Im brazilian... an I've neer notices how hard our vowels can sound for the rest of the world! daaaang, it sounds super hard!!! well done everyboty trying to learn it! You rock!
What I find mindblowing about the open/closed vowel pairs in portuguese is that many foreigners not only are unable to reproduce the sounds properly, which is understandable, but they simply WON'T HEAR them as different phonemes, no matter how many times you repeat them. I was trying to teach portuguese to a panamanian friend the other day and asked her to repeat two words: "peça" (with an open 'e', IPA /ɛ/) and "peso" (with a closed 'e', /e/). She would either pronounce both the same way, with some sort of intermediate sound (more like a closed 'e' than the other way round), or do the exact opposite of what I told her. We could've spended the whole night trying, she just WOULDN'T do it properly. And mind you that, even though professor Jason's pronunciation is excellent for a foreigner and his native language supposedly has the same phonemes, he also slips sometimes throughout the video -- in the word 'ten', for example -- or pronounces the sort of intermediate sound I was talking about. Anyway, his channel is a great resource for those willing to learn portuguese -- words from a native speaker!
Julio, thanks for that insightful comment. And (as many have pointed out) I mispronounce the word "copo" in this video. One thing that complicates matters is that in BP spelling does not always help to indicate whether a vowel sound is open or closed. There are multiple rules you can learn to predict this, but none of them works all of the time. In terms of the phenomenon you're talking about (not hear differences in phonemes and therefore having difficulty producing them) I have noticed this when Brazilians are learning English (or even among fluent L2 speakers of English): they really struggle with the different sounds in bed/bad or met/mat.
@@JasonJolley71Very good point! Indeed, words like bed/bad are a huge problem for us. I think it took me some years of watching TV series and movies to actually detect the difference between them, and I'll still fatally mispronounce 'bad', 'dad' etc in relaxed speech. There are also other vocalic sounds in 'standard' american english which might be tricky: the one in 'pot', 'spot' or the name 'Todd', for instance, which I think is better described as an /ɒ/, slightly more open than /ɔ/. Brazilians will usually perceive it as our open 'o', but they're not quite the same sound. In that case, though, we might give the excuse we're just doing it like the brits 😄
Vowels still remain one of the hardest aspects of Brazilian pronunciation for me, largely thanks to the influence of Spanish. As Professor Jason pointed out, Spanish vowels do not have the variety of pronunciations that their Brazilian Portuguese counterparts do, and even when unstressed, Spanish vowels always retain their full sound value (the same is also true in Italian, although that language also distinguishes between "open" and "closed" vowels). The one vowel sound I have particular trouble with is the unstressed "a" at the end of a word in Portuguese. The dull "schwa" pronunciation (which also exists in Romanian) is anathema to someone like me who came to Portuguese after years of Spanish, because in Spanish, one of the first things we're taught is that the "schwa" sound is a HUGE no-no, and it takes quite a bit of effort to unlearn that habit once it's been drilled into one!
I come from Indonesia, our language doesn't have neither open and closed voices nor nasal voices. So I find these things, new and really difficult to distinguish by ear. Nevertheless, your explanation is really clear and helpful. Thank you. :)
Hi professor Jason, I'm brazilian and I have to say that your portuguese its very good! My brother is married with an american girl and I just sent her an e-mail with your video. She already speaks a little portuguese, but I'm sure this will help! I hope you continue to make this kind of video. It will help a lot of people! Até mais! Abraços!
Oi! I'm a Spanish-native-speaker English teacher. You make me remind the excellent Phonetics & Diction Professors I had at the university. Your explanations are awesome. I'm learning Portuguese, but it's difficult to me because of the many words that are similar in my L1. Moreover, as English is my learned foreign language I tend to pronounce plosive consonants sounds (which are absent in Portuguese).Great explanation. The clearest I've ever heard! Pease, post more!!
Thank you very much for this useful lesson and the very clear explanations! I have just started studying Portuguese and I had trouble with the pronunciation...
Thank you very much - muito obrigado - we're moving to Portugal at theend of the summer and your explanation of vowel sounds has been really informative and helpful!!!
Hi Jason! My name is Carina, I'm brazilian and I'm trying to teach some portuguese to my husband. We found this video and I think is really good the way you explain the sound of the vowels. I just wanna say that the word "COPO" doesn't sound like "oh" it sounds like otimo and nove. Pronuncia-se CO'PU. Thank you for the great lesson, it helped a lot! Um beijo pra voce!
