There is a lot going on here with many questions you have asked.

The main question I believe you are asking is, can you use a macro lens for portrait photography? We already have at least two questions on this site that address that:

1. Should I use a 100mm Macro lens as a portrait lens?
2. Is a macro lens suitable for distant subjects - wildlife, sports, portraiture?

The second question you are asking is how close in angle of view or perspective is a 35mm vs a 40mm lens. We also have many answers to this question already on this site, but I think heading off to the Nikon Lens Simulator is the best way to understand this:

1. Nikon Lens Simulator - Use this to compare 35mm vs. 40mm(hint, very little difference)

Finally, the two lenses you noted have very different apertures. f/2.8 is quite a wide aperture, but f/1.8 is significantly wider. f/1.8 will let in almost 4x as much light, letting you handhold the lens in lower light, use faster shutter speeds, or simply get a shot that would otherwise be too underexposed. That is a very significant difference.

I would advise if you want a macro lens, to get something around a 100mm macro lens. If you want a portrait lens, the great news is that 100mm also is a fantastic focal length for portraits. 40mm and even 35mm(on an APS-C sensor) is certainly on the wide angle side of what most people prefer for portrait photography. A 50mm or a 85mm might be the sweet spot on APS-C although longer is often used too.