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Speaking Brazilian Podcast
Brazilian Portuguese Pronunciation: The Hardest Sounds Explained (1-Hour Class)
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In Portuguese, brasileiro, hola, querido. So let's start with difficult sounds for English speakers. I think this is most of you. Most of my students, they are English speakers, and I know you thought about this. The nasal sounds. This is the most challenging category of sounds that English speakers struggle with. And when you talk about nasal sounds, we referring to nasal vowels because you have no issues pronouncing the consonants. The consonants are easy to pronounce. The n and the m. But the vowels, the nasal vowels, they are tricky. And we have five nasal vowels in Portuguese. You see all these vowels here, A, E, I, o. Uh, you can pronounce them in an oral way, like through your mouth, only they are called oral sounds. A, E, I. Right? This is not difficult. You got that? But then all these vowels, they have a nasal pronunciation, and they are considered true nasal vowels, which is different from English and I don't know other languages. But they don't require a nasal consonant to be nasal. Like in English, we do have nasal sounds, right? But only if there is a nasal consonant like m or n or the ng sound. Right? But in Portuguese, we don't need the consonant to have nasal vowels. They are true nasal vowels, and they stand by themselves. So I'll pronounce these vowels, and I ask you to repeat after me. I know it's challenging, but try to produce these sounds with me. So all these vowels, they have a nasal sound. So this one is. So 5 nasal. There is no consonant sound. No m or no and no n. But for English speakers, there is a trick that I learned actually, from my students, that if you just add, like a very subtle n or n at the end, right? The same sound that we have in the word single, right? Singing, like, sing that sound at the end, you could use that. That's not exactly what we do in Portuguese. In Portuguese, we don't need the consonant to create these sounds. They are very natural to us native speakers. But since you're learning and I know it's challenging for you, what you can do is add this very subtle N sound at the end of the vowels to help you produce the nasal sound. That's okay. But remember, there is no n sound, right? It's very subtle. It's just. And then you stop. Do not complete the n or the m sound. Right? It's. Right. So let's see. Words now, because just the sounds confusing to understand. Let's see Words, useful words that you can use using these sounds. And we are starting with the most difficult sound that my students complain a lot. About the nasal diphthong, this is tricky, right? Because we have the sound and then another vowel after it. For some reason, this is really challenging to pronounce. So let's practice. Let's first break it down. We have the nasal and then the sound at the end. The second vowel here, the O, can be pronounced as O or as a weak u. That happens at the end of words, the o. In Portuguese, the O becomes a weak U sound at the end of words when they are unstressed. So here I would say. So it's important to remember that we have two vowel sounds and then a second one, U. The second one is very weak. This is called. It's a diphthong. So one strong vowel and one weak vowel, it goes like down the sound and now adding the. The consonant pom. Repeat after me. It's important to practice. Pom, pom, Pom, pom. Same sound in the next word, mo. So po means bread, mo means hand, mo, oh, oh, m. And the next one, no means no, no, no, no. So to help you think, comparing like Portuguese with English, you could pretend it's pronounced like. Something like that, Right? You could pretend there is the n at the end. It's okay to make the last vowel nasal as well. There's no problem. Just remember that the is very nasal. Now let's talk about the next group, which is la ha magna. This is particularly challenging as well, because it's just the sound. So again, you can try to produce like a very subtle N at the end, if that helps. So repeat after me to practice. Just let me drink a little bit of water. My voice is a little bit worse today. So repeat after me. Means frog. Huh? Huh? Huh? La means wool. And the next word means morning. Let me go to the comment section. Now, how you guys are doing? Any word related to that you find difficult to pronounce? Is this challenging for you? Let me know. Great question, Laura. Yes. So this little thing that looks like a snake on top of the ah, it indicates the I as a nasal, right? So this little graphic sound accent only happens in two vowels, A and o. You will not find this graphic accent in other vowels. So the other vowels are usually nasal when they are followed by the letters M or n. And the letters I and O, they don't have to be followed by any nasal consonant. They can be nasal just with that little thing, the tilde on top of them. It does mean it is nasal. And most of the time it also makes the vowel stressed unless there is another graphic accent in the same word. The tilde also makes that vowel stressed, which means that is the strongest sound in that word. You know, I think that for French speakers, this is much easier because you do have lots of nasals in French. Actually, you have more nasal sounds in French