LESSON 02
Brazilian Pronunciation
is not hard. It may sometimes correspond to what is written, but not as in Spanish,
in which this correspondence is almost absolute. Anyway, it’s more logical than
English: it can be learned with the help of a few rules.
Except for the nasal
vowels (sounds that exist in a few European languages, like French), Portuguese
sounds are shared with most of the languages.
When a word has an
accent mark (acute or grave), the stress always falls in the syllable that has
the accent mark.
Portuguese has 12
vowels (7 oral and 5 nasal). They’re the following:
a (open) – pronounced “ah” casa, chá, sábado
ã (nasal) – no
equivalence in English não, canta, câmera
é (open) – as
in English “get” vela, fé
ê (closed) – as
the “a” in “say” medo, você
e (nasal) – no
equivalence in English bem, vento
i (oral) –
always like “ee”, but shorter li, vida, título
i (nasal) – no
equivalence in English sim, cinto, tímpano
ó (open) – like
“aw” English “saw” avó, bola
ô (closed) –
almost like “o” in “soul” avô, bolo
õ (nasal) – no
equivalence in English som, pombo, Rômulo
u (oral) –
always like “oo”, but shorter tu, pulo
u (nasal) – no equivalence in English um, sumir, túmulo
casa – house chá – tea sábado –
Saturday
não – no, not canta – he
sings, sing! câmera – camera
vela – candle fé – faith
medo – fear você – you,
singular
bem – well vento – Wind
li – I read vida –
life título
– title
sim – yes cinto –
belt tímpano
– eardrum
avó –
grandmother bola –
ball
avô –
grandfather bolo – cake
som – sound pombo – pigeon
tu – you (rarely used) pulo – jump, I jump
um – one, a sumir –
disappear, vanish túmulo – tomb