Looking for expert Portuguese translation services? Since 2003, Green Crescent has been delivering professional translation services between English and Portuguese to clients globally. We specialize in a variety of industries, including legal, technical, cultural, and business sectors. Our team ensures accurate, high-quality translations tailored to your specific requirements. Get a fast, free Portuguese translation quote today!
Our Comprehensive Portuguese Translation Services
Green Crescent’s skilled team of Portuguese translators includes subject matter experts for industry-specific needs. We provide translations tailored to all major Portuguese dialects, including:
- European Portuguese (Portugal)
- Brazilian Portuguese
- Angolan Portuguese
- Mozambican Portuguese
- Cape Verdean Portuguese
We specialize in both English to Portuguese and Portuguese to English translations, offering the following services:
Simple Translation
Our Simple Portuguese Translation service is tailored for basic communication needs between English and Portuguese. These translations are handled by a single linguist without further editing or proofreading, making them suitable for informal or personal use, such as letters or initial drafts. While of good quality, they are not intended for professional or formal use cases, as they don't undergo additional quality checks. This service is ideal for quickly understanding the gist of a Portuguese text or when rapid communication is more important than perfect accuracy.
Standard Translation (TEP)
Our Standard Portuguese Translation service is designed for more formal and professional uses. It includes a complete Translation, Editing, and Proofreading (TEP) process to ensure your documents are accurate, clear, and ready for business, website content, reports, or presentations. This service is ideal for those who need a reliable translation that goes beyond just basic communication, ensuring the highest standards of quality in Portuguese.
Organization Critical Translation (TEP+)
Our Organization Critical Portuguese Translation service is aimed at cases where accuracy is paramount, such as legal documents, technical manuals, medical texts, or contracts. Each document goes through a thorough TEP process, including multiple rounds of proofreading and review by subject matter experts (SMEs), ensuring the highest possible precision. This service is recommended for projects where errors could result in significant consequences or where technical precision is critical.
Bilingual Editing
Our Bilingual Editing service for Portuguese translations involves comparing the original English text with its Portuguese translation to ensure accuracy and consistency. This service is provided by experienced editors fluent in both languages, focusing on maintaining the original meaning while refining the language for clarity and fluency. This service can be added to our Standard or Critical TEP packages or provided as a standalone option for external translations.
Proofreading
Our Proofreading service for English to Portuguese or Portuguese to English translations involves a final review of the text, focusing on correcting surface-level errors, such as spelling, grammar, and formatting issues. Proofreading is an essential final step to ensure that your documents are free of mistakes and polished for publication. We also offer standalone proofreading services for projects not originally translated by Green Crescent.
Legal Translation
Our Portuguese Legal Translation service is handled by expert linguists who specialize in various legal fields. We translate a wide range of documents, including contracts, court filings, and patents, between English and Portuguese, ensuring that your legal documents are accurately translated while maintaining confidentiality. We also offer additional security measures upon request to protect sensitive data throughout the translation process.
Technical Translation
Technical Portuguese translations require specialized knowledge in specific industries such as engineering, IT, or medical fields. Our experienced translators are equipped to handle complex terminologies and industry-specific language to ensure precise translations. Whether you're translating scientific reports, technical manuals, or engineering documents, our technical translation service guarantees accurate and reliable results for Portuguese-speaking markets.
Medical Translation
Our Medical Translation service adheres to HIPAA and HITECH compliance protocols. Whether translating medical reports, clinical studies, or patient records between English and Portuguese, we ensure that your medical documents are handled with the utmost accuracy and confidentiality. These translations are treated as critical, ensuring that medical terminology is precisely translated by specialists in the field.
Localization
Green Crescent offers tailored Portuguese localization services to meet the specific cultural and linguistic needs of your target audience. Whether you require Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, or other regional dialects, our linguists adapt your content to suit the nuances of each market. This service ensures your translations are not only accurate but also culturally relevant and engaging.
Website, App, and Software Localization for Portuguese
Our Portuguese localization services for websites, apps, and software are designed to make your digital products accessible and user-friendly for Portuguese-speaking audiences. We handle everything from translating content to adapting design elements and ensuring that your app or website performs seamlessly across different platforms and regions. Let Green Crescent help you create a multilingual digital experience that resonates with Portuguese-speaking users.
Back-translation
Back-translation is a quality assurance process where a text translated into Portuguese is independently translated back into English (or vice versa) to verify accuracy and ensure nothing was lost in translation. This is especially useful for critical or technical content, such as legal or medical documents, where precision is key. Back-translation helps identify discrepancies and ensures that the final text is fully aligned with its intended purpose.
Peer Review
Our Peer Review service involves an independent review of the Portuguese translation by additional linguists who were not involved in the original translation process. This method ensures an unbiased evaluation of the translation’s quality, style, and effectiveness, guaranteeing that it meets your communication goals and resonates with the target audience.
