Some English words come from Portuguese, such as tank ( tanque), cacao ( cacau), marmalade (marmelada from marmelo 'quince'), caramel, molasses, mosquito, cobra, breeze (brisa), albino, coconut, zebra, pagoda, Mandarin, buccaneer, fetish, tapioca and commando. The words came from the same languages (usually Latin, Greek or French). Portuguese and English have words that mean the same and are similar as well. It is also an official language in East Timor and Macau.Īlso, some enclaves in Asia, such as Goa and Daman and Diu, in India Flores, Indonesia and Malacca, Malaysia, have Portuguese-speakers, and it is a minority language in Venezuela, Canada, Uruguay, Namibia, and the United States. It is also the official language of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique ( Moçambique), and São Tomé and Príncipe ( São Tomé e Príncipe), which have Portuguese as the lingua franca, but native languages are also spoken.
There are about 240 million native speakers, including the people of Portugal, Brazil, and Cape Verde ( Cabo Verde). The Portuguese language is the third-most spoken western language (after English and Spanish).