Thanks goes well with my first lesson. I have been singing songs for a few years and didn't know the meaning of a lot of words the pronunciation and extensions of vowels was super Thanks Trudi
@languagenow Parabéns! Muito bom o seu método de ensino, muito compreensível. The best part is when you explain how to sound the endings in 'e' e 'o' of the words, you're really really right. Reforce o conteúdo com a seguinte informação: "Palavras terminadas em 'ém' ou o plural ,'éns', apesar de ter acento agudo, o som é fechado" "Words ended by 'ém' or its plural, 'éns', althought they have acute accent, their sound is closed" Ex: parabéns, porém, também... Saudações
Roger, the thing here is about Phonetics. I never said the second "a" in "casa" ou "fala" was nasal. This is so subtle that most Brazilian can not recognize it. It takes a foreigner to point out the difference. Or someone who has studied Portuguese at a higher level (my case). Jason, the professor is doing a great job because he is teaching our language for foreigners. On the other hand, your short video is fantastic. Hang on to the video business and you will do fine!
Hei,,,,,this sort of tutorial is excellent......I am East Timorese studying in Australia and when finish my study should be back to my country and you know....Portugues is our official language......... I will be using your lessons and tutorials and I would take the most out of them ..........Thnaks so muchhhhhhhh,,,,,,,the are so helpful.......
This is great! I'm a native English speaker and fluent Spanish speaker, so learning Portuguese pronunciation is more of a challenge, esp. the nasal sounds. That said, this helps a lot! Obrigada!
Thank you so much for these videos. I am learning portuguese because of my heritage (half port. half span.) and never learned portuguese. Muchisimas gracias, espero aprender bastante por medio de estos videos! M
You can describe the different sounds for "a" in words like "fala" or "casa" as open or closed (or even use terms like "more open than" or "closer than"). I used to teach P for foreigners in my younger days. Abraços!
Muito bom I am learning (or trying to) learn portuguese for I too am in Love with uma Brasileira linda . I know spanish but Portuguese is soemwhat difficult in pronunciation very helpful thanks obrigado
very good question. On its own H is not pronounced, but the consonant sound represented by the letters NH is a complex sound, something beyond a regular N sound (as in vowel N vowel). Long story short, most speakers will nasalize a vowel before an NH sequence, sometimes REALLY exaggerating the effect.
@rogerpenna I'm Brazilian and a Linguist and they're definitely not the same sound. You could run it through a spectrogram to be sure but it's really not necessary, you just need to pay less attention to the written letter and pay more attention to the actual sound of it. It's not really closed as he say, it's just much shorter and doesn't have a defined identity. You can see that very clearly when foreigners try to speak portuguese. They can't say if the sound is a, e or o.
Hinidas, thanks for the comments, and happy new year to you too. I don't know if my terminology in terms of open/closed "a" is the most correct, but clearly many speakers tend to pronounce an "a" postônico with less intensity, which is slightly different than how roger defines a closed vowel (pre-nasal)
you're right about copo... regarding fala I agree, but many linguists, even Brazilians call the post-tonic or unstressed A, especially in final position "closed."
Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! This video answered all my questions regarding the vowels in Portuguese! I was very puzzled by how the words like nao, and sao are pronounced, as well as how it is that words ending in o are pronounced like 'u'. Portuguese is a VERY fascinating language due to its unorthodox pronunciation of words. Words aren't pronounced as they are written and have a certain musicality to them. I like Portuguese!
very interesting! i had never realized how complicated it was. the nasal vowels must be hard just as it's hard to convince students to pronounce the final m in english. i wanted to point out a couple of things, though. 1) The second "a" in fala, casa, etc, is not an "a" sound at all, it's just like many soft vowels in English, like the "a" in woman. 2) the "tilde" in portuguese is called "til" (final "l" pronounced "u") 3) Even though we pronounce it "vã", we usually spell it van in brazil.
Please, do not forget to note that the nasalized pronunciation of "muito" is a total exception in the rules. It is such an exception that kids when learning how to write make the very same mistake by writing the mispelled form "muinto" so to create the nasal effect! Congrats on your work!
There are some discussions about the pronunciation of n/m after vowels. When a vowel is followed by n/m, the consonants are softly pronounced. We could represent this in IPA as dʒis.tɐ̃n.siɐ with a smaller n that would be like an exponencial number upon ɐ̃ (I couldn't write it here). In Brazil, some people say ko.me.nʊ instead of ko.mẽn.dʊ, depending on the accent. This can show us that the consonants are also pronounced and don't just nasalizate the vowels near them. I'm a Brazilian from South.
