Portuguese
Indo-European family · Romance branch · Eurasia
Portuguese is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
Of its word-order pairings, the one Portuguese shares with the fewest languages is Order of Genitive and Noun: “Noun-genitive (NGen)”, the value of 468 of the 1,249 languages coded.
The least common value coded for Portuguese is “Negative indefinites show mixed behaviour” on Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation, held by 13 of the 206 languages coded.
Its closest grammar profile in the atlas is that of Italian: the two agree on 35 of the 40 features both have coded.
Compared with English, Portuguese has the same value on 28 of the 44 features both are coded for (64%).
Contrast Portuguese with Italian or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Portuguese, rarest first.
- Indefinite PronounsMixed indefinites23 of 326
- Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsLexical: lexical stress, diacritic weight38 of 500
- The Morphological ImperativeSecond singular43 of 548
Inside the Indo-European family
Portuguese matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 30 of the 44 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (68%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks 19th from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Portuguese; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
Outside the Indo-European family, the best match is Mandarin (Sino-Tibetan), with 25 of 42 features alike.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Portuguese for 44 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 38 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Portuguese shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Right-edge: Stress on ultimate or penultimate syllable | 65 of 500 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress) | 220 of 502 |
Word structure 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Reduplication | No productive reduplication | 55 of 368 |
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | 406 of 969 |
Nouns and pronouns 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Associative Plural | Associative plural absent | 37 of 236 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, second, three-th | 61 of 321 |
| Indefinite Articles | Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article | 112 of 534 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Identity | 76 of 322 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction | 49 of 207 |
| Definite Articles | Definite word distinct from demonstrative | 216 of 620 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated | 74 of 168 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | 133 of 291 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + normal negative | 55 of 496 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | 36 of 207 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| The Past Tense | Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction | 94 of 222 |
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | 101 of 222 |
| The Future Tense | No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 112 of 222 |
| The Perfect | No perfect | 114 of 222 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system | 201 of 375 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
Word order 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Polar Question Particles | Question particle at beginning of sentence | 129 of 884 |
| Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | Prepositions | 511 of 1,184 |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN) | 542 of 1,225 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object follows verb (VO) | 705 of 1,518 |
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj) | 227 of 481 |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 879 of 1,367 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | 502 of 1,157 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | 437 of 711 |
Vocabulary 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Tea | Words derived from Sinitic cha | 110 of 230 |
| Hand and Arm | Different | 389 of 617 |
| Finger and Hand | Different | 521 of 593 |