Portuguese-speaking African countries Portuguese-speaking African countries The Portuguese-speaking African countries (also referred to as Lusophone Africa) consist of six African countries in which the Portuguese language is an official language: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and, since 2011, Equatorial Guinea. The six countries are former colonies of the Portuguese Empire. From 1778 until independence, Equatorial Guinea was also a colony of the Spanish Empire. In 1992, the five Lusophone African countries formed an interstate organisation called PALOP, a colloquial acronym that translates to African Countries of Portuguese Official Language (). The PALOP countries have signed official agreements with Portugal,
Portuguese language Portuguese-speaking countries (Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, etc.) in the world. , a pronoun meaning "you", is used for educated, formal, and colloquial respectful speech in most Portuguese-speaking regions. In the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, is virtually absent from the spoken language. Riograndense and European Portuguese normally distinguishes formal from informal speech by verbal conjugation. Informal speech employs "tu" followed by second person verbs, formal language retains the formal , followed by the third person conjugation. Conjugation of has three different forms in Brazil (verb "to see": , in the traditional second person, , in the third person, and