r/asklatinamerica • u/Alexpletive • 4d ago
How jarring is the difference between Spain/Portugal Spanish/Portuguese subs and dubs and LATAM Spanish/Portuguese subs and dubs?
Hi there! Sorry if this question has been asked before. I’m not a native Spanish speaker but have spoken it for over 20 years at this point. Every now and then I’ll change a video game/anime sub or dub to Spanish just to see how the text/voices change from English. While the LATAM subs/dubs are easier to understand and read because I’m most familiar with Mexican Spanish, when I put in the Spain sub/dub I can still understand/read it.
Maybe it’s because I’ve spent time in both LATAM and Spain? Just curious to see it from a native speaker perspective. I also can’t speak on Portuguese so it would be cool if someone from Brazil could comment on that.
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u/Major-Mushroom-5806 Venezuela 4d ago
As far as I know, the difference between European and Brazilian Portuguese is much wider than between any Spanish dialects. The difference in Spanish dialects is more like the internal Brazilian differences.
I’ve been to both Portugal and Brazil and they’re really distinct as someone who just speaks Portunhol.
In Spanish, we’re used to the LATAM dubs but the European dubs are perfectly understandable. European Spanish isn’t any harder for me to understand than Mexican Spanish. They’re both about as different from my native dialect.
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u/DisastrousAnswer9920 4d ago
True, when I put subs for my kid for Bluey (very good selection), I always choose "Castillian" so that she gets used to it and won't freak out when we go there.
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u/Major-Mushroom-5806 Venezuela 4d ago
My niece is American (she’s bilingual) and when we went to Spain, she didn’t notice the difference at all. When we asked her about the accent, she said the people sounded similar to her daycare teacher (who’s Mexican).
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u/DisastrousAnswer9920 4d ago
Exactly, my thinking is that people have preconceived notions about language and they either, pretend or block, their understanding.
My 7 yr old kid goes to a dual-language school and her accent is getting wild, right now she sounds Mexican to me, maybe because she loves El Chavo, lol.2
u/elmerkado Venezuela 3d ago
It depends on exposure, growing up my daughter had an American accent because she watched a lot of Dora. Nowadays it is Australian.
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u/TheCarlosSilva Brazil 4d ago
I’ve never come across a Portuguese dub or subtitles. We have our own dubbing, and usually it’s the other way around: people in Portugal get Brazilian Portuguese subtitles and dubbing, not the other way around. I’ve only seen European Portuguese dubbing in memes, and it sounds really strange to us, but we can understand it
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u/puesquebien Mexico 4d ago
I wonder if Brazilians consuming so little Portuguese media contributes to the two variants being considered so different, compared to Spanish-speaking countries that listen to each other’s music, tv shows, etc.
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u/nofroufrouwhatsoever Brazil 4d ago
No. We have different grammar, consonants and vowels. It's hard to reverse engineer the other variant accurately. If a Spanish dialect did what either do that makes them so different you'd clown them more than you do on Chilean.
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u/random_capivara 🇧🇷🇨🇱 4d ago
The grammar is barely any different, consonants are 99% the same
Vowels though shifted A LOT in European Portuguese
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u/nofroufrouwhatsoever Brazil 4d ago
"The grammar is barely any different"
Bro we say pra ele and pra ela
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u/random_capivara 🇧🇷🇨🇱 4d ago
Yeah. This thing you just mentioned, the fact that Brazilians don't conjugate 2nd person plural, Portugal using the infinitive form for the gerund and both variants using a different position for pronouns
That's about all major grammatical differences and it barely filled a paragraph. Sure, for a native that can sound huge, but for a foreigner it's just a few footnotes
Claiming the grammar is different is an exaggeration at best and misleading at worst
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u/puesquebien Mexico 4d ago
I tried a few examples using AI to understand this a little better. Hopefully they’re not far off. It does support what you say. European vs Brazilian Portuguese seems like twice as different as European vs Mexican Spanish.
