English to Portuguese Translation

Brazilian or European Portuguese for a written document?

Pick the variety of the market that will use the document. Brazil and Portugal differ in everyday vocabulary, in the legal and administrative lexicon, and in how formally a business text is expected to read. A Brazilian contract translated into European Portuguese still parses, but it signals that nobody local checked it.

The 1990 Orthographic Agreement narrowed the spelling gap but left the terminology gap untouched. "Computer" is computador in both; a mobile phone is celular in Brazil and telemóvel in Portugal. In legal text the split widens: procedural terms, company types and tax vocabulary follow two different national systems that share a language.

For documents circulating in both markets, the usual answer is one translation in the dominant variety plus a localisation pass for the second, rather than a compromise version that belongs to neither.

How much longer does Portuguese text run than English?

Expect Portuguese to expand roughly 15 to 25 percent over English. It matters in anything with a fixed frame: software interfaces, slide decks, subtitles, packaging, forms. Plan the layout for the expansion rather than cutting the translation to fit a box designed for English.

• UI labels and buttons are where expansion bites hardest
• Subtitles need condensation, not literal translation, to stay readable
• Slide decks usually need one extra line of vertical space per bullet
• Print layouts with tight columns should be reflowed after translation

When does a Portuguese translation have to be sworn?

For official use in Brazil, documents generally require a tradutor público e intérprete comercial — a sworn public translator registered with a state commercial board. Portugal instead works through certified translations validated by a notary, lawyer or consulate. The requirement follows the country where the document is filed.

Typical Brazilian cases are company incorporation documents, powers of attorney, academic transcripts, birth and marriage certificates, and evidence filed in court. Tell us the receiving authority and we confirm which route it accepts before work starts, because a certification the authority does not recognise means paying twice.

What does a translation memory change on this pair?

Portuguese and English are both high-volume pairs, so a maintained translation memory and glossary pay back quickly. Repeated clauses, product names and interface strings stay identical across documents and releases, which is the difference between a consistent set of contracts and a set that contradicts itself.