



Cognates are the language learner’s best friend. These are words that are the same, or very similar, in two different languages. If you’re an English speaker learning Portuguese, you’re in luck: Portuguese-English cognates are remarkably common. Depending on your definition of a cognate, there could be as many as 3,000—and many of these are common, everyday words. If you listen carefully to a conversation in Portuguese, you’ll be sure to hear a number of Portuguese-English cognates. You can work with a tutor to learn how to make the most of these helpful words.





In this post, we’ll take a look at 20 of the most useful Portuguese-English cognates, providing additional information where appropriate.





Cognates





Accident

Acidente





Alarm

Alarme





Camera

Câmera





Elevator

Elevador





Family

Família

The English word “familiar” also has exactly the same spelling and meaning in Portuguese, with a slight difference in pronunciation, emphasizing the third syllable instead of the second.





Eternity

Eternidade

Many English words with the suffix “-ty” can be translated to Portuguese simply by replacing it with the Portuguese suffix -dade (sometimes with other minor spelling alterations, like replacing a “t” with a “c” or changing a double letter to a single one). More examples can be found lower down this list.





Intelligence

Inteligência

The “-ence” words are another example where the English word can often be translated into Portuguese simply by changing the suffix, in this case from “-ence” to -ência.





Patience

Paciência

“Patient” is also a cognate: the Portuguese equivalent, paciente, has exactly the same meanings, both as a noun describing a medical patient and as an adjective describing the quality of being able to accept delays.





Problem

Problema





Telephone

Telefone

Be aware that telefone only refers to landlines. A cell phone is either a celular (in Brazilian Portuguese) or a telemóvel (in European Portuguese). Interestingly, this is similar to the equivalent words in US and UK English: in the UK, cellphones are usually called “mobiles.”





Tourist

Turista





Present

Presente

“Present” and presente are double cognates: just like its English counterpart, the Portuguese word presente can mean either a gift or the current moment in time.





Radical

Radical





Organization

Organização

The “-tion” suffix is another example where many words can be translated simply by changing the suffix, in this case from “-tion” to ção.





Director

Diretor

By extension, “direction” translates as direção and “directions” as direcões.





Nation

Nação





Emotion

Emoção





Identity

Identidade

“Identification” also translates as identificação, and “identical” as idêntico.





City

Cidade





Criticism

Criticismo

The “-ism” suffix is another of those helpful ones. English words ending with “-ism” can often be translated into Portuguese simply by adding an “o” to the end of the word.