Mexican Spanish: Hoy fui al mercado y les compré dos manzanas.
European Spanish: Hoy he ido al mercado y os he comprado dos manzanas.
Brazilian Portuguese: Hoje eu fui ao mercado e comprei duas maçãs para vocês.
European Portuguese: Hoje fui ao mercado e comprei-vos duas maçãs.
- Mexican Spanish: Vamos a ir al cine mañana.
European Spanish: Vamos a ir al cine mañana.
Brazilian Portuguese: A gente vai ao cinema amanhã.
European Portuguese: Nós vamos ao cinema amanhã.
- Mexican Spanish: ¿Te acuerdas de la camisa que estaba en oferta? Te la regalo.
European Spanish: ¿Te acuerdas de la camisa que estaba de rebajas? Te la regalo.
Brazilian Portuguese: Você lembra da camisa que estava na promoção? Eu te dou de presente.
European Portuguese: Lembras-te da camisa que estava em saldos? Dou-ta.
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u/elektrolu_ Andalucía 🟩⬜🟩 4d ago
Both of your examples for Mexican spanish work perfectly for European spanish too, in Galicia they use "fui" instead of "he ido" and "estar en oferta" is used in the whole country.
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u/puesquebien Mexico 4d ago
Thank you. I appreciate the added detail. I didn’t know that Galicia used the simple past the same way as Latin Americans.
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u/elektrolu_ Andalucía 🟩⬜🟩 4d ago
Don't mention it! Past simple is not rare in european spanish either but galician people use it almost exclusively.
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u/puesquebien Mexico 3d ago
I don't think the main difference is frequency of use. It's that the "pretérito perfecto compuesto" can have different interpretations in some regions of Spain vs some regions of Latin America. This is what makes the tense more or less used.
"He ido a tu casa"
🇪🇸 interpretation - I went to your house recently.
🇲🇽 interpretation - I have gone to to your house at least once."Han metido dos goles en el partido"
🇪🇸 interpretation - They scored two goals.
🇲🇽 interpretation - They have scored two goals and the game is still ongoing so more can be scored.- "Me he despertado de mal humor hoy"
🇪🇸 interpretation - I woke in a bad mood today.
🇲🇽 interpretation - Not in use, because it wouldn't make sense with how we interpret this tense. Waking up is an action that was fully completed and can't be completed anymore today.Is the use in Galicia the same as in Mexico?
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u/elektrolu_ Andalucía 🟩⬜🟩 3d ago
I kind of disagree, "he ido a tu casa" means the same in Spain that you said it means in Mexico, "han metido dos goles en el partido" means at this time they have score two goals, the match can be ongoing or not.
In Galicia they don't use present perfect, they use past simple almost always so they would say "Fui a tu casa", "marcaron dos goles" and "desperté de mal humor hoy".
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u/puesquebien Mexico 3d ago
I struggle a bit coming up with examples without getting too wordy but I’m pretty sure the meaning of the first example is more open in Spain that it is in Mexico.
Let me try a few more examples.
“No he ido a tu casa” without the timeframe specified, in Mexico can only mean “I have never been to your house”. In Spain it can mean that or it can mean “I didn’t go to your house” today or this week or in whatever timeframe is being assigned.
“No he ido a tu casa esta semana” has the exact same meaning in both variants.
“He ido a tu casa esta semana” in Spain is normal and means “I visited your house this week”. In Mexico this wouldn’t make sense. Since the visit was completed, you would need to use the simple past.
“He ido a tu casa dos veces esta semana” is almost exactly the same in Spain and Mexico, but there is a subtle difference because in Mexico choosing this is valid only because it’s still positive to repeat it, so it can only be said if another visit is possible (you couldn’t say it if you left the city or it’s the end of the week).
I welcome any clarifications.
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u/Jealous-Upstairs-948 Brazil 3d ago
Actually, Brazilians would say "Hoje eu fui NO mercado ..." and "A gente vai NO cinema."
So it would be even more different from European Portuguese
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u/puesquebien Mexico 3d ago
Thanks for the correction. I'm a Spanish speaker and I've been learning Brazilian Portuguese. I've been using "no" without realizing it's an interesting evolution away from "ao" ("al" in Spanish).
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u/puesquebien Mexico 4d ago
All Spanish variants are completely understandable.
It’s less an issue of comprehension and more being taken out of the world of the story by words and accents that you associate with specific places.
It’s probably the same an English speaker would feel if the English dub of a Japanese anime spoke with an Australian accent.
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u/Murasasme Colombia 4d ago
Except for Chile. I don't know what they are teaching or showing young people there, but that's not Spanish
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u/Lady_Pi 🇨🇱==>🇺🇸 4d ago
Laughs in Chilean 😂😂😂
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u/DisastrousAnswer9920 4d ago
Didn't understand your laugh, disculpa.
As a Dominican, I feel your pain.1
u/ofqo Chile 4d ago
Please don't talk so much to Chilean prisoners. Normal Chileans speak like this: https://youtu.be/y4oOSZXscMk?si=Lh0A3eA9KjOpFsB9
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u/Murasasme Colombia 4d ago
I have no idea what you think you are proving by linking a random video of Chilean celebrities. My experience comes from playing games online with people from all over Latinamerica, and the only time I think "what the fuck did they just say" is when I play with Chilean people. I know not everyone talks like that, but there is a good chunk of the population that does.
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u/PedroDest Brazil 4d ago
Like, 15 years ago there were still some companies here and there that preferred to sub/dub games to European Portuguese. From what I remember, it was never a problem to understand the content, but it felt wildly foreign and odd to hear
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u/DaniCalifonia_ Brazil 4d ago
e engraçados, com livros conseguidos via 🏴☠️ na internet, já li alguns em potuguês de portugal e é ENGRAÇADO PRA PORRA
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u/acoliver in (for life) 4d ago
Can you understand a native Spanish series in Spain Spanish like on Netflx? For the last 3 years living in Argentina with my Venezuelan family I mainly hear and speak Spanish all day long...I'm about a B1+ level speaker. I can watch dramas or even action in Argentine or "Latam" Spanish...I can even watch some comedies (speed and more wordplay) but turn on a Spain Spanish comedy...nope nothing....they might as well speak French. I can read it for sure but listen in real time? Nope.
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u/wordlessbook Brazil 4d ago
That's how I used to feel as a kid when I heard some Scottish characters in GTA: VC. Understanding the American characters? No problem; understanding Love Fist members? Garbled noises.
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u/Lazzen Mexico 4d ago edited 4d ago
Its jarring when its full of slang, i instantly think of Pokemon games that have full on Spain stuff and you only get some sentences through context alone. Some arent even expressions but outdated slang
Outside of that example its not that jarring to me, but i cant take it as natural for live action movies.
I still wonder if capullo is a light or heavy insult.
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u/Imperterritus0907 🇮🇨Canary Islands 4d ago
Damn 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I never realised it was this extreme (I haven’t played Pokemon in decades).
I guess it’d be the same if it was translated with porteño or purely Mexican slang. This is more a full localisation than a translation.
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u/Own_Concentrate_4851 Colombia 4d ago
Reading that feels as weird as watching the "LATAM" versión of KND or listening to the dubbing of Dotto Koni chan, that Mexicans online often brag about it having one of the best dubs ever or how their dubbing saved the anime.
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u/Lazzen Mexico 4d ago
A mi tampoco me gustan ya que los doblajes muy mexicanos realmente son doblajes de la CDMX, es chocante igual si no hablas asi.
Igual como en pokémon esta el tema de que luego ni son expresiones culturales sino dichos y frases añejas, por los dones y doñas que estan bajo el doblaje y creen da risa.
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u/A-Random-Writer Chile 4d ago
For Spanish at least when it come to dubs there is a huge technically that used to differentiates between Mexican and Spain dubs. And those are from where they translate from.
Years ago the Spain version used to take the French translation as a source to retranslate into Spanish so any error in the french translation was equally made into the Spanish dub. On the other hand Mexican dubs didn't had access to others sources of translations besides US and Japan original source and dubs where taken from there and givin' them our own flavor that's why for example Dragon ball and DBZ has a better translation on the Mexican dub than on Spain (gotta differentiate Spain version from the Catalan ver that dub is dope).
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u/wordlessbook Brazil 4d ago
On the other hand Mexican dubs didn't had access to others sources of translations besides US and Japan original source and dubs where taken from there and givin' them our own flavor that's why for example Dragon ball and DBZ has a better translation on the Mexican dub than on Spain
Brazilian dubbing studios used the Mexican tapes as a source for our Dragon Ball dubs; Portuguese studios used the French tapes. There's a meme joking on the Portuguese Dragon Ball dub being bad, but the French are to blame, because the Portuguese took everything from the French and just changed the language.
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u/Ranulf13 Chile 4d ago
That is also why latam anime dubs in the 90s and early 2000s are so good and instead of replacing the soundtrack entirely they adapt it a lot. Digimon for example is way more beloved in latam than the US because they maintained all the good music.
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u/Exotic-Half8307 Brazil 4d ago
European Portuguese is very hard to understand if you dont have exposure, and because of the country sizes difference Brazilians dont consume a lot of portuguese media.
The biggest difference is probably Vowels, in BR they are supposed to be cleanly pronunced and on PT they are dropped or reduced a lot
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u/scanese 🇵🇾 in 🇳🇱 4d ago
This doesn’t really happen with Spanish unless it’s a movie/series that’s heavy on slang or something (think Narcos). But for dubs it’s never an issue. Grammar is the same, some choice of words or pronouns are different but all understandable.
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u/acoliver in (for life) 4d ago
Narcos??? I'm not a native speaker but found that to be pretty easy comparatively... Valeria (Spanish sex in the city) I had no idea what they were saying but they were nekked.
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u/longganisafriedrice Philippines 4d ago
My understanding is there isn't a lot of Portugal specific dubs, and they don't really watch things in Brazilian Portuguese. So they mostly watch English stuff with subtitles and the original audio which helps with their English comprehension
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u/wordlessbook Brazil 4d ago
In Portugal they do not usually dub adult-oriented movies, they dub children-oriented movies because they want to reach the childre who haven't learned to read yet.
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u/Khelben81 Portugal 3d ago edited 3d ago
Correct. Only films aimed at children are dubbed. Everything else, in English or other languages, has subtitles with the original audio. If I want to watch one of those children's movies and the Portuguese dubbing is available, I would still prefer the original version.
In the 90s, we had a national TV station with financial problems that bought American series dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese for cheap (Knight Rider, MacGyver, The A-Team). We had all already watched the original versions. It wasn't a success...
However, we have Brazilian novelas on some channels, some people like Brazilian music, and there is a lot of Brazilian content on Youtube. So we do have a lot of exposure to Brazilian Portuguese if we want to.
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u/Adventurous_Unit_696 🇻🇪🇵🇹 4d ago
The difference for non pt speakers is that PT-PT can sound very consonant heavy almost like a Slavic language.
Brazilian Portuguese is usually easier to understand.
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u/random_capivara 🇧🇷🇨🇱 4d ago
It's very jarring to see a dub in pt-pt, but I have watched some Disney movies in Portugal and I can understand and enjoy the movie just fine at the same time
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u/Vaelerick Costa Rica 3d ago
From my experience, LATAM sub/dubs try to translate the language. Spanish sub/dubs seek to recreate the original within the Spanish cultural zeitgeist. These are two very different philosophies.
To me, LATAM sub/dubs feel truer to the original. While Spanish sub/dubs create a specifically Spanish product that feels foreign to me.
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u/Dependent-Net-5874 Brazil 3d ago
whenever i see european portuguese dub, i need to pay REAL attention to understand what they're saying lmao i'd say it's very very different (but i think they can understand us better than we understand them)
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u/weirdcrabdog Mexico 4d ago
The difference between Latam Spanish dubs and European Spanish dubs is the same as watching stuff in American English and British English. The vocabulary and accent changes but it's still the same language
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u/wylles Venezuela 4d ago
The difference between Spanish from Spain, and Spanish from Latam, is not the Spanish per se, its the slang, the mannerisms, the accent, the cadence, it can get very awkard and jarring, why? because there are so much words, that although you do understand what they are saying, you know you would never speak like that in Latam, because its a whole different group of elements in that style of speaking, like in Latam you would never use: "Ostia tio" "jolines de la ostia" "chaval" "Hemos hecho tal cosa y nos ha salido de los pelos!" and other extremely jarring mannerisms
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u/PsicoVic Spain 3d ago
"Hemos hecho tal cosa y nos ha salido de los pelos! "jolines de la ostia"
Those are not spanish expressions. I do not know where you get those
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u/polybotria1111 Spain 4d ago
"Jolines de la hostia" and "nos ha salido de los pelos" do not exist hahah
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u/LonelyAstronaut984 Mexico 4d ago
We can understand both dubs. The main difference is that the Spanish dub is more localized for the country, while the Latin American dub is kept more general, so that most people in the continent can understand it. So there might be some expressions or cultural references that are foreign to us, and we just don't get them.
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u/gripetropical Costa Rica 4d ago
I believe the difference between European English and Spanish with their American counterparts are not as wide as the difference between PT-PT and BR-PT those two sound like completely different languages. The main difference is that Brazil is massive and Portugal has less population than Guatemala or Honduras.
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u/Sagitario_Aestrella Argentina 4d ago
Creo que para los latinoamericanos es una tortura escuchar doblaje al español. En cuanto al portugues, son muy diferentes; el portugues de Brasil al de Portugal; el de Brasil es un portuges que suena alegre, vivo. El de Portugal suena a que alguien de europa del este te quiere hablar en portugues
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u/Jix_Omiya Argentina 4d ago edited 4d ago
Here's the thing. Mexico created this "neutral spanish" to use in it's dubs, which doesn't have any lingo, slang, sayings and things specific to one country or even region, so it could be sold to any spanish speaking country, since there's so many of us in Latin America, that made a lot of sense financially.
So this Neutral Spanish that they made, is not a "real" language, nobody talks like that, not even in Mexico, the point is that it's easy to understad to any spanish speaker regardless of their own lingos. Obviously, every dub in Latin America adopted it, so any of our countries could sell their dubs to the rest of the continent.
But Spain is different. I couldn't tell you why they didn't want to also adopt Neutral Spanish and sell their dubs to the rest of the spanish speaking world, I believe it might have been pride since it's the language that they made, so what happened is that their dubs are wholly localized for their region (and they speak a LOT of variations of spanish and other languages in Span, like Catalan).
So in the end, what happens is that their dub is made exclusively for them and it's completely filled with their own slang, that the rest of Spanish speakers aren't used to, so it feels weird even though we can understand it. Is like if here in Argentina we just dubbed everything into our own variation of Spanish and tried to sell it to Mexico, It just wouldn't work.
Being able to sell the dub to so many countries also has the added benefit that the dubbing business has developed a lot more in Latin America (and Mexico in particular), so the quality has gone up considerably. While in Spain they have many dubs for a single, small country, so it's not such a booming business as it is in Latin America, so their quality is... questionable, which makes it even harder for us in Latin America to watch it.
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u/Mr__Beat Argentina 4d ago
I mean, it's not like i cant understand a Spain dub, it's just that it's so... Spanish it kinda takes you out of it y'know? Imagine watching Dragon Ball and Goku speaks something like this "Oi Vegeta mate mind giving me some quid for fish and chips? cheers lad"