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Pronunciation Variations

TagsPronunciation
UnitPronunciation
5 min read

After exploring the Pronunciation Guide for European Portuguese Vowels and Pronunciation Guide for European Portuguese Consonants, you probably had a better sense of how to pronounce the various sounds of Portuguese in isolation.
However, when you listened for these sounds throughout the Units and in the Shorties, you may have heard some things you didn’t expect! It’s not always straightforward to know how sounds will be pronounced at a more natural speaking pace. Why? Two reasons:

  • the neighbouring sounds (i.e. the sounds right before or after) have an effect on each other
  • the stress / flow of the word or sentence

Luckily there are some guidelines to help you nail these less obvious Portuguese pronunciation skills! how to pronounce S in Portuguese

S or Z Followed By Any Vowel Sound

You’ll probably remember this one if you read our Learning Note on How to Pronounce the Letter S. When a word that ends in s or z is immediately followed by a vowel (or by a word that starts with a vowel sound) the pronunciation changes from ‘sh‘ to ‘zz‘ ([ʃ] to [z]).
uma casaa house
as uvasthe grapes
Feliz Ano NovoHappy New Year
Os homens são altosThe men are tall
In isolation, the words from the last 3 examples sound like this: as feliz os . However, in the example sentences, they are followed by vowel sounds at the beginning of uvas, ano, and homens. In those contexts, they sound more like “ooz”, “uhz”, and “fehleez”.
Note: The letter H is always mute. Remember that it’s the sound that matters, not the letter itself, so homens begin with a vowel sound.

Unstressed Endings

The next two guidelines both apply to unstressed word endings.

e Followed by Medium or Open Vowels (e, a, or o)

When an e is followed by e, a, or o, it sounds more like the vowel I. (This is basically the same as how one would say the name of the letter E in English – “ee”).
This is more common with 1-syllable words, such as que, de, se, or enclitic pronouns, like -te or -me, than it is with longer words.
O que é que achas?What do you(sing.,inf.) think?

  • The two que are unstressed and followed by the open E and A vowels in é and achas , respectively, so the pronunciation becomes either: O qui é qui achas? (“key”, modified e) or O qu’é qu’achas? (“kay”, omitted e).

Tu és de onde?Where are you(sing.,inf.) from?

  • The same thing happens here. Because de is followed by the o in onde , it sounds like Tu és di onde? (“dee”, modified first vowel) or Tu és donde? (omitted first vowel, which forms a contraction in this case).

Eu quero-te aquiI want you here

  • Here the clitic object pronoun te is followed by the a in aqui , so it sounds like Eu quero-ti aqui (“tee”, modified e) or Eu quero-t’aqui (omitted e).

Medium a/o Followed by Medium a/o

Medium As tend to be omitted and change the following vowel into its open version. So the general guideline is:

  • Medium A + Medium A = Open A

É a avó!It’s grandma!
The medium a vowels here merge together to make it sound more like É àvó! (with an open A).
The same thing sometimes happens with O:

  • Medium A + Medium O = Open O

Paga o que devesPay what you owe
The medium a and the medium o merge together, and it sounds like: Pagó que deves (with an open O).

When in Doubt…

It’s helpful to at least be familiar with these pronunciation patterns, since you’ll hear many of them quite often in regular and fast-paced speech. As a learner, however, you’ll probably be speaking more slowly in the beginning. This means it’s okay to focus on the ‘normal’ pronunciation first.
Over time, as your fluency improves, you’ll likely start to pick up these variations naturally by listening to Shorties and conversations in the real world.
Also, keep in mind that pronunciation varies across contexts / dialects / different parts of Portugal, so not everybody always follows the same patterns.

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