than we have in Portuguese. I think, like the difference between va and von. We don't have that in Portuguese. So just follow your instinct. Try to imitate me. I think you get it right. I don't think this is an issue for French speakers. I've had many French speaker students, and they never had any issues with the nasal sounds. So usually this is an issue for English speakers because you do have many nasal sounds in French. Right. Homa homme. Is it grapefruit? I think it is. Great questions here. Grapefruit. So Rob is talking to me, but he. I got a little bit. Okay, answering. Shikara. What is your name? Shikare. Please tell me your names when you write a comment, because I really would like to address you by her name. So does it mean that Manya has two naso a sounds? Yes. Very good comment. So we have the first I is. And the second one is. Right. So I translated roma as grapefruit. Oh, okay. Thank you. Pomegranate. Yes. Homma. Spawn. Grenade. Thank you. That's what Barbara's trying to tell him. Tell me. Let me see. Consecumflex. We'll talk a little bit about that. Alejandro. We do have some nasal sounds with the circumflex, but only if there is a nasal consonant right after it. If you see the letter A with the circumflex on top of it and M or n right next to it, then it means it's nasal. Usually the circumflex indicates the sound is closed. So it's commonly used with the vowels o and e to indicate it's a closed sound. We'll talk a little bit about that when we. In the next section of this lesson. These are good ones, so repeat after me. So alemo. Alemoinz means like German and singular in plural form. So. Alimon. Allen. Mon. So here the first one is. The second one is like in main, and then you just add the s at the end. My son. My son. You know, Reina, this is just practice. It will be. It's normal to slow down at the beginning and maybe exaggerate a little bit. That's totally okay. When you're learning a language, you really need to take your time to speak of the difficult sounds. Right. But with practice, you just. It just gets easier. And you'll be able to speak with a more like normal pace without breaking your pronunciation. But I like that you made that comment because it's really important. I highly recommend that you speak at a slow pace at the beginning until. And it will feel natural as you. As you become more advanced learner. Okay? So at the beginning, just take your time, speak slowly, because then there's a better chance that you have a clear pronunciation if you try to speak too fast. It's more difficult to have a good pronunciation if you speak too fast. So I recommend you speak slowly, take your time, and with practice, it will become easier to speak a little bit faster. Oh, that's a good one. I will talk about the m at the end of words in a minute. And here we have a very good example. Omen means man, right? But you see, there is the m at the end here. But I don't pronounce this m sound. I say. So I have a nasal diphthong, and at the end there is no m or n sound. But it's closer to n, right? It's not an m. So if you want, you can add like a very quick n at the end. These are good ones because they're very similar. The only difference between these two words is the nasal sound, right? The nasal vowel. So the first one, Ma, Sun. The stress goes all the way to the end. We do have a graphic accent on top of the last vowel. The tilde. Masun is the fruit. Apple. And the second word, masa. The stress is in the first syllable. Masa, Masa. There's no nasal sound. It means dough, right? Or pasta. Mo means mother means mother means mother. But is the word for main. I'm not really sure if that's your question. Good ones. Margus, Irma, Irma. So sister, brother. Irma, Irma, Irmaum, Irma. Okay, everybody, Excellent questions and words. I'll go back to the document because I have more to cover, and then I'll go back to the comment section, so to see if you have any other questions or words for me to pronounce. Okay. One thing that I would like to point out is that many times the letters a, mi, and a, they are pronounced the same way. I know, it's crazy, right? Why would they be pronounced the same way? But they are many times the difference most of the time is the stress. Usually words that end with ami, am, this syllable is unstressed, which means it's a weak syllable. And words that end with with the tude on top, usually that syllable is stressed most of the Time. There are a few exceptions. So let's look at verbs that carry these two endings. Or a ochi. So let's see here. The verb estudar, which means to study. And I have this word, estudaro, estudaro. And this word, estudaron, estudaro. So the pronunciation is exactly the same. However, the stress changes. I'm really emphatic about this because I hear all the time students pronouncing this first word as the second word. And then it's confusing because it changes the verb tense. Okay? So here also remember that we don't pronounce the m at the end of words. So this first word, pay attention to the stress is in the syllable, in the middle syllable, the second to last, At the end, there's no M. It's not estudarum. Om, om, om, estudarium, eliz estudarium. So this is past tense, eliz estudaro. Portuguese. They studied Portuguese yesterday. And the second word, future tense, will bring the stress of the word to the end. And the sound is