanish initial F- becomes h- (silent)f- keptf- keptFĪLIUM (fr. from nom. FĪLIUS)filsfilho
- Voiceless stops between vowels softenv; t, c lostb (v) d gVĪTAMvievida
- C before E and Is (c, ç)s (c, ç); z [z] between vowelsCAELUMcielcéu
- French CA becomes chacha, che, chie [ʃ]ca keptCABALLUMchevalcavalo
- Initial I- (J-) and G before E, Ij, g [ʒ]j, g [ʒ]IOCUMjeujogo
- B and V merge in Spanishv kept; B between vowels → vv kept; B between vowels → vVĪNUMvinvinho
- Germanic W- becomes gu- / g-g(u)- [g]gu- ([gw] before a, o; [g] before e, i)Germanic *WERRAguerreguerra
- L before a consonant becomes ul → u, fused with the vowel: au [o], ou [u], eaual → ou, oi in some words (outro, foice); written l elsewhere, said [w] in BrazilALTERUMautreoutro
- CTit (i + t)it (i + t)NOCTEMnuitnoite
- L + yodil, ill [j]lh [ʎ]FOLIAMfeuillefolha
- C'L inside a wordil, ill [j]lh [ʎ]OCULUMœilolho
- CL-, PL-, FL- at the start of a wordcl- pl- fl- (kept)ch- [ʃ]CLĀVEMcléchave
- NN, GN and N + yodgn [ɲ]; NN → n (nasal vowel at the end)nh [ɲ]; NN → nANNUManano
- S + consonant at the start of a wordé- (from es-, s lost)es-STELLAMétoileestrela
- French loses S before a consonant (^)s lost; often marked ^ (ê â ô î û)s keptFESTAMfêtefesta
- Italian assimilates clusterssimplified or lost: pt → t; x → ssimplified: pt → t, mn → n; x → ss or ix [jʃ]SEPTEMseptsete
- Final vowelsdropped; -A → mute -e-o, -a, -e kept (said [u], [ɐ], [i]); -e dropped after a single r, l, s, z, nLUPUMlouplobo
- Plurals: -s or -i-s, -x (written, mostly silent; from the accusative)-s, -es (from the accusative)LUPŌS (acc.) / LUPĪ (nom.)loupslobos
- -TĀTEM: -dad, -té, -tà-té-dade (-tade after a consonant)CĪVITĀTEMcitécidade
- -TIŌNEM: learned -ción, inherited -zón-tion (learned); inherited -son-ção (learned and inherited alike: nação, razão)RATIŌNEMraisonrazão
- -ĀRIUM: -ero, -ier, -aio-ier, -ière-eiro, -eiraCABALLĀRIUMchevaliercavaleiro
- Adverbs in -mente / -ment-ment-menteCLĀRĀ MENTEclairementclaramente
- Single L between vowels: lost in Portuguese, r in Romanianl keptlost (céu, fio, cor)FĪLUMfilfio
- Portuguese loses single N between vowelsn kept between vowels; at the end, a nasal vowellost, nasalizing the vowel (lã, mão); later often oral (lua, boa) or nh (vinho)LĀNAMlainelã
- Romanian turns velars into labialsit, iss, gn; qu (velar kept, palatalized or lost)it, x [ʃ], nh; qu, guOCTŌhuitoito
- Romanian T, D, S before i become ț, z, șt, d, s keptkept; t, d said [tʃ], [dʒ] before i in Brazil (dia)DĪCEREdiredizer
- Catalan drops -n at the end of a wordn silent, vowel nasal (pain, vin)nasal vowel or diphthong (pão, vinho, bom)PĀNEMpainpão
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.