SME Review
Our Subject Matter Expert (SME) Review service is ideal for Portuguese translations that require technical expertise. SMEs review the content to ensure that all industry-specific terminology and technical details are correct, especially for legal, medical, engineering, or scientific translations. This additional layer of review guarantees the precision and professionalism needed for highly specialized documents.
Transcreation
Green Crescent’s Portuguese Transcreation service takes your creative content and adapts it for Portuguese-speaking markets, maintaining the original message’s intent and emotional impact while ensuring cultural relevance. Whether it's a marketing campaign, advertising, or branding, our transcreation service transforms your content into compelling Portuguese that resonates with your audience.
MTPE-Full (Machine Translation Post-Editing - Full)
MTPE-Full (Machine Translation Post-Editing - Full) for Portuguese ensures that machine-generated translations are thoroughly reviewed and edited by human experts. This service corrects grammar, syntax, and terminology errors, ensuring that the final product is both accurate and natural in the target language. It’s ideal for business-critical documents that require a higher level of precision and readability.
MTPE-Light (Machine Translation Post-Editing - Light)
MTPE-Light (Machine Translation Post-Editing - Light) offers a quicker, more cost-effective solution for Portuguese translations. While it doesn't deliver the same level of polish as MTPE-Full, it ensures the overall meaning is clear and that key errors are corrected. This service is best suited for internal communications or when speed and cost are the main priorities.
Additional Language Services and Options for Portuguese
Certified Translation
Green Crescent offers certified translations of a wide range of official documents, including birth, marriage, and death certificates, diplomas, academic transcripts, passports, and more, between Portuguese and English. Our certified translations meet legal standards and are widely accepted by authorities, ensuring accuracy and compliance. You can request physical copies of our certificates of translation to be mailed directly to your home or office.
Rush Service
For urgent translation needs, Green Crescent provides expedited Portuguese translation services. While we strive to meet tight deadlines, it's important to note that rush requests may affect pricing and quality consistency. We recommend contacting a project manager to discuss your specific requirements and deadlines.
Discounts
We offer volume discounts for large projects, long-term clients, and organizations such as non-profits, charities, NGOs, and government agencies. These discounts ensure affordability without compromising the quality of our Portuguese translation services.
Minimum Fee
Green Crescent has a minimum project fee of $75.00 USD per language, which can be reduced or waived for ongoing clients or special projects, depending on volume and frequency of service.
Additional Language Services
In addition to Portuguese translation, Green Crescent offers a variety of language services including interpretation, transcription, website development and design, and desktop publishing. We are equipped to handle diverse Portuguese-language projects, whether for personal, professional, or technical purposes.
Brazilian Portugese
For more details on Brazilian Portuguese and its unique linguistic characteristics, click here to visit our Brazilian Portuguese services page.
About the Portuguese Language
Portuguese is spoken by over 250 million people worldwide, making it the sixth most spoken language in the world. It serves as the official language of several countries, including Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe, with Brazil accounting for the majority of Portuguese speakers. As a Romance language, Portuguese shares roots with Spanish, Italian, and French, but it has evolved with distinct grammatical structures, vocabulary, and phonetics that give it a unique identity. Portuguese is also one of the official languages of the European Union, the African Union, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).
Where is Portuguese Spoken?
Portuguese is the official language of nine countries across four continents: Portugal in Europe; Brazil in South America; Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe in Africa; and East Timor in Asia. Additionally, there are sizable Portuguese-speaking communities in countries like Luxembourg, the United States, Canada, France, Switzerland, and South Africa. The language has also had a profound influence on creole languages spoken in parts of Asia and Africa, where it remains an integral part of the cultural and linguistic landscape.
Portugal: The Standard Dialect and its Cultural Influence
European Portuguese, often referred to as the standard dialect, is spoken in Portugal and is recognized for its more conservative phonetic structure compared to Brazilian Portuguese. Portugal’s historical role as a maritime empire played a critical role in the dissemination of the Portuguese language across the globe. As the language of explorers like Vasco da Gama and writers like Luís de Camões, Portuguese has a storied past in both navigation and literature.
Portugal's influence on global art, music, and literature is profound. The Fado music genre, known for its melancholic melodies and deep emotional expression, is a symbol of Portuguese cultural heritage, recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In literature, Portugal has produced literary giants such as Fernando Pessoa, one of the most celebrated poets of the 20th century, and Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago, whose works have been translated into numerous languages, extending the reach of Portuguese literature across borders.
Portuguese art, from the intricate azulejos (painted tiles) that adorn cities to modern visual arts, reflects the country's historical ties to exploration and trade. These cultural contributions have made Portuguese a language rich in artistic expression, resonating globally.
