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Yes. I am not portuguese speaking and when I go to a portuguese speaking country I understand almost every thing if they speak slow to me. Spanish is my mother language.

Many Spanish speakers claim Italian is easier to understand, while some think Portuguese is easier. The truth is, If an average Spanish speaker pays close attention and makes an effort, they will see that Portuguese is much easier to understand than Italian, as Portuguese shares a lot more words in common with our language than Italian and the grammar is a lot more identical. The only thing that inhibits understanding on the Spanish side is their pronunciation and their nasal sounds which don't exist in Spanish, as Spanish only has five simple sounds and Portuguese has about fourteen or so. This is why Portuguese speakers understand Spanish speakers much better than the other way around.

Spanish speakers can sort of understand Portuguese, since both languages share a lot of vocabulary, especially since both of them are Romance languages. Spain and Portugal were already sharing a common border by the time both countries were claiming territory overseas, so most Spaniards are familiar with the sound of Portuguese, which is more "fluid" than that of Spanish. The different phonetics of each language makes comprehension rather iffy. If the speaker of one language speaks slowly, the speaker of the other language can understand most of it.

So, David was speaking Portuguese and the driver knew it was Portuguese, but I doubt he'd be able to understand any of it.

I have found from personal experience that spoken Spanish and Portuguese can be understood if spoken slowly by the speaker of either language,but the written language is very hard to understand.

Back in the day when I was a know it all,I received my first letter from my Brazilian pen-pal,Luzia de Araujo Yatsuda.Her English was horrible.I barely understood it.So I thought,Uruguay,Paraguay,Argentina,Peru and so forth.All of South America speaks Spanish!

So I thought I would write to Luzia in her native language and surprise her.So I wrote to her in Spanish.

In her reply,Luzia told me that she had to go the university to request a translation.She informed that the language of Brazil is Portuguese.

I then went to the library and book stores and got books,cassettes and dictionaries and taught myself Portuguese.We then communicated in Portuguese since my Portuguese was a whole world better than her English.

I found Spanish and Portuguese to have so many similarities that I had just a bit of difficulty learning Portuguese.I can now read it and write it quite well,but have difficulty speaking it because I don't have anyone with whom to speak it.

Spanish: ¿dónde estoy?

Portuguese: onde estou eu?

Of course we Spanish speakers can understand Portuguese speakers, when necessary. but it will be necessary for both sides to speak slowly. For words that are not the same nor cognates nor similar in sound, there is always the possibility of vividly describing what one means. There is no way a Portuguese speaker won't be able to understand a Spanish speaker in an urgent situation, not like Spanish versus English, or English versus Russian.

Also, the same applies for the pair Spanish-Italian, but not for Spanish-French.

There is a reason why it is easier for a Portuguese speaker to understand Spanish, than vice versa.

Portuguese has 9 vowel sounds + 5 nasal vowel.

Spanish has only 5 vowel sounds, which in fact is one of the most basic phonetic system in any language in the world.

As you can see, because Portuguese has several sounds spanish does not have, it is more difficult for a spanish speaker to understand Portuguese.

Interesting enough, everytime I travel to Hispanic America, no one can ever understand what I'm saying in Portuguese.

Some can, It's easier for portuguese speakers to understand spanish from what I've seen, but spanish speaker can understand portugese as well because of the similarities

In the main yes we Spanish speakers can understand at

least the gist of what is being said, as some words are very similar. Italian is also understood to a certain extent too.

some phrases will make sense since both languages are similar but a Spanish speaker will not be able to understand Portuguese fully without studying it

I learned Spanish and lived in the country for 14 years,so it is almost like my mother tong and can understand Portuguese very well. Nevertheless the Brazilian pronunciation makes it quite a bit harder for me to get the meaning of what they are saying.