1. Vowels
The letters in Portuguese are not too different from the way they sound in English, and the words are very phonetic. Some of the vowels can get a bit confusing as they are different sounding to the English ones.
Here are your basic vowel sounds.
| a | e | i | o | u |
| ah | eh | ee | oh | oo |
Examples:
You can see that the ‘e’ above is pronounced ‘eh’, but the word ‘and (e) ’ it is pronounced ‘ee’.
A Joanne e eu – Joanne and I
Quero um café e um pastel de nata – I want a coffee and a custard tart
In some words it is pronounced like a very short ‘ee’.
pequeno – small.
The letter ‘i’ is pronounced ‘ee’.
Vinho – wine
Identificação – identification
Cidade – city
The letter ‘u’ is pronounced ‘oo’ and not ‘yoo’
Universidade – university
Bule – teapot
2. Diphthongs
Diphthongs are vowels that make a distinct sound when placed together. In Portuguese there are quite a few of these but they are consistent. Audio is read left to right for each sound.
| ai – like ‘eye’ pai – father vai – you go /he goes sai – you leave / he leaves | au – like ‘ow’ in cow mau – bad |
| ei – the ‘ey’ in the word ‘they’ leite – milk cadeira – chair | eu – like ‘eh-oo’ (gliding) bebeu – you drank / he drank choveu – it rained |
| oi – like the ‘oy’ in the word ‘boy’ foi – you went / he went | ou – between ‘or’ and ‘oo’ comprou – you bought / he bought |
| ui – like ‘oo-ee’ (like the word oui in French) fui – I went constitui – it consists / constitutes | iu – like ‘ee-oo’ abriu – you opened / he opened pediu – you asked / he asked |
3. Stresses
Stress without accents will generally fall on the second to last syllable.
obrigado – thank you
semana – week
dia – day
noite – night
Words with accents are stressed where the accent falls.
está – you are
farmácia – chemist (cont..)
The letter ‘h’ is silent at the beginning of a word, but sounds like a ‘y’ in the middle of a word.
senhor – sir
The letter ‘m’ at the end of a word is nasal. Like the ‘n’ in ‘song’.
bem – well
bom – good
4. The Letter ‘e’
The letter ‘e’
At the end of the word the letter ‘e’ is hardly audible.
onde – where
noite – night
Acute accent (é) a little like the -ey in the word ‘they’.
é – it is / he is / she is
café – coffee
férias – holidays
Circumflex (^)
têm – they have (the ‘eh’ sound is repeated in this word)
você – you (a little like the ‘ey’ sound again).
5. Nasal sounds
There are a few nasal sounds in Portuguese. One is when the vowel has a ’tilde’. The accent that many know as ‘the squiggly line’, this one: ~
ão – Sounds like soun – in the word «sound»
são – they are
cão – dog
The other example of nasal sounds are when words end in m. One way to pronounce this is to imagine there is a silent g at the end of the word. Say the words first using the g, then drop it, to get the nasal sound. (similar to the word sound as above)
tem ten(g)
sim sin(g)
Let’s practice some words and also see what they mean:
Vocês são amigos? – are you all friends?
Eles vão ao cinema – they go / are going to the cinema
Tem irmãos? – do you have brothers and sisters?
As blusas custam 8€ cada – the blouses cost 8€ each
6. The letter ‘a’.
At the end of the word the letter ‘a’ sounds a lot like the ‘-er’ in the word – butter or even like -eh
obrigada – thank you
cama – bed
Acute accent (á) like the ah – slightly longer vowel sound than the surrounding vowels
Farmácia
há – there is / there are
Grave accent (à) sounds pretty much the same as above ah
Vou à praia – I am going to the beach
O filme começa às 6h – the film starts at 6 o’clock (cont..)
Tilde (~) this makes the vowel nasal
irmã – sister
irmão – brother
são – they are
maçã – apple
7. The letter ‘c’
The letter ‘c’ has a few sounds depending on which vowel follows it.
Before ‘a’ it is hard:
carro – car
casa – house
Before ‘e’ it is soft:
cem – one hundred
apetece – feel like
Before ‘i’ it is soft:
cinco – five
cinto – belt
Before ‘o’ it is hard:
cozinha – kitchen
conta – bill
Before ‘u’ it is hard:
cupão – coupon
cura – cure
The c with a cedilha ‘ç’
This is used to make a ‘c’ sound like an ‘s’ where it would normally sound like a ‘k’.
criança – child
caça – hunt
8. Words ending in -r
Words ending in -r are stressed on the last syllable.
gostar – to like (verb)
senhor – sir
professor – teacher
beber – to drink (verb)
comer – to eat (verb)
9. The ‘ch’ sound
In Portuguese ‘ch’ sounds like the English ‘sh’.
Chá – tea
Chaves – keys
Chuva – rain
The sound is the same in the middle of a word:
Marcha – walk/ march (noun)
Fechada – close
10. Pronunciation
lhe; lha, lho
Like the ‘lli’ in the word ‘million’
Diz-lhe – tell him
O meu filho vem de férias – my son is coming on holiday.
A filha dele toca muito bem guitarra – his daughter plays the guitar very well.
Cont…
nho; nha
Like the sound of ‘ne’ in the word ‘news’. Or the ‘ni’ in the word ‘onion’
Pode trazer-nos o vinho da casa, por favor? – can you bring us the house wine please.
Venha cá! Quero falar consigo. – Come here! I want to speak with you
11. The letter ‘s’
How to say it! The letter ‘s’ has a few sounds depending where it falls in a word. At the beginning it is just like the ‘s’ in English:
sopa – soup
sobremesa – dessert
Between vowels it is a bit like English and sounds like a ‘z’
casa – house
pausa – pause
causa – cause
At the end of a word it is like the sound the ‘s’ makes in the word treasure:
mas – but
casas – houses
mais – more
This Pronunciation guide will help you to pronounce words correctly in Portuguese. If you would like to receive your Verb Table, which no learner should be without. This table shows you how to conjugate regular verbs in the present tense, imperfect past and perfect past – it also shows you some of the more commonly used irregular verbs!
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Até a próxima!