also. But now it's stressed. They will study Portuguese tomorrow. El estudarion Portuguese. Okay, I hope you're repeating after major practice. So remember this. This is really important, because if you change, the pronunciation is the same, but the stress is different. And that makes all the difference because it changes the meaning of the word. Right? So let's talk about. This is still related to nasal sounds, but now I want you to pay attention to the words that end with the letter M, because this is something also that English speakers struggle a lot with. Yes, you tend to add the M sound at the end here. It would not be a big problem for communication, because if you just add the M sound at the end, people will still understand what you say. So it's not a big deal. But of course you want to sound better, right? You want to have a good pronunciation. That's why I'm covering this topic as well, because it's not too difficult. Just remember that at the end of words, we don't pronounce a clear M. So sound. So the M sound only happens when the M is followed by a vowel. If there is no vowel, if the M is at the end of a syllable or at the end of a word followed by a consonant, the M does not sound like an M. It just nasalizes the vowel that comes before it. You can, if you want, pronounce like a very subtle M, N, N, as I said before. But also, there's no clear N sound. Okay? It's just a nasal vowel. So let's see. Three words that are very, very common. Sing. Sing means. Yes. There's no m sound, right? Sing, Sing. Six can pronounce more or less like the verb sing and English. But you see that in English we have sing. There is like this at the end here. There's a very. It's a special consonant that is very common in English that we don't really have in Portuguese. Sing the sound. But it's okay if you pronounce this way because it's closer. So sing, sing, sing, sing. No m sound. And then we have the word bon. Bon. If you want, you can pronounce with the same ending, like the N sound to help you produce this nasal sound, right? Bon. We have two common pronunciations for this word in Portuguese. It can be just a single vowel. On. On. Bon. Here's French, right? Bon, c' est bon, Bon aime est. Pronounced. It's the same pronunciation here as in French, bon. But we have a second pronunciation here, and we add a second vowel. Bom, bom, bom, om, om. This is another variation of pronunciation of this word. And then we have the word bang here. I think we only have one pronunciation. And we also make like a diphthong. Here's no m sound at the end. Okay? So remember, don't pronounce the m at the end of words. Just make the vowel nasal. No m sound. Okay, Any questions about nasal sounds? And then we move on to the next ones. Actually, let me see the time. I'll finish this to this other one before I go to the comment section. So we have to see what questions you have for me. So this is really quick. Really, really quick. But also something that I hear all the time. Not only English speakers, but also Spanish speakers and speakers of other languages, because this is something very Brazilian, I think. We don't pronounce the l sound at the end of syllabus. And if you do, you just sound off. You sound foreign, right? So if you want to sound like. If you're speaking Brazilian Portuguese, remember to not to pronounce the l at the end of words or syllables. So you know it is at the end of a syllable if the letter that comes after it is a consonant. So the same way, just like the letter M, the L is only pronounced as a l if it is followed by a vowel. Then we have a regular L sound. Like means moon. I have a regular L sound, right? But then if I have the l at the end of a word, like hoteo, oteu, the L is pronounced as a weak u. Sound. So the letters E, L is actually. We have actually two vowel sounds. So the L is pronounced as a vowel, a weak vowel. O, teu, O, tel. There's no l sound. Pretend there's no l in this word. Okay? And the next one, you see the l in the middle of the word, but you see it's at the end of a syllable because the next letter is actually a consonant. So there's no way for us to pronounce the L here. It's auto. Auto means tall. Auto. So let's read the sentence together. Pronounce it with me. Repeat after me. To practice. I wanted to exaggerate a little bit here, just to practice. But of course, as you get more used to this, you don't have to exaggerate that much. So here we also have. Here you see, the L is normal because there is a vowel after it. Then you can pronounce the L sound, but here's no vowel after it. So you don't pronounce the l sound. Okay, let me go to the comment section. Questions for me, everybody related to this topic. Excellent question. Vow. They are pronounced the same way. Auto with the l and auto with the U. Same pronunciation. You know which word you're using by the context, right? So if you say oh, that person is. I know I'm talking about the adjective. But then auto coniesamento, like self knowledge. I know I'm talking about something referring to yourself. Because auto means also something that is related to yourself and also can be related to automobile, to cars or transportation. Right? It really depends on the context. But the pronunciation is the same. This is really important. Zor sen. Brazil. Brazil. Don't pronounce the l at the end of Brazil. Don't do that. It's