It depends on the regions of Brazil: in the Northeast people say Dia (with D as in "door") while in Rio and São Paulo (e.g.) people say "Djia", for example.
Thanks for the very informative and helpful videos sharing your detailed observations about Portuguese pronunciation. I think you need to expand the rules for pronunciation of a final "o" - it is not always "oo". I have noticed that words like menino, gato, isto, livro, moro, and tudo are "oo", but cavalo, corpo, coco, isso, and cachorro are long "oh". Not "oo" and sometimes people say "oh" or solely another dialect, but another rule. Can anyone explain the rule? Thanks!
Hey nogeira, thanks for the comment. Where in Missouri do you live? The Prof lives in Springfield, MO. E minha esposa é brasileira de Paraná... Accents sometimes help, but many open and close vowels are not marked with accents at all (eu pronuncio errado a palavra COPO errado no video justamente por ela não ter acento para me indicar que o O é aberto...) tchau! abraços
It's very nice... but I would like to alert to just a little mistake (besides "copo"): "húmido" (actually it's "úmido", without "h")... But I like it... Btw.the pronunciation it's nice... Congrats... Cheers!
Excellent video! Just a note, the first "o" in the word "copo" is open, not closed! If you need any hint in brazilian portuguese (I'm a native speaker) just let me know, I'd gladly help you. Keep up the good work :)
Wow I learned a LOT in less than half an hour! Loved this one and the series about consonants the most, I think. Yeah I'm a geek! Did degrees in two foreign languages (English and German) and I'm a bit of a phonetic fanatic ;) Until today I only knew written Portugese, which I came across by mistakenly choosing Portugese subtitles for a dvd I was watching. What caught my attention was how I was still able to make out what it meant because it was a BIT like Spanish. And it sounds NOTHING like it!
I’m a native Spanish speaker and as a kid learning when too use tildes or differences between some letters were hard. so, I wonder if Brazilian kids also get confused starting out ?
não no uso de sinais mas na escrita mesmo, as crianças tendem a escrever da mesma maneira que falam então decifrar o que uma criança comenta em um vídeo infantil é quase impossível.
Mr. Jason, thank's for your effort in teaching details of my mother tongue. I like your humility, in tell people that this isn't your strong skill. That's very good. First thing to teaching, you have to be humble, and also teachable. In this case, of "nh", you should take it as in spanish simbol of a N with a ~ in the top. As in the word "senhor" Mr., visualize, the english 'senior', and try to cut the "i" in half. Then you will have the sound similar to the brazilians.
I'm learning to sing Travessia and O Cantador. I think learning a song is a good way to get into the sound and feel of a language. And I see from your lesson why Portugese sounds so musical in these songs. I wonder how to get some coaching. Portugese is also spoken in Northern Namibia near the Angolan border, and I would like to gain some traction with it before heading back there.
I'm from Central Brazil and I'd like to warn you that in the words "distância" and "cama", both first "a(s)" are more characterized as nasalized vowels than closed vowels. Of course they r closed vowels, but before being closed, they are nasalized. Both "n" and "m" after the vowel turn the "a" into nasalized ones, like in: trânsito. An ex. of "e" nasalized would be in: encher, ema, sêmen. "i": introdução, impossível. "o": pronto, bomba. "u": assunto, fumo. Ex. of closed "e": pêssego; o: ovo etc.
Congratulations, Jason, your video is very good. I just want to add a small detail, I don't know if you already know about this: in European Portuguese, there's one more vowel sound (7 vowel sounds globally). That sound is written with the letter "E", and it corresponds, roughlly, to a very closed "E", almost unpronounced, more closed that the "E" in the word "medo".
Hinidas, is the 2nd A was closed, fala would rhyme with maçã (apple). It doesnt rhyme cuz the 2nd A is open. You can separate the A sounds from the consonant sounds (f and l) in any good WAV editor, and you will see the sounds are the same.
see my lesson on diphthongs in Brazilian portuguese... I may have some examples there... the õe nasal diphthong is very close to saying a made-up English word like "boings": what happens is that as you are about to pronounce the G sound, more air is forced through the nasal cavity
Jason, as I said before, you are absolutely right. The thing is that this kind of stuff is not an issue for Brazilians who pick up Língua Portuguesa at the regular school (and that is only obvious). Brazilians hardly notice that "o" and "e" have three different sounds depending or their position on the word... (to be cont´d)
The word "van" is also "van" in Portuguese. Va(with the tilde above the "a" means "vain" in its feminine form. The masculine is "vao"(also with the tilde above the "a". This is to make a comment, not to criticize. You are doing a great job!