Brazilian Portuguese and its Unique Characteristics
Brazilian Portuguese, spoken by over 200 million people, differs from European Portuguese in pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax. One of the most noticeable differences is in the spoken language: Brazilian Portuguese tends to be more phonetically open, with distinct vowel sounds that make it sound softer and more melodic than its European counterpart. Additionally, Brazilian Portuguese has been heavily influenced by indigenous languages, African languages, and immigrant communities, particularly from Italy and Japan, which has resulted in a rich linguistic diversity within Brazil itself.
While European Portuguese retains some formal structures that can seem archaic to modern speakers, Brazilian Portuguese tends to be more flexible and dynamic, incorporating new words and expressions more readily. For example, the European Portuguese word "autocarro" is commonly used for "bus," while in Brazil, "ônibus" is the preferred term.
Additionally, European Portuguese may use the more formal "você" for "you" in less familiar contexts, whereas in Brazil, this form is widely used in everyday conversation, and "tu" is reserved for informal situations primarily in certain regions. Furthermore, Brazilian Portuguese often adopts anglicisms, such as "marketing" and "internet," more freely than European Portuguese, where traditional terms may still prevail.
There are several syntactic differences between European Portuguese (EP) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP) that can affect sentence structure and overall communication. Here are some key differences:
- Pronoun Placement: European Portuguese: Object pronouns typically precede the verb in affirmative sentences. For example: "Eu vejo-o." (I see him.) Brazilian Portuguese: Object pronouns often follow the verb and are attached to it, particularly in informal speech: "Eu o vejo." or "Vejo-o." (I see him.)
- Use of the Gerund: Brazilian Portuguese: The gerund is frequently used to express ongoing actions, often leading to a more dynamic sentence structure: "Estou fazendo a lição." (I am doing the homework.) European Portuguese: While the gerund is used, it is more common to use the infinitive or a simple present form in similar contexts: "Estou a fazer a lição." or "Faço a lição."
- Use of the Passive Voice: Brazilian Portuguese: The passive voice is often formed using a construction with the verb "ser" (to be) and the past participle: "O livro foi escrito por ela." (The book was written by her.) European Portuguese: There's a preference for the reflexive construction or the passive voice but often with a more formal tone: "Escreveu-se o livro por ela."
- Sentence Structure and Conjunctions: Brazilian Portuguese: Tends to use simpler sentence structures and can favor coordinating conjunctions over subordinating ones: "Eu fui ao mercado e comprei pão." (I went to the market and bought bread.) European Portuguese: May employ more complex structures with subordinating conjunctions: "Eu fui ao mercado, onde comprei pão." (I went to the market, where I bought bread.)
- Use of “Que” vs. “Quem”: European Portuguese: The use of "que" (that) can often be more flexible, whereas "quem" (who) may be used in more specific contexts. Brazilian Portuguese: There's a tendency to use "que" more liberally, leading to sentences like: "A pessoa que eu encontrei é minha amiga." (The person that I met is my friend.)
Despite these differences, the two forms of Portuguese remain mutually intelligible, though special attention may be needed when localizing content for different audiences.
Key Linguistic Differences Between Portuguese and English for Translation
When translating between English and Portuguese, several important linguistic differences must be considered to ensure accuracy and cultural relevance. Here are a few of the most significant aspects:
Verb Conjugation and Tenses:
Portuguese verbs are highly inflected, with distinct forms for each subject pronoun. Portuguese also uses a greater variety of tenses compared to English, including the personal infinitive and subjunctive moods, which often require careful attention to nuance during translation.
Gendered Nouns:
As in other Romance languages, Portuguese nouns are gendered as either masculine or feminine, and this affects the articles, adjectives, and other words that modify them. For example, "livro" (book) is masculine, while "casa" (house) is feminine. Translation must take this into account to maintain grammatical accuracy.
False Cognates:
Many Portuguese words resemble English words but have different meanings, which can lead to confusion if not properly addressed in translation. For example, "pasta" in Portuguese means "folder" rather than the food, and "pretender" means "to intend" rather than to deceive.
Formality and Pronoun Use:
Portuguese distinguishes between formal and informal address with "tu" (informal) and "você" (formal), particularly in Portugal, where formality is more rigidly observed than in Brazil. This distinction affects verb conjugations and tone, making it crucial to understand the context and audience when translating.
By understanding these linguistic and cultural nuances, we ensure that your Portuguese translations are accurate, culturally appropriate, and effective for reaching your target audience, whether in Portugal or any Portuguese-speaking region.
An Insight into Portuguese Wit and Expression
This passage is from O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis by José Saramago, first published in 1984. Saramago's complex narratives are a pillar of 20th-century Portuguese literature.
- Portuguese: "Sabemos cada vez menos, mas com mais precisão."
- English Translation: "We know less and less, but with more precision."