ConsonantsMostly the same as English, but…
| c |
Soft (like in ‘lace’) if followed by an ‘e’ or ‘i’, otherwise hard (as in ‘cold’). The only exception is where a cedilla is used (‘ç’) – which forces it to be pronounced softly even though the letter following is not ‘e’ or ‘i’ (note, the cedilla must not be used if the following letter is ‘e’ or ‘i’).
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| g |
Soft if followed by an ‘e’ or an ‘i’ (the same as a soft ‘j’ – like the ‘s’ in ‘measure’), otherwise hard (as in ‘God’). If the ‘g’ is followed by the letters ‘ui’ or ‘ue’, the ‘u’ is only there to ‘harden’ what would otherwise be a soft ‘g’ – the ‘u’ is therefore silent (or rather, it joins with the ‘e’ or ‘i’ to form a diphthong). Occasionally (in Brazilian Portuguese), you might find a 'u' with a diaeresis (ü) following a 'g'. This signifies that the ‘u’ is not silent. A natural consequence of placing a vowel after a pronounced ‘u’ is that the ‘gu’ sounds like ‘gw’.
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| h |
Silent if at the start of a word; pronounced like a ‘y’ if it comes after an ‘l’ or ‘n’. Can be used with ‘c’ to form ‘ch’ which is pronounced ‘sh’. Never pronounced like the typical English usage!
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| j |
Always soft – like the ‘s’ in ‘measure’.
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| m |
When at the end of a word, ‘m’ is pronounced nasally, almost like ‘ng’ or ‘ny’. Rather than close the lips (like you would in English), try to kind of swallow the ending. When words that end with ‘m’ are made plural, the ‘m’ is replaced with an ‘n’ (eg. ‘jovem’ becomes ‘jovens’) – but still with the same nasal quality.
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sim[ng]
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taym[ng]
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fazaym[ng]
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bom[ng]
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zhovayn[g]sh
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bayn[g]sh
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| q |
Like in English, ‘q’ is always followed by ‘u’ in Portuguese. If an unaccented ‘e’ or ‘i’ follows the ‘u’ (which is quite common), pronounce like ‘k’, otherwise ‘kw’. If the ‘u’ has a diaeresis accent (ü), the ‘q’ should be pronounced ‘kw’ despite the following ‘e’ or ‘i’. This rule is always followed by Brazilians, but not by Portuguese (they miss off the diaeresis).
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| r |
‘Rolled’, or flicked off the toungue (except at the end of a word) – more vigorously for a double ‘r’. This is particularly difficult to achieve when in full flow, but for most people will come with practise (some people seem to be incapable of producing such a sound, so don’t despair if you can’t do it)! Brazilians tend to pronounce it like a guttural ‘h’, which is a lot easier and an acceptable alternative if you really can’t manage to rrrrrrrrrrr. When a word ends with ‘r’, some European Portuguese speakers add an ‘e’ sound to the end for some strange reason.
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| s |
Pronounced ‘sh’ or like a soft ‘j’ if it immediately precedes a consonant (even if the consonant is the start of the next word) or if used at the very end of a sentence (Brazilian pronunciation however, is just like an English ‘s’ in these circumstances). When situated between 2 vowels (even if the following vowel is at the start of the next word), it is pronounced like a ‘z’. At all other times, it is a simple ‘s’ sound.
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| v |
Should be pronounced like in English, but often mutates to a ‘b’ especially by the northern Portuguese. This is due to lazy articulation – much the same as many English will mutate ‘th’ to ‘f’ or ‘v’.
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| x |
There aren’t really any rules governing the pronunciation of ‘x’! Some of its forms: j; sh; ks; s; z. If in doubt, pronounce it like a slushy mixture of a soft ‘j’ and ‘sh’. For the most part, you just have to learn by exposure. It normally takes the form that is easiest to articulate for the given word, so you can usually take a fairly good guess.
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| z |
If at the end of a word (with no vowel following at the start of the next word), pronounce like a soft 'j'. Otherwise, like the English 'z'.
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trazair
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fazh
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eficazj
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limpe[ay]za
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People from certain parts of Brazil have a habit of pronouncing the letters ‘de’ and ‘di’ as a hard ‘j’ (like the English ‘j’), so they say things like 'Bom Jia'. Similarly, they often pronounce the letters ‘te’ and ‘ti’ like the ‘ch’ in ‘chair’.
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