Learning Portuguese - Diphthongs

Any pair of vowels that is pronounced as a single syllable is a diphthong. Not all diphthongs have accents on them – so don’t be fooled into thinking that accents have anything to do with whether a vowel is part of a diphthong. Where two vowels have one sound, they form a diphthong. That’s it.

Note: In all the following examples, 'ow' should be pronounced as in 'cow', not as in 'throw'

ão	ow[ng]
au	ow
ao	ow (there is no discernable difference between the pronunciation of 'au' and 'ao')
õe	oi[ng]
oi	oi
ãe	aye[ng]
ai	aye (note, 'ai' is not always a diphthong. It is not a diphthong if it appears before a 'z' at the end of a word, before an 'nh' anywhere in a word, or before 'l', 'r', 'm' or 'n' if the consonant does not start a new syllable – don’t worry too much about that though, I’m just being pedantic!)
ou	‘o’ like in ‘hot’, but a little bit more drawn out (tending towards the 'o' in 'flow'). Note: This is very often mispronounced by the English! The temptation is to pronounce it like ‘oo’ in ‘food’, but this is wrong!
ei	‘a’ like in ‘hay’

The following two diphthongs are only used to affect the pronunciation of a preceding consonant 'g'; or 'q'. Where a different consonant precedes the vowel pair, or a diaeresis (2 little dots) is used over the 'u', they are not diphthongs – both vowels must be pronounced.

ui	same as the pronunciation of the Portuguese vowel 'i' (only a diphthong when used straight after a 'g', or 'q')
ue	same as the pronunciation of the Portuguese vowel 'e' (only a diphthong when used straight after a 'g', or 'q')

Note: Any other vowel pairing is not really a diphthong – both vowels must be pronounced (eg. ‘eu’ is pronounced ‘ayu’). Some reference works list ‘eu’, ‘iu’ and other pairings as diphthongs, but personally I prefer to think of them as 2 separate vowels because they do require 2 separate syllables - albeit they are slurred together.

The following words include some vowel pairs which are not diphthongs – to give you practise in both.

então	foi	mãe	mau	mão	Paulo	pai
entow[ng]	foy	my[ng]	mow	mow[ng]	Powlu	pie

falei	outro	pois	apoio	cães	religião
falay	ohtru	poysh	apoyu	kai[ng]sh	relizhiow[ng]

ruim	rainha	raiz	confusões	pouco
ruim[ng]	rainya	raeezj	confuzoy[ng]sh	pohku

The words ‘rainha’ and ‘raiz’ use the ‘ai’ pairing, but are not diphthongs (were you paying attention?!). There are not many words like that, so I’m being a bit mean really by throwing those two in! Most of the time that you come across ‘ai’, it will be pronounced like the ‘ie’ in ‘pie’.

The Portuguese language also contains a few triphthongs – three vowels pronounced as a single syllable. Usually this is in the form of ‘uei’ following a ‘g’ or ‘q’ (eg. ‘queijo’), where the sound is the same as the diphthong ‘ei’.

Comments

Mispronunciation - O and OU
Written by Chris on 2006-02-02 13:20:07 IP: 82.110.9.113

This difference in pronunciation is quite important to meaning.

For example:

O = 'the'
OU = 'or'

Falo = 'I speak'
Falou = 'He/she/it spoke'

The first is an 'oo' sound.
The second is pronounced as in 'flow' (see examples in the article).

--

I *think* there's another crucial feature of this; stress.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I tend to notice the stress differs. Unless indicated by an accent, stress is always on the second-to-last vowel of the word. Note the difference:

f A l o ('a' is stressed)
f a l O u ('o' is stressed)

I'm not 100% certain of that, so if someone could verify it for me I'd appreciate it. But that's how I learnt it anyway, lol.

Stress
Written by Administrator on 2006-02-04 16:33:45 IP: 80.3.128.8

Stressing the correct part of the word is certainly important, but this is not so much related to the vowels per se, as to the syllables. The stress is usually on the penultimate syllable, but not always - and it is not just diacritics that affect this. See the general pronunciation guide for the rules.

