In this series of articles we overview languages present in any given country. This time we are looking at the languages spoken in Brazil
The biggest languages present in Brazil include:
- Portuguese – 208.31 million speakers
- Spanish – 6.38 million speakers
- English – 8.50 million speakers
- German – 2.13 million speakers
The sole official language of the country is Portugese.
Below you will find summaries for the languages supported by our translation services.
Portuguese
Portuguese is a Indo-European language, distantly related to Ukrainian, Slovak, Croatian, Lithuanian, as well as a number of other languages. It has no country-wide official status in Brazil.
| Number of speakers worldwide | 243 million |
|---|---|
| Language family | Indo-European |
| Writing | Portuguese alphabet |
| Major Portuguese-speaking populations in: | 5 countries |
Demographics and geographic distribution
More than a hundred million people use Portuguese as their language of day-to-day communication. With regard to the number of speakers, the most notable 3 countries are Portugal, Brazil, and Angola.
Around 98% of the population of Brazil speak Portuguese.
Writing
Portuguese employs the Portuguese script, which in itself is a sub-type of the Latin script. It is written in the left-to-right fashion.
Translation services
If you intend to expand to the Brazilian market via the Portuguese language, you might be interested in the following services:
- Portuguese Document Translation
- Portuguese Desktop Publishing and InDesign Translation
- Portuguese E-Commerce Translation
Spanish
Spanish is a Indo-European language, distantly related to Croatian, Swedish, Polish, French, as well as a number of other languages. It has no country-wide official status in Brazil.
| Number of speakers worldwide | 558 million |
|---|---|
| Language family | Indo-European |
| Writing | Spanish alphabet |
| Major Spanish-speaking populations in: | 20 countries |
Demographics and geographic distribution
More than a hundred million people use Spanish as their language of day-to-day communication. With regard to the number of speakers, the most notable 3 countries are Spain, Argentina, and Mexico.
Around 3% of the population of Brazil speak Spanish.
Writing
The Spanish alphabet is used for writing the Spanish language. Being a subset of the Spanish script, it uses some non-standard characters like á, é, í, ó, overall 9 symbols.
Translation services
If you intend to expand to the Brazilian market via the Spanish language, you might be interested in the following services:
- Spanish Document Translation
- Spanish Desktop Publishing and InDesign Translation
- Spanish E-Commerce Translation
English
English is a Germanic language, closely related to Swedish, Flemish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and other languages of the same branch of the language family. It has no country-wide official status in Brazil.
| Number of speakers worldwide | 1.15 billion |
|---|---|
| Language family | Indo-European |
| Writing | English alphabet |
| Major English-speaking populations in: | 35 countries |
Demographics and geographic distribution
There are major English-speaking populations in more than 30 countries of the world. Russian, Hong Kong, and Algerian markets, for example, might be expected to use English in business and daily communications, at least to some extent.
More than 8.50 million residents of Brazil understand English.
Writing
English uses the Latin alphabet. It employs the standard version of the script with no additional, language-specific symbols. It is written from left to right.
Translation services
If you intend to expand to the Brazilian market via the English language, you might be interested in the following services:
German
German is a Germanic language, which is a branch of the Indo-European language family. It has no country-wide official status in Brazil.
| Number of speakers worldwide | 230 million |
|---|---|
| Language family | Indo-European |
| Writing | German alphabet |
| Major German-speaking populations in: | 12 countries |
Demographics and geographic distribution
There are major German-speaking populations in more than 10 countries of the world. Examples of countries, where German has a major presence, include:
- Switzerland
- Austria
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
More than 2.13 million residents of Brazil understand German.
Writing
The German alphabet is used for writing the German language. Being a subset of the German script, it uses some non-standard characters like ä, ö, ü, ß, overall 4 symbols.
Translation services
If you intend to expand to the Brazilian market via the German language, you might be interested in the following services:
- German Document Translation
- German Desktop Publishing and InDesign Translation
- German E-Commerce Translation
Related services
We hope you have found the answers to the question about what languages are spoken in Brazil“. If you wish to know more about these languages or would like to inquire about our translation services, please contact us at [email protected].