Brazil. Brazil. We do write and actually write without the Z. We write with s and the l at the end. And the pronunciation is Brazil. Brazil. I think we pronounce Croissant. Croissant. Croissant. It's not perfect French, but it's not too far from it. Croissant. Oh, I get your comment, Gabriela. The is similar to the. In is mine. Mine. Mine. Interesting. It's not the same sound, but I understand what you mean. Been kind of using that to help me. Yeah, that's an interesting tip, actually, for those who are learning Portuguese and are English speakers. The ayn in mine, it's the ah sound. My main. So it's very much. It's much more open than the. So it's ein. Ein. At least the way that I pronounce mine, I say mine. And the word is. It's a closer sound, but I think you're going the right direction. It's just practice. It's just a little bit less open. It's a more like closed sound. Very good comment. I love to hear how you compare Brazilian words with English words and how you make all the connections. And it helps me understand better your thinking process and learning process. We are going to talk about AVO and AVO in a minute. Yeah. Auto Yao 2 are the same from you saying, sounds similar to the beginning of Senya. Yes, the same. Same, same. Yeah, Same sound. Interesting comment. Yes. The E in N, you're talking about the English word en. Yeah. The vowels in English, they are nasalized by the consonant, right? But in English, you have the vowel and the consonant. They are clearly pronounced N. En. And in English, in Portuguese, we have true nasal vowels that don't require the consonant to be pronounced, don't require any consonant out after it. So it's poderia, poderia, poderia. Oh, yeah, no H sound as well. Good comment. It's. The H in Portuguese is usually silent, unless it is like a new word that we just borrowed from English. And then sometimes we do say the h, but in Portuguese language, the H is usually silent. Let me see if I understand your question, Drew. Hi, Drew. Thank you for telling me your name. I really like to say your names. What happens with the nasal sound when you add consonants after the nasal? Like you mean the s sound, you just add the consonant. It does not change the nasal sound. It continues to be the same. So in the singular, you just add the s. Is that your question? It doesn't change the nasal sound. It keeps the same. You just add more sounds. Interesting. Milton. And some people. Yeah, that's an interesting comment, Tim, because some people would say with the o o at the end. But there is a variation of accent in Brazil that people just drop the n, the nasal sound, and just say, I've heard that as well. It's an interesting accent. So, yeah, always explain to me what you mean, because I don't know what you're talking about here. Julia, When you ask a question, if you give me a word as an example, it's easier for me to answer your question. Otherwise I'm not really sure what you're talking about. Why does at the end of a word often sound closer to rather than the clear? So here I think you were probably thinking in your language, right? Because for us Brazilian, the am sound and. And the a u tilde sound are the same. There is no really Y. It's just how the language evolved. So all the examples that I gave you, like the verbs, all verbs that end with the am, right? The conjugated verbs for the third person. This sound, as we never pronounce the m at the end of words in Portuguese. So the m is either used just to nasalize the vowel or to. Or it creates like a diphthong, which is this case. So the a m is pronounced as. Excellent questions. In Portuguese. It's ano. The first I is nasal. And the last word, the last letter O, can be anu, can be U or O, Ano. So, yeah, Lauder, we have some. We call this digraph. So we have three examples of combinations with the letter H that we have two letters in one single sound. The nh sounds like. Like the lh sounds like. Like in the month July. And the. So the lh, the nh, what is the other one? Oh, the ch. The ch sounds like. Like in sha, which means t. So in this case is the H itself is not pronounced, but they are combined. It is combined with this other letter and they create this new sound. And we call this gigrfus. I want to use this as an opportunity to remind you that I offer a course, a free course in pronunciation. You can sign up on our website, speaking brazilian.com, that covers all these basic sounds that are different from other languages. And I cover this topic louder. So I recommend you go to the website and sign up. It's free. It's called free pronunciation course. Free meaning course in pronunciation. And I talk about these three, the ch, the nh, and the lh, and many other topics as well. Oh, I'm really happy to be here with you today. Obregada. So I'll go back to my document and then I'll go back again to the chat. Okay. Because I want to. I hope to cover as much as possible. So another very important topic that is hard for most students, but especially for English speakers, because the stress that we have in our languages is different. So in Portuguese, most words are stressed in the second to last syllable. They're called penultimate words. That's because they come from Latin. And the most common Latin stress rule is the penote, like the second to last syllable is stressed. So most words. Think of words that you know in