Welcome to Portuguese pronunciation. Portuguese uses the Latin alphabet with 26 letters, plus special characters with diacritical marks. The vowels A, E, I, O, and U are particularly important as they can have open, closed, or nasal sounds. Nasal sounds are marked with a tilde symbol or when followed by M or N at the end of a syllable. Let's explore how each letter is pronounced.
Portuguese vowels have different sounds depending on stress and position in words. Each vowel can have an open sound, a closed sound, or a nasal sound. For example, the letter A has an open sound in words like 'pá' meaning shovel, a closed sound in words like 'para' meaning for, and a nasal sound in words like 'mãe' meaning mother. Similarly, the letter E has an open sound in 'café', a closed sound in 'medo', and a nasal sound in 'tempo'. Nasal vowels are indicated by a tilde mark or when followed by M or N at the end of a syllable. Accent marks often indicate which syllable is stressed and what type of vowel sound to use.
Portuguese consonants have some unique pronunciations compared to English. The letter C has two main sounds: before A, O, or U, it sounds like 'k' in 'cat', but before E or I, it sounds like 's' in 'see'. The letter Ç with cedilla always sounds like 's' in 'see'. The letter R has several pronunciations: at the beginning of a word or when doubled as 'rr', it's often a guttural or rolled sound, while between vowels, a single R is a soft tap similar to the 'tt' in American English 'butter'. The letter G also has two sounds: before A, O, or U, it's like 'g' in 'go', but before E or I, it sounds like the 's' in 'measure'. The letter X is particularly variable, with four possible sounds depending on the word. There are also significant pronunciation differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese, especially regarding the R and S sounds.