Aa

PRONUNCIATION

CONSONANTS:-

b - roughly equivalent to English

Spanish students NOTE: b is not identical to v

c - ca/co/cu = hard as in cat/cot/cut

ce/ci - = soft as in French, or English cent/cist

ç - as in French, or English ss

ch - as in French chercher or English sh

d - roughly equivalent to English

f - roughly equivalent to English

g - ga/go/gu = hard as in gash/gosh/gush

ge/gi - = soft as in french je or English blancmange

gu - gua[guo/guu ] = gw

gue/gui - normally hard as in French and Spanish > gue = g;

but note exceptions like aguentar = [agwen-tar]

h - not pronounced

j - soft as in French je or English 's' in leisure

k - only exists in Foreign words - qu replaces it

l - roughly equivalent to English

lh - equivalent to Spanish ll, or English million

m - roughly equivalent to English before vowels;

- nasalizes preceding vowels similar to French

falam = fah-lowng
falem = fah-laing
sim = seeng

n - roughly equivalent to English before vowels;

- nasalizes preceding vowels similar to French.

Spanish students N.B: n is never found at end of words, as all final

n's convert to m :
e.g. comen > comem

nh - equivalent to Spanish ñ or English onion

p - roughly equivalent to English

qu - qua/quo as in English quack, quota = kw;

- que/qui normally hard as in French and Spanish

que = k; but note exceptions like tranquilo = trangkweeloo

r - roughly equivalent to English, except at

beginning of word or after n, s or l = either French r, Spanish r or

Scots r

rr - similar to either French r, Spanish r or Scots r

s
- at beginning of word equivalent to English;
 - between vowels pronounced as English z : casa
- at end of word not followed by vowel = English sh :
casas
- before hard (unvoiced) consonant (p/t/c) = English sh :
castelo , escudo, respeito
- before soft (voiced) consonant (b/d/g) = English 's' in
pleasure : esboço, desde, esgotar

ss - roughly equivalent to English

t - roughly equivalent to English

v - roughly equivalent to English -

Spanish students N.B: not = b

w - only exists in Foreign words

- at beginning of word equivalent to English sh : xaile = shyl;

otherwise uncertain:

- can be English sh - êxtase = aysh-taz

- can be English x - sexo = sek-soo
- can be English ss - próximo = prossimoo
- can be English z - exame = ee-zam

y - only exists in Foreign words

z - equivalent to English, except at end of word

with no following vowel = English sh : faz, giz, foz

NOTE:
the only time you will see a double consonant in Portuguese is -
rr- and -ss- :

-rr- is used to mark its special sound;

-ss- allows a soft 's' between vowels as in 'professor' where a single

's' would give a 'z' sound.

[It is possible to have a double -mm- when adverbs are formed by

adding -mente
e.g. comum--> comummente
but this will drop in the new Spelling Accord. Note also -nn- in
connosco]

Ab

ACCENTS and VOWELS

Since the pronunciation of vowels depends on stress, as well as

position, let us first consider the accents in Portuguese:

ACCENTS:

Accents in Portuguese determine both stress and the length of a

vowel:

The acute accent forms short vowels -

á = as in cat
é = as in bet
ó = as in got
The circumflex accent forms long vowels -

â = as in earn
ê = as in Scottish great
ô = as in Scottish low

The grave accent only exists in à and às and is short -

à = as in cat

The tilde can be considered not to be an accent at all, since it

arises originally from a form of shorthand for an extra n which has
been placed on top of the preceding vowel:

this can be seen when comparing Spanish and Portuguese -

ciudadano > cidadão;

In Portuguese therefore the tilde signals a nasal sound

VOWELS:
Single vowels:-

Note that u and i are always long and strong vowels in Portuguese
-

so remember:- " you and I are like Andrex®" !!!!

i - always long as in English ee
u - always long as in English oo

o / a / e - unless stressed these vowels are weak or even

disappear
O

- when unstressed it is pronounced as English oo; when speaking

quickly the Portuguese will hardly pronounce it.

