Script guide › Latin
French vs Portuguese
French and Portuguese sit in the same corner of the writing-system map — Grafle's Latin group — and players mix them up constantly. Here's the fastest way to tell them apart.
The tell
Both use ç — but Portuguese adds the nasal ã (não, coração), while French stacks accents like é/ê and elides with apostrophes.
Side by side
French
Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux.
Liberté, égalité, fraternité — la devise française.
Ça va? C'est la vie, mon ami!
French's own tells
- Watch for the accents é/è/ê, the cedilla ç (ça, français), and apostrophes: l', d', c'est.
- Words like les, des, et, dans give it away fast.
On signs in:
- France
- Canada
- Belgium
- Switzerland
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Madagascar
- Cameroon
- Ivory Coast
- Niger
- Burkina Faso
- Mali
- Senegal
- Chad
- Guinea
- Rwanda
- Burundi
- Benin
- Haiti
- Togo
- Central African Republic
- Republic of the Congo
- Gabon
- Djibouti
- Comoros
- Luxembourg
- Vanuatu
- Seychelles
- Mauritius
- French Guiana
- New Caledonia
Portuguese
Todos os seres humanos nascem livres, com razão e coração.
Ordem e Progresso — a inscrição na bandeira do Brasil.
A saudade é a memória do coração.
Portuguese's own tells
- The nasal tilde ã (não, razão, coração) is the giveaway — Spanish never uses it.
- Also uses ç and words ending in -ão.
On signs in:
- Portugal
- Brazil
- Angola
- Mozambique
- Guinea Bissau
- East Timor
- Cape Verde
- São Tomé and Príncipe