Portuguese Translation & Interpreter Services

Portuguese Document Translations for Brazil and Portugal

Is your certified English to Portuguese legal document translation headed to Brazil or to Portugal? Needing Portuguese to English legal translations of ediscovery documents? Looking for a Brazilian Portuguese deposition interpreter for a remote video deposition via Zoom, or for an-onsite Portuguese deposition interpreter?

Answering that question is crucial. That’s because English to Portuguese document translation services aren’t one-size-fits-all. Everything may technically fall under the Portuguese translation umbrella, but the differences between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese are big. If you don’t understand them, your Portuguese translation will never look right!

In fact, if you do a European Portuguese translation and send it to your contacts in Brazil, it will be considered a major insult (and vice-versa).

So, in order to make sure you always make the right impression, let’s go over the differences.

English to European Portuguese Document Translations

Created during the early days of Portugal, European Portuguese is the original version of the language. It’s one of the “romance” languages, so its “cousins” include Italian, Spanish, and French. Portuguese is also related to Japanese, too, thanks to Portugal extending its empire into Asia centuries ago. In fact, several Japanese words are inspired by Portuguese.

A European Portuguese translation needs to reflect the business culture in Portugal — traditional and conservative. You’ll need to make sure that your Portuguese translation is somewhat formal and, even more importantly, extremely polite.

You’ll also need to gear your Portuguese translation to one specific person, instead of an entire company. That’s because hierarchy plays a big role in Portuguese businesses. Whoever is in charge makes the decisions, without any input from the people below him. So, start the translation process out by figuring out exactly who you’re talking to.

The Brazilian business culture uses that same hierarchical structure. However, that’s about where the similarities between these two languages end.

Brazilians are much more informal than their Portuguese counterparts, so when you translate from English to Brazil, your documents can be a lot more conversational. However, Brazilians are very detailed. So, if you’re translating a contract, be sure to include every little thing that could possibly be involved. Otherwise, your Brazilian counterparts probably won’t sign it!

In addition, to being the official language of Portugal and Brazil, the Portuguese language is also an official language of the following nation states in Africa: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe.  It is sometimes referred to as “African Portuguese”.

English to Brazilian Portuguese Translations

Doing a Brazilian Portuguese translation isn’t 100% different than a European Portuguese one, but the differences are big enough that you need to find the best Portuguese translator who translates into Brazilian Portuguese.

One of the biggest differences you’ll see between a Brazilian and a European Portuguese is in the vocabulary. Both languages borrow words from other cultures. However, the Brazilians tend to use the words more as-is, while the Europeans make their own unique changes.

For example, in Brazil, a computer mouse is called a “mouse”. But in Portugal, it’s called a “rato” (“rat”). That’s because the Europeans took the English word “mouse” and changed it to reflect the actual animal, instead of the computer gadget.

Certified Translation to Brazilian Portuguese and to European Portuguese

Why are there so many differences between certified translations to Brazilian Portuguese and translations to European Portuguese?

Because Brazil has, historically, been much more of a melting pot than Portugal. In the early days of Brazil, the Portuguese language was influenced by the African languages that the slaves spoke. Plus, a lot of Asian and Europeans immigrated to Brazil back in those days, and their words started to mesh with the Portuguese that was being spoken there. As a result, Brazilian Portuguese has more “ingredients” than its European counterpart.

So, what do you do if you’re dealing with business contacts from Brazil and Portugal?

Your best bet is to get a Portuguese document translation in both forms. That way, you won’t have to worry about offending anyone.

But keeping everyone happy isn’t the only reason to do two translations. Safety also plays a factor. After all, many of the industry-specific terms that are used in English to Portuguese technical translations are totally different from one country to the other. If your Portuguese technical translator gets them wrong, it can be downright dangerous!

On-Site Portuguese Deposition Interpreter Services and Portuguese Deposition Interpreters for Remote Video Depositions via Zoom

Bottom line — you owe it to your clients to get it right! Contact our Portuguese document translation service to retain the best Portuguese to English legal translators for your cross-border e-Discovery and litigation project today; to obtain certified English translations of the Portuguese documents from Príncipe, São Tomé, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Angola, Macau (Macao), Timor-Leste (East Timor); to hire a Brazilian Portuguese deposition interpreter for an on-site live on-site deposition; a remote Portuguese deposition translator for a video deposition via Zoom; a European Portuguese translator, or a Portuguese to English medical interpreter; to request Apostille services for the U.S. documents to be used in Brazil or Portugal.

We can even provide a Portuguese Zoom deposition interpreter fluent in the dialects of the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira.

In addition to Apostille services and to the certified translation services from and into Portuguese, feel free to contact our genealogy research company to locate beneficiaries and heirs to guardianships, conservatorships, testate and intestate estates, and trusts who reside in Brazil.

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