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European Portuguese Pronunciation: Key Traits and Why It Matters
I often hear people say that Portuguese sounds quite different from other Romance languages—and they’re absolutely right!
But what exactly makes European Portuguese pronunciation so unique?
In short, it’s all about the hushing, nasal, and close-vowel sounds. These phonetic traits give it a Slavic-like feel, even though it remains firmly a Romance language.
Before we explore the intricacies of the European Portuguese sound system, let’s take a moment to understand why pronunciation is such a game-changer for language learners. Read on!
Why you should care about your pronunciation
When you’re confident in speaking Portuguese, you’re more likely to engage in conversations. More speaking practice, in turn, leads to progress and more articulate speech. It’s a virtuous cycle.
Yet, in my experience, many students tend to prioritize grammar and vocabulary over pronunciation.
There’s a common belief among language learners that pronunciation will naturally improve over time. Unfortunately, this isn’t true – in fact, it could be the opposite.
If left unaddressed, poor pronunciation can become ingrained. The longer you wait to work on it, the harder it becomes to improve. So, it’s wise to tackle it from the start.
Familiarizing yourself with the basic sounds of Portuguese should be one of the first steps in your learning journey. After all, your pronunciation is directly tied to your ability to reproduce those core sound units.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the common features of European Portuguese pronunciation.
Main features of European Portuguese pronunciation
Close-vowel sounds
Fricative sounds
Nasal sounds
Now that we have looked into the main features of the European Portuguese sound system, let’s dive into all its sounds.
European Portuguese: sound by sound
In this section, we’ll go through the basic sounds of the Portuguese language.
Importantly, note that the same sound can be represented by different letters or clusters. Reversely, one letter can stand for several sounds. For instance, take the vowel e which stands for 5 different vowel sounds!
That’s why the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) will make our life easier as we go through all the language sounds below. How so?
Each IPA symbol stands for one and only one sound – IPA is based on a 1-to-1 relationship between symbols and language sounds.
In the following tables, you’ll see IPA symbols in the first column representing the language sound in question. The second column shows the alphabet letters standing for that same sound. Finally, in the third column, you have examples of words concerning the sound and spelling in point.
Portuguese uses the same alphabet as English, plus a few diacritical marks, namely 4 accent marks and the cedilla underneath the c (ç). Learn more about the Portuguese alphabet and diacritics: The Portuguese Alphabet: Spelling in Portuguese from A to Z.
Consonant sounds
Most consonant sounds in Portuguese are also present in English (perhaps not the same sounds, but still very similar). Those sounds that have no equivalent in English are marked in red.
IPA | spellings | examples |
/b/ | b | bala (bullet) |
/d/ | d | dedo (finger) |
/f/ | f | fauna (fauna) |
/g/ | g, gu | gato, gueto (cat, ghetto) |
/k/ | c, qu | nunca, quente (never, hot) |
/l/ | l | lua (moon) |
/ɬ/ | l | mal (evil) |
/ʎ/ | lh | atalho (shortcut) |
/m/ | m | mala (briefcase) |
/n/ | n | nadar (swim) |
/ɲ/ | nh | ninho (nest) |
/p/ | p | pata (paw) |
/ɾ/ | r | caro (expensive) |
/R/ | r, rr | rio, terra (river, earth) |
/s/ | s, ss, c, ç, x | santo, massa, cem, caça, próxima (saint, pasta/dough, hundred, hunt, next) |
/ʃ/ | s, z, ch, x | peras, capaz, chato, extinto (pears, capable, boring, extinct) |
/t/ | t | teto (ceiling) |
/v/ | v | vento (wind) |
/z/ | s, z, x | casa, azeitona, exatamente (house, olive, exactly) |
/ʒ/ | g, j | gelado, janela (ice-cream, window) |
/j/ | i, e | pai, passear (father, stroll) |
/w/ | u, o | pau, voar (stick, fly) |
Vowel sounds
In Portuguese, there are 9 different vowel sounds represented by the vowel letters a, e, i, o, and u. As mentioned before, the vowel e, alone, stands for 5 different sounds.
In general, Portuguese vowel sounds are not alien to English native speakers. It’s challenging, however, to establish a definitive correspondence between the two languages due to different standards of English.
Let’s listen to what Portuguese vowels sound like:
IPA | spellings | examples |
/a/ | a, á | amar, cá (love, here) |
/ɐ/ | a, e | sala, joelho (living room, knee) |
/ɛ/ | e, é | anel, até (ring, until) |
/e/ | e, ê | comer, Português (eat, Portuguese) |
/ɨ/ | e | parte (part) |
/i/ | i, e | sorrir, emanar (smile, emanate) |
/ɔ/ | o, ó | obra, avó (masterwork, grandmother) |
/o/ | o, ô | fervor, repôr (passion, replace) |
/u/ | u, o | mudo, ato (mute, act) |
Note that the vowel sounds /a/, /ɛ/, and /ɔ/ are open, whereas /ɐ/, /e/ or /o/ sound relatively closed; there is even the /ɨ/-sound which is nearly mute.
This open-vs-close sound contrast ties back into what was discussed above, namely the vowel reduction occurring in stress-timed languages like Portuguese.
Nasal vowel sounds
Portuguese nasal vowel sounds are similar to those in English, like in the words anger, kindness, and mantra.
IPA | spellings | examples |
/ɐ̃/ | ã, am, an | lã, amplo, antes (wool, ample, before) |
/ẽ/ | em, en | embora, entretanto (though, meanwhile) |
/ĩ/ | im, in | importante, introdução (important, introduction) |
/õ/ | om, on | ombro, ponto (shoulder, point) |
/ũ/ | um, un | um, mundo (one, world) |
Diphthongs
Diphthongs are gliding vowel sounds between two vowels. Again, you’ll find most Portuguese diphthongs in English.
IPA | spellings | examples |
/aj/ | ai | pai (father) |
/aw/ | au | auxílio (help) |
/ej/ | ei | fevereiro (February) |
/oj/ | oi | loiro (blond) |
/ɔj/ | oi | comboio (train) |
/ow/ | ou | outro (other) |
/iw/ | iu, io | viu, violeta (saw, violet) |
/je/ | ie | espécie (species) |
/wa/ | ua, oa | água, mágoa (water, sorrow) |
Nasal diphthongs
Nasal diphthongs abound in Portuguese. They are often represented by a pair of vowels with a diacritical mark on top, the tilde.
These sounds are not found in English or many other languages. If that’s the case with your mother tongue, you might need some practice reproducing them until they become second nature.
IPA | spellings | examples |
/ɐ̃j̃/ | ãe | mãe, pães (mother, breads) |
/ɐ̃w̃/ | ão, am | cão, cantam (dog, they sing) |
/õj̃/ | õe | põe, limões (put, lemons) |
Spelling-pronunciation patterns
Hard vs. soft vowels
Letter C – /k/ vs. /s/
Letter G – /g/ vs. /ʒ/
Letters QU – /ku/ vs. /k/
Letters GU – /gu/ vs. /g/
Digraphs
SS
RR
CH
NH
LH
QU/GU
The omnipresent hushing /ʃ/-sound
S-plural
S before a consonant
CH and X
Z at the end
Letter X
*Speaking of cognates, you may know more Portuguese words than you realize. Take a look at this article: English-Portuguese Cognates – The Words You Already Know (Without Knowing It).
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