German to Portuguese Translation

This direction is used when a German document has to be submitted in a Portuguese-speaking country, that is, in Portugal or Brazil. Which of the two is the target is the most decisive question in this direction, because the approval regimes of the two countries are diametrically opposed: Portugal relies on notarial or solicitor certification, while Brazil requires a public sworn translator (juramentado) registered with the commercial registry.

The typical applicant has closed a chapter in Germany or Austria and is settling in Portugal, or is dealing with a business, marriage or study procedure in Brazil: people starting work in Lisbon with a German diploma, submitting German company documents to a partner in São Paulo, or presenting a German civil registry record to a Brazilian authority. The source carries the German administrative world; the target assesses it according to two separate Portuguese-speaking legal cultures.

This double target affects translation decisions from the outset: the decimal separator is a comma in both Portugal and Brazil, and euro amounts are not converted, only their written form is adapted. When the person’s name in the passport, and the umlauts and sharp s in the German document, are carried over in machine-readable form rather than simplified, there is no clash with the records system in the target country. These details may look small, but applied wrongly they cause the application to be sent back.

Technical issues specific to German into Portuguese

The target variety is chosen at the outset: European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese differ in spelling (facto/fato, for example) and in administrative terminology; the wrong variety makes the document look as though it came from a foreign hand. German’s long compound nouns (Aufenthaltserlaubnis, Rentenbescheid) cannot be matched by a single word in Portuguese; they are translated by unpacking them.

On the name side, the German letter ß is matched to ss and umlauts to the machine-readable form in the passport (ü→ue). The company form GmbH is not automatically converted into Portugal’s Lda. or Brazil’s Ltda. structure; the original abbreviation is kept and an explanation added, because the liability structures do not coincide.

The grading system is not converted; the German 1–6 scale is explained and the recognition decision is made by the target country’s recognition body (DGES in Portugal, MEC in Brazil). The noun-phrase-based structure of German official style is rebuilt according to the more analytical sentence order of Portuguese. The date stays in the German day-month-year order, but the month is written out in words where necessary.

The choice of target country determines not only the approval but also the naming used by the body that will process the document: the same diploma is assessed differently by DGES in Portugal and by MEC in Brazil, and the translation is built with functional equivalents that suit each side’s terminology. On the Brazilian side, moreover, the document is expected to bear the seal of a public sworn translator (juramentado), so the layout of the translation is prepared in a way that fits that physical form of approval; on the Portuguese side a different page layout may be needed for notarial or solicitor certification. Telling us the target at the outset therefore speeds the process up markedly.

Which documents call for this direction

• German or Austrian diploma, Zeugnis and transcript
• Birth, marriage and residence records
• Trade registry extracts, signature circulars and company agreements
• Pension and social security correspondence
• Powers of attorney and consent documents

In commercial files the Brazilian side will look for the juramentado seal on the translation, so the layout of the translation has to be designed to fit that requirement. Education files call for a detailed breakdown of courses and an explanation of the degree name.

In family documents and powers of attorney, transferring the names of the parties and the relationships of kinship exactly is necessary if the target authority is to accept the document. Registry and file numbers are not translated but given with a reference to the record.

In powers of attorney and consent documents the formulas setting the limits of authority are preserved to the letter; the precise wording of German notarial language is placed within a formula that is functionally equivalent but well established in the target variety of Portuguese. German institutional abbreviations (i.V., i.A., for example) are not carried over as they stand but unpacked. The behaviour of text length is taken into account as well: information that German compresses into a single long word spreads across several words in Portuguese, and this calls for the line plan to be rebuilt in narrow-column tables. Consistency of names and terms is maintained across all documents belonging to the same person.

The chain of approval

Portugal does not operate a sworn translator system; the translation is certified by a notary, a solicitor or a consulate. Brazil, by contrast, requires a translation by a public sworn translator. The German document is expected to carry an apostille for both destinations.

To clarify these two separate routes and the approval regime of the target country, look at the country page and the requirements for the document type. Tell us whether the target is Portugal or Brazil before you send the document.

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The information below is a guide; for this language pair the level of approval is determined by the target institution. For the requirements in force, consult the institution’s current list of documents.