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.

Portuguese language summary
Number of speakers worldwide243 million
Language familyIndo-European
WritingPortuguese 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:

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.

Spanish language summary
Number of speakers worldwide558 million
Language familyIndo-European
WritingSpanish 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:

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.

English language summary
Number of speakers worldwide1.15 billion
Language familyIndo-European
WritingEnglish 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.

German language summary
Number of speakers worldwide230 million
Language familyIndo-European
WritingGerman 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:

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].

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