Do you know more Portuguese words than you think?
What if I said I could teach you 100 Portuguese words right now?
Did you know that about 80 percent of English words are borrowed from Latin and Greek? These words sound similar to many European languages, including European Portuguese.
But not only do they sound similar, they have the same meaning!
These words are called Cognates.
So prepare to be amazed at the words you already know, that you didn’t know you know. Am I making sense? Take a look at the tables below and you will see what I mean!
Words that end in ‘tion’ in English
Now, just think of how many words you know in English that end with ‘tion’ – write them down and change the endings to ‘ção’ in Portuguese. How many can you make? (check the list at the end of this article)
You got this!
| TION | ÇÃO |
| Information | Informação |
| Education | Educação |
| Nation | Nação |
| Action | Ação |
Words that end in ‘sion’
Same goes for these words. Are you thinking that it can’t be that simple – well it can! Words ending in ‘sion’ change to ‘são’.
See how many you can think of. 😊
| SION | SÃO |
| Decision | Decisão |
| Television | Televisão |
| Discussion | Discussão |
| Mission | Missão |
Words that end in ‘on’
You will find that some of these words will have a Portuguese cousin too!
| ON | ÃO |
| Million | Milhão |
| Reason | Razão |
| Billion | Bilião |
| Region | Região |
Words that end in ‘dade’
This ending may not be the same for every word however, you will find it pretty useful!
| TY | DADE |
| City | Cidade |
| Community | Comunidade |
| Society | Sociedade |
| Activity | Atividade |
Words that end in ‘tion’ & ‘sion’
Here are just a few more words that have these endings. How many did you get?
Let us know in the comments below.
| TION | ÇÃO |
| Information | Informação |
| Education | Educação |
| Nation | Nação |
| Action | Ação |
| Position | Posição |
| Situation | Situação |
| Attention | Atenção |
| Organization | Organização |
| Condition | Condição |
| Administration | Administração |
| SION | SÃO |
| Decision | Decisão |
| Television | Televisão |
| Discussion | Discussão |
| Mission | Missão |
| Version | Versão |
| Vision | Visão |
| Expression | Expressão |
| Session | Sessão |
| Conclusion | Conclusão |
| Division | Divisão |
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2 responses to “The Portuguese words you didn’t know you know!”
Excellent !!!
Thank you !