Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar

Oral Vowels

a, i, u

a

[a] as in father: carro, amar, ala

i

[i] as in machine: fino, frio, dividir

u

[u] as in rune: rua, pular, urubu

e and o

When stressed, the letters e and o each have two possible pronunciations depending on the particular word:

e

[e] similar to ay in day: cedo, devo, caneta, colete

[ε] as in bed: cego, sete, canela, pochete

o

[o] as in bone: cor, boca, piloto, professor

[ɔ] as in top: copo, roda, filhote, veloz

When the rules of accentuation require stressed e and o to carry a written accent, the circumflex accent (^) is used to indicate the so-called close pronunciation of each, [e]/[o], and the acute accent (´) to indicate the open pronunciation [ɛ]/[ɔ]:

ê

[e]: gênero, você, vê

é

[ɛ]: péssimo, café, pé

ô

[o]: eletrônico, robô, xô

ó

[ɔ]: hóspede, brechó, nó

Compare:

sede [e] ‘thirst’ vs. sede [ɛ] ‘headquarters’; ele [e] ‘he’ vs. ela [ɛ] ‘she’

corte [o] ‘court’ vs. corte [ɔ] ‘cut’; ovo [o] ‘egg’ vs. ovos [ɔ] ‘eggs’

See also Metaphony on the alternation between [e] and [ɛ] and between [o] and [ɔ] in some words.

When unstressed, the pronunciation of e and o varies according to the position in the word:

e

[e] in most unstressed positions: exato, revisar, seguir

[i] as in movie in word-final position: mole, sinceridade, Gisele

o

[o] in most unstressed positions: tomate, começar, tocar

[u] as in into in word-final position: sapato, movimento, Marcelo

The unstressed word-final pronunciation also applies before final -s: cones, simples, patos, falamos

Oral Diphthongs

Oral diphthongs

The following vowel combinations form diphthongs consisting of a vowel + semivowel sound. Notice that the combination of a vowel followed by syllable-final l (pronounced [w]) also produces a diphthong:

ai

[aj] as in Kaiser: pai, cais, pairar

au, al

[aw] like ow in now: mau, causa, mal, calça

ei

[ej] like ey in hey: rei, feio, treinar

éi (ei)

[ɛj] like e in bed followed by y: fiéis, papéis, ideia

eu, el

[ew] like ay in day followed by w: meu, Deus, europeu, feltro

éu, el

[ɛw] like e in bed followed by w: céu, mel, escarcéu, carrossel

iu, il

[iw] like i in machine followed by w: riu, dirigiu, mil, juvenil

oi

[oj] like oy in boy: boi, noite, adoidado

ói (oi)

[ɔj] like o in top followed by y: bói/boy, lençóis, heroico

ol

[ɔw] like o in top followed by w: sol, lençol, molde

ou, ol

[ow] like ow in show: sou, pouso, toldo, soltar

ui

[uj] like ewy in chewy: fui, contribui, ruivo, juizado

ul

[uw] like u in rune followed by w: sul, multa, pulmão

Oral Triphthongs

Oral triphthongs

There are four oral triphthongs that only occur after [g] and [k] (spelt g and q):

uai

[waj] like why: iguais, quais

ual

[waw] like the exclamation wow: igual, qual

uei

[wej] like way: averiguei, adequei

uou

[wow] like the exclamation whoa: averiguou, adequou

Nasal Vowels

Nasal Vowel Tutorial

The nasal vowel sounds are very characteristic of Portuguese and differ from the oral vowel sounds in that, when you pronounce them, you allow air to pass through your nose as well as your mouth. Click on the link for a tutorial on how to make a nasal vowel sound.

Nasal vowels

There are five nasal vowels in Portuguese, and nasalization is indicated in spelling by placing a tilde (~) above the vowel or by the presence of m or n following the vowel in the same syllable. The letter m is used in word final position and before b and p, the letter n before all other consonants and at the end of few words of foreign origin. It is important to note that, in such cases, m and n are not themselves pronounced as separate sounds, e.g. campo ‘field’ is pronounced ['kãpu], and not *['kãmpu] or *['kampu], lindo ‘beautiful’ is pronounced ['lĩdu], and not *['lĩndu] or *['lindu]: