English to Portuguese Translation

This direction applies when an English document has to be submitted to a Portuguese-speaking country. The target may be Portugal but it may equally be Brazil, and the two countries follow different spelling traditions and apply different certification regimes. The common case is an English diploma going to a university in Portugal, or an English commercial document being submitted in Portuguese for a procedure in Brazil.

The users of this direction include people educated in an English-speaking country who are pursuing a master’s degree or professional recognition in Portugal or Brazil, companies opening their English paperwork to these markets, and people handling family or residence matters in a Portuguese-speaking country. For these profiles the most critical first step is settling the target country at the outset; a text prepared for Portugal cannot be submitted to Brazil as it stands, either in its terminology or in its certification.

Challenges specific to this pair

The first decision is which Portuguese is being targeted: European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese differ in spelling, vocabulary and administrative terminology, and if the target country is not stated at the outset the text may have to be redone. False friends between English and Portuguese lead to shifts of meaning in an official text. Since both languages use the Latin alphabet, transliteration of names is not an issue; the Portuguese accents and tildes (ã, ç, õ), however, are placed correctly.

The second difficulty is at the level of terms and titles. English degree and institution names are not forced into an equivalent Portuguese degree; the original form is preserved and the recognition decision is left to the body concerned. English legal concepts are carried into Portuguese or Brazilian civil law by their function. Date and number formats are set according to target usage; amounts are not converted, only the separators are adapted to the target language. The positions of the seals and signatures in the source document are preserved in the translation with a note.

Third, the document culture of the two target countries differs, and this is made visible in the translation. Brazilian institutions usually expect the document to be produced by a public sworn translator (juramentado) registered with the commercial registry, whereas Portugal accepts certification by a notary or a lawyer; this difference settles in advance how the translation is to be presented. English documents may also come from different English-speaking countries; they are all carried into a consistent Portuguese presentation and the person’s name is written the same way in every document.

Where Brazil is the target, one further fact has to be known from the outset: as a rule the country treats an official translation as one made locally by a public sworn translator registered with the commercial registry (Junta Comercial), so a translation prepared abroad may have to be redrawn on the spot for most procedures; for documents going to Brazil the process is therefore set up by confirming the rule with the target institution. On the Portuguese side, where certification by a notary or a lawyer is sufficient, the route is more flexible. Units of measurement and currencies in the English source are not converted; only the decimal and thousands separators are adapted to Portuguese usage. The spelling differences between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese are chosen at the outset according to the target and applied consistently throughout the text, so that the document suits the reading habits of the institution it is sent to. For documents going to Portugal, where certification by a notary or a lawyer is accepted, it is enough for the translation to be prepared in a form suited to that certification. For both targets, the English original having obtained the necessary apostille or certification in the country it left is as decisive as the validity of the translation, and this step is confirmed at the outset.

Documents for which this direction is asked

Education files lead the way; English diplomas, transcripts and course descriptions are asked for together, for recognition and for the university application. They are followed by birth, marriage and criminal record certificates and by commercial contracts, powers of attorney and company documents.

• English diplomas, transcripts and course descriptions
• English birth, marriage and criminal record certificates
• Commercial contracts, powers of attorney and company documents

Chain of certification

Portugal has no sworn translator system; the translation is certified by a notary, a lawyer or a consulate. Brazil, by contrast, requires a translation by a public sworn translator (tradutor público juramentado) registered with the commercial registry, and this is Brazil’s most distinctive rule. Since the regimes of the two targets are entirely different, check the certification regime of the country you will be applying to at the outset.

Review the requirements for the document type and upload your document to see the page count and the current price on the card above, and compare the unit prices.

This page is for general information; the exact price and delivery date become clear once the document is uploaded. As practice can change, take the requirement in force at the time of application as your basis.