I've noticed that the Portuguese use "tu" often, not just "voce". Brazilians almost never use "tu", and when they do, the frequently conjugate it wrong.

Hello Cesar, In general both speak the same language, however there are differences between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese *português brasileiro* similar to the differences between British and American English. Some words are different,yet the grammar rules and lexicon remain almost the same. As for the pronunciation there are quite remarkable differences, that makes the Brazilian unable to understand the European Portuguese speaker. Examples for different words in both : A fan is 'ventilador' in Brazil and 'ventoínha' in Portugal. A jacket is a 'paletó' in Brazil and 'casaco' in Portugal. Toothpaste 'pasta de dentes, in Brazil , 'dentifrício' in Portugal. Socks are 'meias ,curtas' in Brazil and ' peúgas' in Portugal. You can read more about it here: http://www.necco.ca/faq_european_brazilian_port.htm

Vocabulary: There are lots of differences, but Brazil has much diversity by itself. Formal writting tend to unify all these regions. Articles: Brazilian Portuguese is extremely flexible with articles. On the other hand, European Portuguese has a more traditional usage, closer to the other Romance languages. Nonetheless, the schools teach almost the same. So, brazilians may have very subjective criteria for the usage of articles in informal and semi-formal contexts. This reflects on regionalisms. Quero te dar automóvel. (br. possibility) Quero te dar um automóvel. (pt) Verbs: Complex constructions may be very different, specially when using the 'gerúndio' after the verb 'estar'. Ele está estudando. (br) Ele está a estudar. (pt) Nomenclature: Grammatical nomenclature may be quite different. Phonetics: The pronunciations and accents may change hugely between regions in Brazil, even more than Brazil-Portugal. But the European Portuguese goes from a little more unclear to highly unclear for brazilians to listen. This, together with the other differences and their rhythm not so familiar for us, makes the spoken Brazilian Portuguese contrast greatly with its european counterpart. And hardly consonants would have different sounds like in the LA Spanish-Iberian Spanish fashion. Quick examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnUHwV9m38w&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnr6Otr7VYE (By the way, I can understand very easily this portuguese presenter.) I hope I could help. And sorry for the text. =]

N.B. The new ortographic agreement tries to unify both spellings. If it succeeds, some former examples I've showed will be obsolete. Personal Pronouns: Most brazilian regions use 'você' for informal, semi-formal and formal spoken contexts, possibly changing to 'senhor/senhora' or 'o senhor/a senhora' for semi-formal and formal. Many areas (like mine) use 'tu' instead. But, as Mister Wright said, the default is to conjugate like 'você'. This has many reasons, not just historical inertia. The paradigms for 'tu' are longer, end with 's', etc., disrupting the rhythm and possibly causing pronunciation problems with the next word ('Vais se matar?' would sound 'Vai se matar' if the rhythm were to be preserved). Anyway, in some contexts, like more impersonal, or formal, or cult, or presumptuous, it's possible to listen different usages. Tu (você-conjugated verbs) - informal and semi-formal 'Tu já viu que horas são?' Tu (w/ elision - only in some tenses) - informal and mainly semi-formal 'Já vis'e que horas são?' Tu (correctly and fully conjugated) - semi-formal and formal 'Viste o horário?' Você - semi-formal and formal 'Você já viu as horas?' O senhor - semi-formal and formal 'O senhor já viu o horário?' On the other hand, the European Portuguese uses mainly 'tu' in most areas and always correctly conjugated. Reflexive Pronouns: Brazilian Portuguese may be very destructive with these pronouns in some regions, whereas European Portuguese is just like Spanish. This commonly results in neologisms. Oblique Pronouns: Brazilian Portuguese may use the pronoun 'lhe' (and its variations) where European Portuguese wouldn't. Brazilian Portuguese uses mainly proclisis, instead of enclisis and mesoclisis in informal and semi-formal spoken language. This may result in minor semantic differences within verbal constructions. Me parece que ele é um belo homem. (br) Parece-me que ele é um belo homem. (pt) O farei! (br) Fá-lo-ei! (pt) [Continue below...]

Yes, it's roughly similar. What happened to american and european Spanish, american and european English, american and european Portuguese is roughly similar indeed. The differences are mainly in the spoken languages, but I'll list some to you: Spelling: European Portuguese uses a more primitive spelling, many times just for marking etymology (mute, therefore). When brazilians use the primitive spellings, they pronounce all the letters and usually atribute a different main sense. Also, since Brazilian Portuguese prefers cult adjectives for non-vulgar word constructions, 'modern' nouns may direct you to primitive spelled or quasi-latin adjectives. European Portuguese prefers to fully adapt Greek (and even Latin) words for the distinctive Portuguese ortography, whereas Brazilian Portuguese would allow you to choose, being the closer to the original possibly more common. Úmido (br.) - Húmido (pt.) Ação (br.) - Acção (pt.) Ótimo (br.) - Óptimo (pt.) Suntuoso (br.) - Sumptuoso (pt.) Próton (br.) - Protão (pt.) Cálix, Cálice (br.) - Cálice (pt.) Fato (br., noun) - Factual (br., adjective) Facto (pt., noun) - Factual (pt., adjective) Trema: This diacritic mark is used in Brazil but not in Portugal. However, the pronunciation is the same. Freqüente (br.) - Frequente (pt.) Bilíngüe (br.) - Bilíngue (pt.) Acute Accent: European Portuguese don't use the accent in some places where brazilians would. Idéia (br.) - Ideia (pt.) Alcatéia (br.) - Alcateia (pt.) Grave Accent (Crasis mark): Brazilian Portuguese may prefer to do not use the accent where European Portuguese would. Pra (or prá, prà; br.) - Prà (pt.) Cincunflex Accent: European Portuguese commonly uses the acute accent where the brazilians would use the circunflex accent. This generally represents pronunciation differences (pt: open, br: closed). Sinônimo (br.) - Sinónimo (pt.) Cômodo (br.) - Cómodo (pt.) but Três (br.) - Três (pt.) [Continue below...]