Variation is probably the most consensual fact about SLA. Both linguistic and non-linguistic variables have been pointed out as responsible for such variation in L2 acquisition processes. One of the variables that has been partof the research agenda in the field of SLA for several decades now is language transfer. In its inception the concern with the role of transfer was toidentify the errors produced by L2 learners, so as to devise remedialstrategies in the language classroom (Torrijos, 2009). As research on SLAdeveloped over the subsequent decades, it revealed that the concepts oftransfer and error were rather complex constructs, for the reason that not only concurring variables may interfere in Second Language AcquisitionProcesses (SLA) processes, but also “transfer” and “error” may be differentand similar. Torrijos (2009:148) adds that recent research on transfer has alsorevealed that cross-linguistic influence extends to all of the subsystems of thegrammar, and not exclusively to phonology, or morphology. Based on a sub-corpus of Chinese learners of L3 Portuguese the current paper analyses learner oral corpora of in order to identify the type of transfer phenomenafrom an L2 (specifically English) that may occur in the learners’ interlanguage. The construct of interlanguage is understood here as a perfect linguistic system on its own (Selinker, 1972; Lakshmanan and Selinker,2001; Corver, 2003). As such, our main focus is on the characterization of the interlanguage system, and not to contrast it with the target language (TL).