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Would it not be better that, when answering, the user would clearly state whether the answer is in Brazilian or European Portuguese?

For example, in this question, if I were to assess by the european standards, both answer would not be completely correct. However, by Brazilian Portuguese, they are - I've just learned lol. I must confess my ignorance regarding this - completely correct.

Also, the user asking will be better informed.

2 Answers 2

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My personal opinion is that specifying which dialect is being used in the posts (not only answers, but questions too) should be encouraged. Okay, not everyone may remember to do it, but the community should edit the posts to specify the dialect when it was not mentioned in the post to begin with, or ask the OP to specify it themselves.

This seems reasonable (to me) for a few reasons:

  • It'll prevent possible conflicts from arising, as well as possible consequent schisms in the community;
  • Though the spelling has been standardised since 2009 between the Portuguese and the Brazilian dialects, there are still many differences in spelling, expressions, words and grammatical nuances (and many people in Portugal couldn't care less about the new spelling reform);
  • Because of the above, not every question will be pertinent in both dialects (see this one and this one for example, which are comparing pretty distinct words for Portuguese Portuguese since the pronunciation differs greatly);
  • Other sources may not always make the distinction, so it would be great if we could stand out for this too, in addition to having top-quality content.

Don't take me the wrong way, I know most of the community will be comprised of Brazilians. But it'd be great if the community could be welcoming to everyone who speaks Portuguese, and help make the language as clear as possible for anyone who is speaking it or at least trying/learning to. The language is tricky enough for a person who speaks one dialect, there's no need for us to further complicate it by not specifying that an answer pertains to a certain dialect and not to another or to both.

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  • I don't think it is reasonable to expect that such a policy (of dialect specifications in every post) can be enforced. Instead, we should talk about practical treatment of the problem, to the extent that there is one. I think dialect should be mentioned when it is relevant, and commenters can ask for clarification when it's unclear. For questions, clarification via tags should be helpful. Anyway, to be clear, my beef is with you saying "in the posts" unconditionally. There must be many Q&As for which it will not matter, right?
    – Frank
    Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 14:26
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    Most certainly! There will always be questions and/or answers that will work for all the dialects, and that will need no clarification. dialect should be mentioned when it is relevant is a reasonable expectation, but assuming that every user will know when the dialect is relevant probably isn't. Of course, tags can replace a piece of text clarifying in the body of the post — in fact it may be the better solution.
    – JNat StaffMod
    Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 14:34
  • Okay, cool; yeah, I am one such user (who will often not know that it is relevant). I think it's better to use both tags and the text. People arriving from google will often only look at the title and text, which should contain enough info for them to determine if they have the same question as the asker. The tag is also useful, though, for site members and/or web savvy visitors.
    – Frank
    Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 14:47
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Not everyone will remember to write "This answer is in European Portuguese", so maybe people can write it into their profile. (As in "All my answers will be in Brazilian Portuguese".)

Also, if there is any confusion, you can always ask/comment and your comment will be there for everyone to see until you (or a moderator) delete it.

If any confusion arises, maybe the author of the post could also include a translation into European Portuguese, like this:

plano de fundo (PT pano de fundo).

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