Portuguese for Romanian speakers
You already know more Portuguese than you think. Of the 2,264 everyday words in Cognata, 1,278 have a Romanian 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 Romanian → Portuguese and opens the cognates.
- share a source
- 56%
- inherited on both sides
- 11%
- to learn fresh
- 44%
2,264 words compared
Words you already know
Everyday words whose Romanian and Portuguese forms come from the same source.
The sound laws between them
Regular changes that turn a Romanian word into its Portuguese cognate — learn one and it pays out across hundreds of words.
- Stressed short E breaks into ieie; ia before a or ă (piatră); fused with a preceding d, t (zece, țară)e [ɛ] (no diphthong)PETRAMpiatrăpedra
- Stressed short O breaks into ue / uo / euo; oa [o̯a] when a or e follows (poartă, moarte)o [ɔ] (no diphthong)NOVUMnounovo
- French stressed free A becomes ea (kept); â before n (câine)a (kept)MAREmaremar
- French fronts long U to [y]u [u] (kept)u [u] (kept)LŪNAMlunălua
- AU becomes oau (kept); ău unstressedou (said [o] in Brazil)AURUMaurouro
- French vowel + nasal becomes a nasal vowelvowel + n kept; vowel raised before n (pâine, mână, timp)nasal vowel or diphthong too (pão, bom, fim)PĀNEMpâinepão
- Spanish initial F- becomes h- (silent)f- keptf- keptFĪLIUM (fr. from nom. FĪLIUS)fiufilho
- Voiceless stops between vowels softenkept (p t c)b (v) d gVĪTAMvităvida
- C before E and Itʃ (c)s (c, ç); z [z] between vowelsCAELUMcercéu
- French CA becomes chaca kept (câ-, că- in Romanian spelling)ca keptCABALLUMcalcavalo
- Initial I- (J-) and G before E, Ij [ʒ] (joc); g [dʒ] before e, i (ger)j, g [ʒ]IOCUMjocjogo
- B and V merge in Spanishv kept; B and V between vowels often lost (cal)v kept; B between vowels → vVĪNUMvinvinho
- L before a consonant becomes ul kept (alt, cald)al → ou, oi in some words (outro, foice); written l elsewhere, said [w] in BrazilALTERUMaltoutro
- CTptit (i + t)NOCTEMnoaptenoite
- L + yodi [j] (the l lost)lh [ʎ]FOLIAMfoaiefolha
- C'L inside a wordchi, che [kʲ]lh [ʎ]OCULUMochiolho
- CL-, PL-, FL- at the start of a wordCL- → che-, chi- [kʲ]; PL-, FL- keptch- [ʃ]CLĀVEMcheiechave
- NN, GN and N + yodNI → i (vie); GN → mn (pumn); NN → n (an)nh [ɲ]; NN → nANNUManano
- S + consonant at the start of a words- (kept)es-STELLAMsteaestrela
- French loses S before a consonant (^)s kepts keptCOSTAMcoastăcosta
- Italian assimilates clusterspt and mn kept (șapte, somn); x → s, pssimplified: pt → t, mn → n; x → ss or ix [jʃ]SEPTEMșaptesete
- Final vowels-a → -ă, -e kept; -o (-U) dropped after a single consonant-o, -a, -e kept (said [u], [ɐ], [i]); -e dropped after a single r, l, s, z, nLUPUMluplobo
- Plurals: -s or -i-i, -e (like Italian); -uri for many neuters-s, -es (from the accusative)LUPŌS (acc.) / LUPĪ (nom.)lupilobos
- -TĀTEM: -dad, -té, -tà-tate-dade (-tade after a consonant)CĪVITĀTEMcetatecidade
- -TIŌNEM: learned -ción, inherited -zón-țiune (learned); inherited -ciune (tăciune)-ção (learned and inherited alike: nação, razão)RATIŌNEMrațiune (learned)razão
- -ĀRIUM: -ero, -ier, -aio-ar, -are (căldare)-eiro, -eiraCALDĀRIAMcăldarecaldeira
- Single L between vowels: lost in Portuguese, r in Romanianr (cer, fir, sare)lost (céu, fio, cor)FĪLUMfirfio
- Portuguese loses single N between vowelsn kept; a before it raised to â (lână, mână)lost, nasalizing the vowel (lã, mão); later often oral (lua, boa) or nh (vinho)LĀNAMlânălã
- Romanian turns velars into labialspt, ps, mn; p, b (labial)it, x [ʃ], nh; qu, guOCTŌoptoito
- Romanian T, D, S before i become ț, z, șț [ts], z, ș [ʃ]kept; t, d said [tʃ], [dʒ] before i in Brazil (dia)DĪCEREzicedizer
- Catalan drops -n at the end of a wordn kept (pâine, vin)nasal vowel or diphthong (pão, vinho, bom)PĀNEMpâinepão
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.