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Description
Most materials used in Brazilian research are written in Portuguese, because of the importance of the Roman Catholic Church to Brazil’s history, you may find several other languages in Brazilian records. These include Latin, German, Italian, Polish, and other languages of European ethnic immigrants, such as Japanese.

Portuguese grammar may affect the way names appear in genealogical records. For help in understanding name variations, see Brazil Names, Personal. You do not need to speak or read Portuguese to do research in Brazilian records. However, you will need to know some key words and phrases to understand the records.

Word List
For a complete word list and help researching in Brazilian records, see:
 * Portuguese Genealogical Word List

But for a quick list:

DAYS: In some genealogical records, numbers are written out, especially true with dates. The following list gives the cardinal (1, 2, 3) and the ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd) versions of each number. In Portuguese, days of the month are written in ordinal form.

Alphabet and Pronunciation
Portuguese uses the same 26 letters, but he K and W are used only in words that are not of Portuguese origin. However, some letters in Portuguese can carry accent marks that indicate how to pronounce the letter, or which syllable in a word is stressed. ''The accent marks include: (agudo á, é, í, ó, ú); (cedilha ç); (circunflexo ê, ô); (grave à, è); (til ã, ẽ, õ, ũ); (trema ü)''

Language Aids and Dictionaries
The FamilySearch Wiki has genealogical word lists for Portuguese, German, Latin, Polish), and Spanish. There is also a Portuguese Letter-writing Guide to help write to Brazil.

Brazilian Dictionary

Additional Resources
See the FamilySearch tutorials on "Reading Portuguese Handwritten Records"

The following books and English-Portuguese dictionaries can also aid you in your research. You can find these and similar material at many research libraries.

Ferreira, Júlio Albino. Dicionário Inglês- português, Português-inglês. Porto, Portugal: Edit. Domingos Barreira, 1979. ; film item 1

Vieyra, Anthony. Dictionary of Portuguese and English languages. London: 1827. item 5 The Family History Library has only part two, English- Portuguese.