Language - The Rough Guide to Brazil - page 676

There is also a variety of vowel combinations or
diphthongs that sound pretty much the way you
would expect them to. They are ai (pronounced
like “i” in “r i de”); au (pronounced as in “sh ou t”); ei

(pronounced as in “h ay ”); and oi (pronounced as in
“b oy ”). The only one that has an unexpected pronun-
ciation is ou , which sounds like “o” in “r o se”.

Nasal vowels
The fun really starts when you get into the nasal vowel sounds . Generally speaking,
each “normal” vowel has its nasal equivalent. The trick in pronouncing these is to be
completely uninhibited. To take one example, the word pão (bread). First of all, just say
“pow” to yourself. Then say it again, but this time half close your mouth and shove the
vowel really hard through your nose. Try it again, even more vigorously. It should sound
something like “powng”, but much more nasal and without really sounding the final “g”.
There are two main ways in which Portuguese indicates a nasal vowel. One is through
the use of the tilde , as in pão . The other is the use of the letters m or n after the vowel.
As a general rule, whenever you see a vowel followed by “m” or “n” and then another
consonant, the vowel will be nasal - eg gente . The same thing applies when the vowel is
followed by “m” at the end of a word, eg tem , bom - in these cases, the “m” is not
pronounced, it just nasalizes the vowel.
Below are some of the main nasal vowels and examples of words that use them.
However, it must be emphasized that the phonetic versions of the nasal sounds we've
given are only approximate.

à , and -am or -an followed by a consonant indicate
nasal “ a ” - eg macã (apple), campo (field), samba .
-ão or -am at the end of a word indicate the “ owng ”
sound, as explained above in pão . Other examples
are in estação (station), mão (hand), falam
(“FA-lowng”; they talk).
-em or -en followed by a consonant indicate a
nasalized “ e ” sound - eg tempo (weather), entre
(between), gente (people).
-em or -ens at the end of a word indicate an “ eyng ”
sound - eg tem (“teyng”; you have or there is),
viagens (“vee-A-zheyngs”; journeys).
-im or -in at the end of a word or followed by a

consonant are simply a nasal “ ee ” sound, so capim
(grass) sounds a bit like “ca-PEENG”.
-om or -on at the end of a word or followed by a con-
sonant indicate nasal “ o ”. An obvious example is bom
(good), which sounds pretty similar to “bon” in French.
-um or -un at the end of a word or followed by a
consonant indicate nasal “ u ”- eg um (one).
-ãe sounds a bit like “ eyeing ” said quickly and
explosively - eg mãe (mother).
-õe sounds like “ oing ”. Most words ending in “-ão”
make their plural like this, with an “s” (which is
pronounced) at the end - eg estação (station)
becomes estações (stations).

Consonants
Brazilian consonants are more straightforward than the vowels, but there are a few little
oddities you'll need to learn. We've only listed the consonants where they differ from
their English counterparts.

C is generally pronounced hard, as in “ c at” (eg campo ).
However, when followed by “i” or “e”, it's pronounced
softly, as in “ c eiling”(eg cidade ; city). It's also pro-
nounced softly whenever it's written with a cedilla
(eg estação ).
CH is pronounced like English “ sh ”, so chá (tea) is said
“sha”.
D is generally pronounced as in English. However,
in most parts of Brazil it's palatalized to sound like
“ dj ” whenever it comes before an “i” or final “e”. So
difícil (di cult) is pronounced “djee-FEE-siw”, and
the ubiquitous preposition de (of ) sounds
like “djee”.

G is generally pronounced hard as in English “ g od”
(eg gusto ; I like). But before “e” or “i” it's pronounced
like the “ s ” in English “vi s ion” or “mea s ure” - eg geral
(general) and gíria (slang).
H is always silent (eg hora ; hour).
J is pronounced like the “ s ” in English “vi s ion” or
“mea s ure”- eg jogo (game) and janeiro (January).
L is usually pronounced as in English. But at the end
of a word, it takes on a peculiar, almost Cockney
pronunciation, becoming a bit like a “ w ”. So Brasil is
pronounced “bra-ZEEW”. When followed by “h”, it's
pronounced “ ly ” as in “million”; so ilha (island) comes
out as “EE-lya”.