About stressing...
Written by Saulo on 2006-04-12 17:33:45 IP: 80.3.128.8

I'm Brazilian, so a native portuguese speaker. And I love your website! Keep up the good work!

Yes... you are right about stressing in FALO and FALOU.

But I think its better to explain using syllables, because it makes it easier to understand when to stress a sound and when you shouldn't stress.

FA-lo
fa-LOU

And it makes it easier to understand how the words are structured too.

prononciation
Written by Mr.x on 2006-11-16 09:59:30 IP: 80.3.128.6

I have a pen pal in Brazil and I'm embarassed to say that I dont know how to pronouce his name, could somebody help me? It is João Cruzué. Muito Obrigado.

Pronunciation
Written by Administrator on 2006-11-16 09:58:54 IP: 80.3.128.6

João Cruzué is pronounced zhuow[ng] Kruzu-eh. The J is soft, like the 's' in the English word 'measure', the ão sounds similar to the 'ow' in 'cow', but is very nasal. Cruzué is pretty much as you would expect, but the emphasis is on the last syllable.

João Cruzué
Written by Z on 2006-11-28 07:52:52 IP: 80.3.128.6

João, in English would be John. My wife's father is João. If it helps, ju ow(ng). the j being pronounced somewhat like a soft g.

[ng] sounds???
Written by Steve on 2007-10-23 15:09:40 IP: 62.254.210.79

Hi, I'm completely new to learning Portuguese so I'm trying to get the basics right, words like yes, no, good morning, etc.

Now I'm having a problem even getting a correct pronunciation for such a simple word as "No"! I have listened to a number of mp3 files from various sources and none pronunce the [ng] as clearly as your sound files - as I have no access to people speaking Portuguese to ask I'm a little confused. It's European Portuguese I'm trying to learn by the way.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks

ng
Written by Administrator on 2007-10-23 15:15:35 IP: 80.3.252.130

The sound files used in the pronunciation guides on this site were recorded by a genuine Portuguese native from Oporto (in the north of Portugal). They are spoken clearly and slowly, to assist you in imitating the sounds, but when in full flow, of course things tend to get clipped and merged together so it is not so clear (the same is true in any language). It is best to learn them from a clearly spoken sample, and as you become more confident and proficient, and speak more rapidly, you will find you are able to shorten or slur the sounds a bit more.

Written by Lone Wanderer on 2007-11-23 09:40:58 IP: 130.243.144.62

Sorry to go a bit off-topic here but is the Portuguese city in previous post called Oporto in English? Is that just the English way of transforming "O Porto" into "Oporto" ("The Porto")? For me it would make more sense to use that version if the Portuguese people used it too. Then again I guess the English-speaking are notorious for making city names suitable for themselves (Lisbon, Cologne, Naples, Turin just name to a few, eh...

)

Oporto
Written by Administrator on 2007-11-23 09:44:23 IP: 80.3.252.130

Yes, Oporto is the English version of 'O Porto' (lit. 'The Port'). The 'O' is always present in English, but not necessarily in Portuguese (hence their football club is 'FC Porto', not 'FC O Porto').

the 'ei' diphthong
Written by Bobby on 2008-02-07 00:05:27 IP: 71.196.40.10

Well i've been learning portuguese, both brazilian and european for a long time now and i noticed that the sound 'ei' in European Portuguese, mainly in the city of Lisboa is pronounced like the letter 'y' in 'why'. Example: 'Inteiro' is pronounced in Lisboa: een-TY-ru

The 'ei' diphthong
Written by Tiago Silva on 2008-04-12 12:49:33 IP: 82.155.118.58

Hello. First of all I'd like to say how glad I am for having found such a complete site where foreign people can learn this beautiful language that Portuguese is. I'm from Portugal so I can pronounce it correctly. To answer Bobby, I can say that definitely nobody pronounces 'ei' as the english 'y' in 'whY'. Although there are a lot of varieties of accents in this language, mainly over the diphthongs, i can assure 'ei' is pronounced like the english 'ay' in 'wAY' in Portugal and more like 'eh-ee' in Brazil. Still, this isn't one of the diphthongs we can find more differences between the accents at. You'll get understood anyway

.
Congratulations to the creators of this website and to all the visitors.