- otherwise long (as in low ) or short (as in cow) depending on

position;

it is easier to learn the individual words than all the possible vowel
and consonant combination rules!

- when unstressed it is pronounced as English uh;

when speaking quickly the Portuguese will hardly pronounce it.

- otherwise long (as in ah ) or short (as in hat ) depending on

position; it is easier to learn the individual words!

- when unstressed it is pronounced as a clipped i, something like

English bit;

when speaking quickly the Portuguese will rarely pronounce it.

It is the weakest vowel of all.

- otherwise long (as in hay ) or short (as in bet ) depending on

position;
it is easier to learn the individual words!

NOTE:

apart from -oo (e.g. o voo), you will never see a double vowel in
Portuguese

- they always merge into a single vowel, sometimes with an accent

cf. to the = a + a --> à

Ac

GENDERS

All objects in Portuguese have a gender and as you learn a word you
should learn its gender, since when you later describe it with an
adjective they will have to agree in gender.

There are three genders in Portuguese:

masculine, feminine and neuter.

As a general rule, you have some help in the fact that most (but not
all!) words ending in:

-o are masculine
-a are feminine

Common exceptions are:

Many words ending in -ma (of masculine Greek origin!):

o poema; o clima; o sistema; o pijama; o tema; o cinema; o

problema; o fantasma; o telegrama; o aroma; etc.
Many words ending in -ta, -ista or -tra (Greek or medical terms!):

o poeta; o profeta; o/a acrobata; o/a psiquiatra; o/a obstetra; o/a

cientista; o/a ginecologista; o/a taxista; o/a ecologista
[NOTE: some of them cover both genders]

Other exceptions:

o dia; o mapa; o Papa; o sofá; o chá; a avó; o espia; o/a guia; o/a
guarda

As a rule, months, oceans, rivers, lakes and mountains are

masculine

The neuter gender, which can also end in -o, only rarely turns up
when describing an indefinite 'thing' - quite often it is signalled by a
stressed vowel sound such as 'u' or 'i'

THAT (thing) - isso

THAT (thing) WHICH - o que
EVERYTHING - tudo
SOMETHING - algo

NOTE for SPANISH students:

You may expect words you know in Spanish to always have the
same gender in Portuguese - not so!

Be careful of the following which have swapped gender:

o leite; a ponte; a árvore; o sangue; o lume; o nariz; o sal; a dor

Similarly, most words in -agem (SP =-aje) are feminine:

a garagem; a paisagem; a coragem

Ad

ARTICLES:

There are two types of article:

Definite (= the) and Indefinite (= a, some).

Definite article

Equivalent to the in English, it is used to 'point' to something

specific and in Portuguese can also sometimes have the sense of
'that', 'the one we know about':

a casa the house

o irmão the brother
a lei the law, that one we all know
o João John, the John we are talking about
a Thatcher Mrs (that never-to-be-forgotten) Thatcher

Ae

VERBS:

Verbs and nouns are 'namers', they name things:

nouns name objects

verbs name actions and how things are done.

The majority of verbs in Portuguese end in -ar and are therefore

know as -AR verbs.

There are also -ER and -IR verbs which we will learn later.
In English we put the person who is doing the action in front of the
verb and it doesn't change much:

I speak, you speak, we speak.

In Portuguese, the person doing the action is shown by the ending

on the verb and you rarely need to use I, you, we, etc.

Regular -AR verbs: FALAR to speak, talk

I speak FAL O falo

You speak FAL AS falas
He/She speaks FAL A fala
We speak FAL AMOS falamos
They speak FAL AM falam

As you can see, all you do is knock off the -AR ending and add the
relevant ending for each person

Af

SUBJECT PRONOUNS:

Pronouns are also 'namers' like nouns and can stand instead of
them.

The pronouns naming the people doing an action are called 'subject
pronouns':

I eu
 you tu
he ele
she ela

As you learnt above, they are not usually necessary with verbs
because the ending tells us the person, but sometimes you may
need to emphasise who is doing something or make it clear who it
is in ambiguous situations.

