What is the official language used by the federal government of Brazil?

Portuguese is the official language used by the federal government of Brazil.

Brazil became Portuguese-speaking because Portugal claimed and colonized the territory beginning in the early sixteenth century. Portuguese gradually became dominant through administration, settlement, trade, and education. Brazil declared independence from Portugal in 1822 but retained Portuguese as its national language.

Brazil is the largest Portuguese-speaking country by population and territory. Brazilian Portuguese has its own pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical tendencies, distinguishing it from European Portuguese while remaining mutually related.

Spanish is spoken by most of Brazil’s neighbours, which can make it a tempting answer. However, Brazil is the major exception in South America. The country also has many Indigenous languages and immigrant languages, but Portuguese is the federal official language.