Portuguese. There's a big chance they will be. They have this stress in the second to last syllable. But if they carry a graphic accent, that changes. Right? So the graphic accents, they usually indicate stress. So if you find a graphic accent in the Word, you know, that word is stressed, and that specific vowel is the stressed sound in the word. When I talk about stressed, I'm talking about the strongest pronunciation within a word, right? And then we have these words that end with these specific letters here that I wrote for you. You don't have to memorize this, but if you want to write down, just so you remember the rules. So words that end with R, L, Z, X, I, O, U, im, um, and om, they are stressed at the end, unless there is a graphic accent somewhere else. Of course, you don't have to memorize this. You'll learn this with practice. But I'll give you some examples. So just pronounce with me, just to practice. Okay? So these follow the most common rule. The second to last is stressed. First stressed, second syllabus unstressed, it's weaker. Casa, meza, meza, cadera, cadera. And then here we have a graphic accent. So what happens? The stress goes to that syllable, right? Cafe, cafe, cafe. Here again we have a graphic accent. So we know the stress is actually the letter at the beginning. So if we do not have this accent, it would be otimu. I don't think this word exists. So means great, right? And then one thing that I want to point out is pronunciation of verbs when we conjugate verbs. This is really tricky for students. Challenging for most students. So one tip that I have for you is that if you see words that end with two vowels, like ao, the stress goes all the way to the end, and the stress vow is the second to last. So it's to day A, A is to do O, O, right? And he is in the middle again, because there is nothing that in this word that in that shows it should be stressed anywhere else. So estudamos, estudaro. Let me see another group here. Comi, comi. You see, it ends with I, which indicates the stress should go to the end here. Two vowels. So the second to last vowel is the stressed one. Come, come, and come in the middle, which is the most common stress. I know it's too much information, a lot to learn. I just wanted to understand the rules, right? But this is something that I recommend you. You'll learn just with practice. Just listen. Pay attention to how Brazilians speak. Imitate. I just like to share the rules with you so you know what is happening. There is a rule behind all this craziness. But you don't have to memorize all these rules because I think it's overwhelming to memorize all this. I think you'll learn this, it's just practice. That's how I learn stress. When I'm learning a language, I don't like memorizing stress rules because they just make me stressed. So I just pay attention and repeat and imitate, and then it becomes natural. There is a point in your learning journey that the second language just feel more natural, but that requires a lot of exposure. You need to listen a lot, you need to practice a lot. And then one day you feel like, oh, that feels more natural now. So don't get stressed about all this. Okay, I'll go to the comment sections and then we'll talk a little bit about sounds that aren't difficult for Spanish speakers. Follow up questions for me. I'm gonna go to the end now. Drink some water. So question from memo most of the time. Yes. So in theory, the H is silent in Portuguese. There are some exceptions of new words that we just borrowed from another language that could have this H pronounced. I cannot recall any word now, but I know there are some. But the rule is that the H is silent in Portuguese. Oh, we'll talk about this in a minute. When listening. Oh. So, you know, if you understand the meaning of the word, I wouldn't worry about recognizing if it is open or closed because it really doesn't make any difference in your learning experience when you're speaking, it's more important to pay attention to that details, right? Because you want to have a good pronunciation so people understand you. This is tricky. It really depends on your native language because. But in English, we do have these differences. So if you speak English, you should be able to recognize. You just have to compare with English words so you can produce the correct sound sound. But yeah, I don't really have a tip to tell you to recognize when you're listening. It's just really, really, really a listening practice, you know, an exposure. But don't worry about that. If you understand the meaning of the word, you don't have to identify that detail. Is the word kind similar to the English word kind of. Oh, interesting. Similar to the comment from Gabrielle, I think to me it sounds very different because K is ein, kind is ein. So ein. Ein. You see the difference? So kined. Kined. I understand the similarity. I think it is also a diphthong, right? Two vowels, the a and the e vowel. But in Portuguese, the sound is more closed and it's the. Not the ah sound. It's. And it's more nasal. So kinds. Kind. But I think it's. There is a similarity because it is also a diphthong Right. Can you describe Guayrio de Don in Sao Paulo? So whenever you guys. Hi, David. When you ask me why, it is really difficult to answer this why question. Sometimes there is a rule, and then I can tell you the