In this case you should add the pronouns:

Eu falo, não ele - I am speaking not him

Ela fala - she is speaking
(i.e. to make it clear it is not him)

NOTE:

you will have learnt that final 'a' and especially final 'e' are hardly
pronounced in Portuguese, so you may wonder how they tell the
difference between 'ele' and 'ela' in conversation.

The answer is that they change the value of the first 'e' instead:

'ele' is pronounced with a long sound

[like ale ]
'ela' with a short sound
[like ell ]
(French students might like to think of 'elle' in order to link it to the
feminine!)
Remember this, as it will appear again with the words for this and
that:

(este/esta=aysht/esht, aquele/aquela= akale/akell)

Ag

IRREGULAR VERBS:

TO BE

Some verbs which are used a lot are said to be irregular because
they do not follow the normal rules for forming their endings.

The same happens in English and like most things that are used a
lot they are worn down and usually very short.

There are about 20 frequent, short irregular verbs in Portuguese

and we shall start with two of the most common SER and ESTAR,
both meaning TO BE.

You may wonder why there are two verbs when we get by with one!

Well, Portuguese uses SER to describe PERMANENT things and

ESTAR to describe TEMPORARY things.

sou casado - I am married (for life!)

ela é linda - she is pretty (usually)
estou cansado - I am tired (just for the moment)
estou aborrecido - I'm bored (right now)
ele é tão aborrecido! - he's so boring (always)
It is a bit confusing to start with but, with practice, you will soon
pick up the idea.

The 20 verbs are important in lots of ways, so make sure you learn
them by heart.

Start now with:

SER ESTAR
sou estou I am
és estás you are
é está he/she is
somos estamos we are
são estão they are

Note that, although irregular, there is still a similar pattern that will
help you learn them.

Ah

NUMBERS:

0-10 Cardinals & Ordinals

0 zero
um
1 primeiro/a
(uma)
dois segundo/
2
(duas) a
 3 três terceiro/a
4 quatro quarto/a
5 cinco quinto/a
6 seis sexto/a
7 sete sétimo/a
8 oito oitavo/a
9 nove nono/a
10 dez décimo/a

NOTE:

One and two have a separate feminine form when used to count
feminine objects:

uma casa, duas casas

The ordinals up to ten are frequently used in the names of kings and
queens:

Isabel Primeira - Elizabeth the First

Eduardo Sétimo - Edward the Seventh

Ai

YES, NO and NOT

The words for Yes and No in Portuguese are usually Sim and Não.

However, quite often the Portuguese will use another word pois,
with or without sim, to express agreement:

é escocês? - Pois
 é verdade? - Pois sim

Sometimes they will repeat the verb after Pois:

és portuguesa? - Pois sim, sou

é verdade? - Pois é.

Não is also the word for NOT:

não é verdade - it is not true

ele não fala português - he does not speak Portuguese

Aj

PREPOSITIONS:

a, em, de

Prepositions are 'glue' words that allow you to connect 'naming'

words to each other to express some form of relationship.

The three most common ones in Portuguese are:

a = to
em = in / on
de = of / from

falo ao João - I speak to John

estou em França - I am in France
está no prato - it is on the plate
o chefe da polícia - the chief of police
 sou de França - I am from France

Ak

SPELLING

The Portuguese alphabet is as follows, with pronunciation:

a [á] b [bê] c [cê] d [dê] e [é] f [efe]

g [gê] h [agá] i [i ] j [jota] l [ele] m [eme]

n [ene] o [ó] p [pê] q [quê] r [erre] s [esse]

t [tê] u [u] v [vê] x [xis] z [zê]

The following letters are used for foreign words and scientific
symbols:

k [ká] w [vê duplo] y [ípsilon]

NOTE:

You will find a lot of words like kilometre which use 'qu' instead in
Portuguese:

kilo-: quilo , quilómetro

Similarly:
 watts use 'v' : vátios
and yacht uses 'i' : iate