Gina, as a portuguese from Portugal I'm in conditions to answer you :) Actually, in the world I think there are three big groups of countries that speaks portuguese: african group (mozambique, angola, cabo verde...), brazilian group (brazil) and european portuguese (Portugal and islands of Madeira and Azores). there are differences in the pronnounciation between the groups, lots of terms and expressions specific for each group which makes that sometimes you won't understand but it's perfectly normal you just have to explain what you mean. However, if I go to brasil or angola or madeira...they will always understand you, the roots are the same. In pronnounciation this is what happens: the african countries sound almost like Portugal. Brazilian has its own pronounciation and Azores and Madeira are slightly different from Portugal. This is because of emigrants! Azorian people emigrated to USA and Canada in the 60's and they have always been under influence of USA. You know In island Terceira, there is a USA base "Base das Lajes". About the french part, indeed, when we started colonisation of Azores in 1432, some french people have gone there too! So you conclude: 1)Brazilian can't be compared in pronnounciation with any other country that speaks portuguese. 2) French people helped in colonisation of Azores but more recently USA have more influence. 3)Portuguese language is understandable in any couuntry that speaks it despite the fact that there are some local expressions. I'm sorry for such long speech but I wanted to make you understand everything :D