rule. But most of the time, there is no why. There is only how. I can tell you how people speak. I cannot tell you why people speak because then you have to study history. And I think this is based on influences from other languages and immigrants. Right? So in Rio de Janeiro, we had the Portuguese court that lived in Rio for many years. So maybe that's why in Rio they have this sh sound, which is also common in Portugal. I'm assuming that's the reason that also happens in other states that had a lot of Portuguese immigrants. So that's. That's my guess, David. Trabalho, trabalhar, trabalarei, traballe. So it's interesting because the stress in traballarei, trabalh is both at the end, Right? But one is in the past tense and the other one is in the future. Trabalho is in the middle of this chance. Tramaglio is at the end because it ends with an R. Let me see if I missed a question here. I'm sorry if I skipped your question, everybody. You can just, like, copy and paste if you want, because it's really hard for me to see all the questions. Hurry up. I think it depends on the context having. I would say vamo, which is let's go. I think it's more common than a presa, because the hurry is presa. You could see I'm in a hurry. Sto compressa. But if I want to hurry up, someone like, come on, come on, we're late. I would say vamola, vamola. I think it sounds more natural to me. In my accent. Which means to parti can mean to break, to part, or it can mean to leave, depending on the context. I say the R. The R you can pronounce here par or par, but it's sometimes very subtle. So sometimes you don't hear the R sound. Do un. And. Yes. For example, in the word which means before. Right. Is the same sound. We have the. For the frog. Right. The same sound for. So, yeah. So the an has the same sound as the. Okay, everybody. Yes, Denise, that's what I guessed. Okay, everybody, I'll go back to my document, and then I'll go back to the comments in a few minutes, okay? I love, love your questions and comments. Thank you so much for participating and Helping me with this lesson, let's talk a little bit about sounds that are different for Spanish speakers. Of course, Spanish speakers, they usually understand Portuguese much more easily because they're similar languages, right? But the pronunciation is really tricky for Spanish speakers because the way that you produce sounds in Portuguese, the way that we pronounce words, is very different from Spanish. So it's important to pay attention to these details. So one thing that is very hard for Spanish speakers is the Z sound. Because, of course, it also depends on where you are from, because Spanish is spoken so many different countries, so many different accents. But most of my students, they have a hard time with the Z sound because I think many Spanish speakers don't have that sound in their language in their country. So remember that the Z is pronounced in a strong way and the S in a soft way, meaning that the Z carries a vibration of the chords and the S does not. So the S is unvoiced and the Z is voiced. And one interesting thing is that the S in Portuguese, when it's between two vowels is pronounced as a Z sound. As a Z, right? So if you find the S at the beginning before a vowel, it's pronounced as S, right? At the beginning of a word, at the end of a word. But if you find the S between two vowels, it becomes Z. So repeat after me. Casa. Casa. It's not casa. Caza. Zebra. Like in zebra, Right? Zebra. So here's just practice. I know it's challenging if you don't have the Z sound in a language. You just have to practice a lot. But the difference is that you know you're pronouncing, right? If you see a lot of. If you find a. If you feel a lot of vibration in your vocal cords. So let's do one exercise together. Place your hand here in front of your. In your throat. On your throat. And then you notice the vibration you. And just say, I don't feel any vibration when I do this sound. Now do the Z. Z. Wow. Everything vibrates. It's a very vibrant sound, very voiced. So this is the difference between S and Z, right? So we have, for example, the word casa with the segilia, which means to hunt. This is casa. And then we have the word casa. And in Portuguese and Brazil, the Z sound is really strong. So I recommend you practice that. So repeat after me this sentence. Let's practice together. A casa da zebra fica. No zoologico. A casa da zebra fica nuzzo logico. If you pronounce Z as an S, it's Not a big deal. Most of the time we can understand the meaning. It's just like we just noticed that it's not how Brazilians would pronounce it. Another very important detail. This is also. I separated English and Spanish, but actually there's a lot of overlap. Right? So here is also, like, good for English speakers. The pronunciation of G and J in Portuguese, it sounds like. So the G before the letters A and E, it's pronounced as. Before the letters A, O and O is pronounced as G. Right? Just like in English. Gato gosto. Right? Let me write here. So gato gosto. Gustavo. So here regular G sound. But then before the letters A and e, Like my name. Do you guys have any idea how to pronounce my name in Portuguese? It's not Virginia when I try it before I say it, it's Vi vinha. Because the G in Portuguese is pronounced as a continuous S sound. If you can pronounce for a long time, you're doing