I have only been in brasil once and I have only noticed some difrences expecialy in the words pronuciantion (accent) and that brazillian people have invented a Couple of words that dosen't exist in Portugal, but naturaly, the Portugal-Portuguese has equivalents for that NEW words. MsG Continues on next commenT!!
To me, CAMA has both open and closed vowels. First A is closed, second A is clearly open. In FALA both As are open. Second E in sete is closed. Of course, E in the end of words usually is pronounced I in Brazil, but there are several places in Brazil (and in Portugal) where the final E is pronounced correctly. The ending E is more of an accent than a rule. Same thing with D and T sound when followed by I or E. In Brazil, its usually pronounced like TCHI or DJI.
I love your passion for your language, Alexcetera! Concordo que o português do Brasil é distinto, mas a variante européia é muito rica tb! Não briguemos com nossos irmãos do outro lado do Atlântico, não :) Muito obrigado pelos seus comentários, amiga! abraços!
Biel, Thanks and very helpful comment. Do you speak the Carioca dialect? Your comment about the diphthongization of final vowel+s does not apply so much to paulista speech, acho... Thanks a ton for the tips.
understanding the different sounds of vowels is of special importance in HOMOGRAPHIC HETEROPHONIC words... written exactly the same, SAME stressed syllabe, but which have different sounds... the different sounds are exactly because of the change in one or more vowels, from open to close sound, and vice versa. examples: deste (pronounced dêste) and deste (pronounced déste), gosto (gôsto) and gosta (gósta), peso (pêso) and peso (péso), conserto (consêrto) and conserto (consérto), etc
@nobordersatflickr Parabéns! Muito bom o seu método de ensino, muito compreensível. The best part is when you explain how to sound the endings in 'e' e 'o' of the words, you're really really right. Reforce o conteúdo com a seguinte informação: "Palavras terminadas em 'ém' ou o plural ,'éns', apesar de ter acento agudo, o som é fechado" "Words ended by 'ém' or its plural, 'éns', althought they have acute accent, their sound is closed" Ex: parabéns, porém, também... Saudações
I'd like to contribute with something: 4:24 The first "o" on copo has open sound, like in Boston, not closed. Great video, nice pronunciation. Good to see a "gringo"(its not derrogative in Brazil) striving to learn portuguese. Peace!
I am Brazilian and your pronunciation is fantastic. Better that ours, I would say. I think the main thing to pay attention is for open/closed vowels, if you do not want to get into trouble. Nasalization is quite a bore for foreigners, esp. for Germans (LOL), who just cannot nasalize AT ALL. Uh, sind Sie Deutsch?
Atravessada, muito obrigado pelo seu interesse nas minhas aulas e pelos comentários! Fiquei curioso sobre esse outro E, faz um video sim, pode? abraços!
About "E" sound it can vary in different parts of Brazil. In the southern states people say "e" as an "e", so in Paraná state and Rio grande do Sul, elephant sounds like "elefante" and not "elefanti" like São Paulo.
Hinidas, Thanks for your comments here and on my other Portuguese video! I am no expert, just trying to pass on what I have learned and keeping it simple for the beginner. I appreciate the support!
Só uma coisa: a vogal "o" não tem o som do "Oh" do inglês..., ela é muito mais "curta". americano falando português "ótimo" fala "ótimoouuu". e o "copo" está errado, não é "côpo" e sim "cópo" a pronúncia. Mas estão muito boas as aulas.
your pronunciation is pretty much good. the only word you pronounced wrong was 'copo' co-po: co = open - po = closed but other than that, your portuguese is really good. Most of english-speaking people have huge problems with the portuguese pronunciation, but you do it very well.
do you mean when it is before the letter "i" especially, such as in the word "tadinho"? In that case, I'd say it sounds like the pronunciation of the letter G, but in "cadê" it does not... correct?
I speak Spanish and I am trying to learn Portuguese. Thank you this was very helpful. Do you have more classes like this ? Can someone recomend me some book Brazilinian Portuguese for Spanish speakers ? Thanks!
Im brazilian... an I've neer notices how hard our vowels can sound for the rest of the world! daaaang, it sounds super hard!!! well done everyboty trying to learn it! You rock!