Pronunciation of 'ei' diphthong
Written by Chris Hamer-Hodges on 2008-05-14 14:17:07 IP: 194.193.183.253

I'm just starting to learn Portuguese, and I'm also confused over the pronunciation of 'ei'.

In words like "meio" the 'ay' pronunciation is clear. But in words like "leite" and "peixe" to my untrained ear it sounds more like 'eye' (or the y in why as a previous commenter has said)

Can anyone help?

ei
Written by Administrator on 2008-05-15 14:38:15 IP: 80.3.252.130

The 'ei' diphthong is always pronounced the same. Leite is pronounced 'layt', and peixe is pronounced 'paysh'. The sound is not quite as open as that (you can detect a little more of the 'e' sound), but 'lyte' and 'pysh' are definitely wrong! An 'eye' sound can only be achieved by using 'ai' (as in 'Pai').

"ei" sound in Luso Portuguese
Written by Bobby on 2008-12-13 20:14:20 IP: 71.196.40.10

Okay not to be rude, but to my knowledge, unless the whole thing is just my imagination, but I was watching the Portuguese version of "Chiquititas" and they are from Lisboa and pronounced the "ei" sound like "y" in "whY" eg. peito sounds like "pAYtu" and deixar sounds like "dAYshah". And not just in the TV Show but in the Portuguese dubbed version of Dreamwork's "the Prince of Egypt", the words with "ei" have the same sound. I read that this phenomenom only occurs in Lisboa but not in the rest of the country.

how to pronounce conceicao
Written by cindi on 2008-12-29 04:24:21 IP: 70.56.108.227

Both of my grandparents are from the island of Pico in the Azore Islands and many of my ancestors have the name Conceicao and I would like to know how to pronounce it. Thank you.

Abraao!?!
Written by Lucas on 2009-01-20 13:40:03 IP: 82.118.113.197

I'm trying to work out how to pronounce the Portuguese name for Abraham but am struggling with the combination of the two a's. Is it just Abra-owng as I think or am i missing something? It just doesn't seem easy to pronounce when I do it.
Thanks for for an excellent site too!

Abraão
Written by Administrator on 2009-01-20 14:24:46 IP: 81.103.153.54

Yes, I would describe the pronunciation the same way you did, so I guess you are saying it right.

eu
Written by Luke on 2009-04-22 07:26:21 IP: 97.86.161.46

I'm just starting to learn Portuguese on my own, and I was wondering how one would pronounce the Portuguese word for "I", "eu". I would guess that it's pronounced like "you", but that just seems too ironic.

Eu
Written by Administrator on 2009-04-24 09:02:25 IP: 81.103.153.54

If you re-read this page carefully, you will see a note about how to pronounce 'eu'! There is also an audio clip on this page: http://www.learningportuguese.co.uk/language/introductions.html

Some comments (alguns comentários)
Written by R.C. on 2009-08-26 00:15:41 IP: 83.132.203.13

I'm Portuguese from Porto.
And starting with the "ei". Like in other words, you will find differences in the way that their are pronounced from North to South of Portugal. And I understand what do you mean with the "ei" sound like "y" in "whY" eg. peito sounds like "pAYtu". But that it's not the correct way to pronounce the word. Moreover, that accent is more similar to the accent from Madeira , but you should not give to much attention to that, it's just an accent

. I'm sure that you will find more differences in the accents when you know better Portuguese. Like in UK there are very different accents in the English.
But so far this site seems a very good tool to start learning Portuguese, very good in did.

For the Abraão name, it's difficult to explain, but the pronounce is similar to the English Abraham but like this Abrah-owng. We extend the "a".

I'm glad to see to many people interested in learning my language.

Thank you to all.

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