it right. Means people or guys. Hi, guys. Hello, everyone. It's not gente. Okay, Be careful with this D sound. It's. So the letters G and J in Portuguese sounds like. Right? The G before these two vowels. A and E, and the J before all vowels. Another example with J here is. So repeat after me to practice all this sentence. And remember that the. Right. The J does not sound like a. Jota does not sound like. It sounds also like joggers. Okay, let's move on to the next one. I'm trying to hurry a little bit, so I cover more content and then I'll go back to the chat so I can see your questions. So I saw many of you in the chat requesting to talk about this topic. Of course I added this topic because I know it's really important, especially for Spanish speakers, because you don't. Most variations of Spanish do not have this distinction between O and O. It's so hard to understand when you don't have that in your language. I completely understand you. There are some vowels in English that don't exist in Portuguese, and I struggle a lot with that. I'm not going even to explain to you which vowels, because I cannot produce them well. I cannot pronounce them well. Like, there's two sounds. What is that? But so I understand you, and it's really hard even to hear the difference when you don't have that specific sound in your native language. But you can practice, right? And you can train your ear. I just want you to tell that don't not to feel too stressed. About this because about it because most of the time we can tell understand what you mean by the context. So if you don't make the point perfect sound, it's okay, just do your best, practice as much as you can and then, and then just relax because people will understand what you mean by the context. Okay, it doesn't have to be perfect. But what is the difference between O and ah? So we have the open sound and we say it's open because you actually have to open your mouth a little bit more. In English we have this sound many words. But I like to compare with the word because it's just a single word and the same sound. And then we have the closed O which is we have to close your mouth a little bit more. And it's very similar to the o sound in the word old in English. One thing to help you think about these words is that these letters, these sounds is that the letter the open is similar to the ah like in father ah. But you have to shape your mouth as an O. So to practice, you can start with the ah ah and then close. Shape your mouth a little bit. I know it sounds weird, but if you have this is difficult for you, I recommend you do this exercise. The open ah sound is closer to the ah sound because it's a very open sound. However, the close, the closed O is closer to the U sound because it's a very closed sound. It's more like rounded and you don't have to open your mouth that much. So to practice this o sound, you can start with the O and just shape the o. Open the oh a little bit more. Right, because the oo is the closest. So let's practice, start with the oo and then open a little bit. I know it's really hard to do this exercise, but I recommend you practice this. And if you think about it in your mind that the open is closed to a and the closed O is closed to oo, I think that can help you produce the sounds a little bit better. So examples of words. Everyone knows this because it's the most common example, right Means grandmother. Ava means grandfather. Of course there are many other words like ochimu that I said before is the open sound. I'm thinking of other examples with the closed O. I'm sure you give me examples in the chat later. So questions, comments. I'm going to go to the chat and I'd love to hear your comments and questions about everything that I said. Any words that you like me to pronounce, any follow up questions. Let me know. Oh, that's interesting. Zebra, zebra, zebra. Oh, but the Z is always very strong, right? The Z sound very interesting, Sam. Oh, interesting. So here actually have an example in the word irma in irmao that can vary depending on the accent. Because the R is positioned at the end of a syllable, right. It's not followed by a vowel. And in this case, at the end of syllables, at the end of words, the R can be pronounced in at least three different ways depending on the accent. So it could be ichma. With the R in the throat, it can be very soft or a little bit more strong. It can be. Or it could be vibrant at the tip of your tongue here. Irma, Irma. Or it could be irma, like similar to the English R. Irma. All these pronunciations are correct and they vary depending on the region. So. But kaho is always pronounced the same way. It's always pronounced here. It could be the. Could be a little bit softer or stronger, but always on your throat. Right. There are old pronunciations of this word that would be different, but today this is the common pronunciation. So, yeah, depends on the accent, basically. To answer your question, Can you tell us something about difference in duration of sounds? Oh, that is so interesting. So in Portuguese in general, it's different from English. You don't really have, like, long vowels and short vowels. Usually in Portuguese, the vowel is longer when it's stressed. So if the vowel is in the stressed syllable, it will be longer than the other ones. And also this varies a lot depending on the