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In English I can write A versus B, A vs B or A vs. B.

Can I do the same in Portuguese?

Also, is the English word versus also versus in Portuguese?

I need to used it in sentence like Chicago time versus GMT time. So can I say Chicago time vs. GMT time?

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  • @JorgeB. But the sample sentence should be in Portuguese, I think.
    – Jacinto
    May 9, 2016 at 10:14
  • @Jacinto eu só copiei o comentário do Tony e o passei para a pergunta.
    – Jorge B.
    May 9, 2016 at 10:39
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    I know. I had seen Tony's comment. My comment is addressed at Tony too: your question is about the use of versus and its abreviations in Portuguese, so it would be better to include the Portuguese sentence in which you want to use the word.
    – Jacinto
    May 9, 2016 at 10:43
  • My example: tempo Chicago vs. horário de Nova Iorque. I use it in a table caption. One column ls about Chicago time and another column is about New York time. So this is not sports. So I may not be able to use x here.
    – Tony
    May 11, 2016 at 0:30

3 Answers 3

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Yes, you can do the same in Portuguese.

About the use of x: It is very common in Brazilian Portuguese. I am not sure about the use of x (for vs) in Portugal, but Artefacto’s answer gives some hints about it.

In Brazilian Portuguese x is often used in texts about sports matches as well. I don’t like it, but people do write o jogo Corinthians x Palmeiras in Brazilian papers and websites. The hyphen or dash (o jogo Corinthians-Palmeiras) is rarely used for this purpose in Brazil.

I see no problem using horário de Chicago vs. horário GMT (or vs or versus) in a table caption. I would use it myself.

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I don't know about the general case, but in the case of sports games, I've seen what would be written as "vs." in the US written as "x" in Portuguese:

A x B

If you search the Portuguese Stack Overflow site for "x", you will find (hidden amongst all the other uses for "x" in programming) many examples of "x" being used where "vs." would be used in English, both in question titles and question bodies:

But you will also find "vs." used for this, just like in English.


versus is a word in Portuguese, with the same meaning and spelling as in English, but a slightly different pronunciation: /vérsus/ (as this is Portuguese, the final /us/ means English "oosh", not "uhss".) The Priberam dictionary gives contra as an exact synonym, meaning against. In some phrases, contra might be a more natural choice (just as against might in English).

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Yes, versus (abbr. vs.) is used in Portuguese, with the same meaning as in English, against, in opposition to, in contrast with (i.e., not in its etymological sense). Here are some examples taken from CETEMPúblico:

PT: Depois do episódio BCP «versus» BPA, agora é a vez de a Caixa Geral de Depósitos vir a público dizer que vai lançar uma Opa sobre o banco espanhol Simeon.
EN: After the episode BCP [bank] versus BPA [bank], now it's Caixa Geral de Depósitos' [bank] turn to publicly announce a takeover bid over the Spanish bank Simeon. [in 1994, BCP launched a takeover bid over BPA]

PT: Rumores postos a circular em Nova Iorque sobre um possível afastamento do Ministro das Finanças do Japão Hashimoto face aos últimos escandâlos financeiros verificados em Tokyo tiveram alguma influência no comportamento do ien versus dólar e marco.
EN: Rumors in New York about a possible removal of the Japanese Finance Minister Hashimoto given the latest financial scandals in Tokyo had some influence on the behavior of the Ien versus the Dollar and Mark.

I disagree with Dan Getz when he says that x will generally be used instead of vs. in the case of sports games. That may be true if you're showing a table with a list of games, but people don't write (let alone say) o jogo Sporting x Benfica (the game Sporting vs. Benfica). Versus is not used either; they write o (jogo) Sporting-Benfica.

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    No Corpus do Português há uns 30 exemplos de vs, uma metade com ponto, outra sem. Mas também me parece que qualquer abreviatura deve levar ponto.
    – Jacinto
    May 9, 2016 at 22:09

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