accent, how fast you're speaking, if you have time. We talk a little bit more about that as well and how to connect words. But yeah, so the paradigm is different from English that we have, like, long vowels and short vowels. In Portuguese, it's always related to stress, as far as I know. Very good question. I wish I knew how to pronounce your name. Can you tell me? I think it is the J here sounds like J. Right? E Let me know. Vo. That's how I pronounce it. So I pronounce the first o as a closed o, O, and the second one, I make it unstressed. VO goes down, pronounced as U, V. But I think some people would say vo. I would say. So you do pronounce tu vowels. So here it's an example of. In which the stress is actually in the middle because of the graphic accent. Right. And the last syllable is actually unstressed, but it actually carries what we call a secondary stress. So we have the primary stress in the middle and the second. And the O is secondary stress. Ah. So here the difference. Vo. Vo, Vo, Vo. It's tricky because here we have two. The first word is actually two syllables, and the second word is one syllable. So the way that you pronounce two vowels when they are together changes when if it is in the same syllable or not. Because here in the first word, you have to pronounce two. They are both stressed. And the second one, the second one is really weak. In the first one, the first word, vo, the first vowel is still more stress, but we do have like a secondary stress in the second vowel. And the second word, vo, there's no secondary stress. It's just void. It's just like. And many times you just. You don't hear the second vowel, just the first one. Vo. Depends on the. And on how fast you're speaking. Excellent questions. Yeah. Vo. Oh, Charles. Chandis. Chandis. In Portuguese in Brazil, we say chalice for the ch. Are you telling me that your name is Chalice or Charles? Excellent questions, everybody. So in Brazil, we don't write with the p. Maybe in Portugal they do. We have some small differences between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese. I say. Onibus is closed. Obrigada, David. And also nasal. And we have the graphic accent in the first o, the circumflex. Excellent questions, everybody. Charles. Okay, let's continue. I'll go back to the document. Let's talk a little bit about how to strategies that you can use to sound more Brazilian and improve your fluency and accent when speaking Brazilian Portuguese. Just answer this last question. So I'm saying klara bay. Just copy and paste your question. Because there are too many comments, it's really hard for me to keep up. But you can always copy and paste your comment. If I skip it. And I'm sorry, I skipped your question. So is demise pronounced like? But is democracia? So it really depends on the word. As a rule, I would say that the sounds. The syllable de e is pronounced as DZ only at the end of words. But we do have some exceptions. This only happens when the syllabus unstressed. In democracia, we don't pronounce as g because the. The letter here is actually nasal. And when the vowel is nasal, the d is never pronounced as. When the vowel is nasal, it's always pronounced as a d. So demokracia. So this is a really tricky topic because there is a lot of nuance, lots of details related to the pronunciation of the syllable degree. But I have one general rule that you can use to pronounce. Always pronounce the D as a hard D, like the syllable as a hard d unless it is the last syllable of the word, like in si da di, then you can always say it's fine. Also, some people would say si da de because of the accent. So the hard d, the sound is always correct. The G sound varies depending on the accent. Okay. So if you're not sure, you can always use the hard D. And then you can pay attention to different accents to see so you can pronounce as you prefer. So many questions. I don't understand your question. Oh, thank you. So, ah, yeah. Your run, your. Your run, your run, your run. I love it. Thank you. Your run, your run. Thank. You. Then we do have some different ways to pronounce the O. As I just talked, I just talked about the open and the close, right? We have the open, the closed O and then we have the nasal like in onibus. And sometimes the O is pronounced as a u, as a weak U at the end of words. Fake it till you make it. It works. If I say ochimu instead of ochimu is still correct. No, the word ochimu, otimu, it just would sound really off. Stress is really important. You know, sometimes I tell you, ah, don't worry about having perfect pronunciation. If you just change. If you change, like if you don't pronounce the perfect nasal sound or the perfect perfect open or closed sound, that's okay. But if, if you pronounce the stress incorrectly, that could be really complicated. People probably will not understand what you mean. Stress is really, really important. So, so pay attention to stress, everybody. This is really important. It's much more important to get the stress right than the specific sounds right? Because people can understand what you mean if you have the correct stress. If you don't, they might be. What? What did you say? If you say ochimu without the perfect O sound but the correct stress, there's a bigger chance of people understanding what you mean. Picking Brazilian Pontocom Anti Jirimbaria lambros in a milk at.