They are indeed a whole new philosophy. :D :D
But they are also one of the reasons I started learning Brazilian Portuguese.
Hey bro I’m learning Brazilian like you and yea it’s hard
Now I’m going to know 3 languages because I know Spanish English and now brazilian
@@rosalbafernandez2912 brazilian is not a language, portuguese is
What I find mindblowing about the open/closed vowel pairs in portuguese is that many foreigners not only are unable to reproduce the sounds properly, which is understandable, but they simply WON'T HEAR them as different phonemes, no matter how many times you repeat them. I was trying to teach portuguese to a panamanian friend the other day and asked her to repeat two words: "peça" (with an open 'e', IPA /ɛ/) and "peso" (with a closed 'e', /e/). She would either pronounce both the same way, with some sort of intermediate sound (more like a closed 'e' than the other way round), or do the exact opposite of what I told her. We could've spended the whole night trying, she just WOULDN'T do it properly.
And mind you that, even though professor Jason's pronunciation is excellent for a foreigner and his native language supposedly has the same phonemes, he also slips sometimes throughout the video -- in the word 'ten', for example -- or pronounces the sort of intermediate sound I was talking about.
Anyway, his channel is a great resource for those willing to learn portuguese -- words from a native speaker!
Julio, thanks for that insightful comment. And (as many have pointed out) I mispronounce the word "copo" in this video. One thing that complicates matters is that in BP spelling does not always help to indicate whether a vowel sound is open or closed. There are multiple rules you can learn to predict this, but none of them works all of the time. In terms of the phenomenon you're talking about (not hear differences in phonemes and therefore having difficulty producing them) I have noticed this when Brazilians are learning English (or even among fluent L2 speakers of English): they really struggle with the different sounds in bed/bad or met/mat.
@@JasonJolley71Very good point! Indeed, words like bed/bad are a huge problem for us. I think it took me some years of watching TV series and movies to actually detect the difference between them, and I'll still fatally mispronounce 'bad', 'dad' etc in relaxed speech. There are also other vocalic sounds in 'standard' american english which might be tricky: the one in 'pot', 'spot' or the name 'Todd', for instance, which I think is better described as an /ɒ/, slightly more open than /ɔ/. Brazilians will usually perceive it as our open 'o', but they're not quite the same sound. In that case, though, we might give the excuse we're just doing it like the brits 😄
Vowels still remain one of the hardest aspects of Brazilian pronunciation for me, largely thanks to the influence of Spanish. As Professor Jason pointed out, Spanish vowels do not have the variety of pronunciations that their Brazilian Portuguese counterparts do, and even when unstressed, Spanish vowels always retain their full sound value (the same is also true in Italian, although that language also distinguishes between "open" and "closed" vowels). The one vowel sound I have particular trouble with is the unstressed "a" at the end of a word in Portuguese. The dull "schwa" pronunciation (which also exists in Romanian) is anathema to someone like me who came to Portuguese after years of Spanish, because in Spanish, one of the first things we're taught is that the "schwa" sound is a HUGE no-no, and it takes quite a bit of effort to unlearn that habit once it's been drilled into one!
O Gavin disse que vc o ajudou a aprender inglês bem no início de seu processo de aprendizagem de português. Keep on the good job.
I come from Indonesia, our language doesn't have neither open and closed voices nor nasal voices. So I find these things, new and really difficult to distinguish by ear. Nevertheless, your explanation is really clear and helpful. Thank you. :)
Muuuuito obrigado :-) Obrigado por assistir!
Hi professor Jason,
I'm brazilian and I have to say that your portuguese its very good!
My brother is married with an american girl and I just sent her an e-mail with your video. She already speaks a little portuguese, but I'm sure this will help! I hope you continue to make this kind of video. It will help a lot of people!
Até mais! Abraços!
Oi! I'm a Spanish-native-speaker English teacher. You make me remind the excellent Phonetics & Diction Professors I had at the university. Your explanations are awesome. I'm learning Portuguese, but it's difficult to me because of the many words that are similar in my L1. Moreover, as English is my learned foreign language I tend to pronounce plosive consonants sounds (which are absent in Portuguese).Great explanation. The clearest I've ever heard! Pease, post more!!
Thank you very much for this useful lesson and the very clear explanations! I have just started studying Portuguese and I had trouble with the pronunciation...
Thank you for showing me that my native language is far more complex and beautiful than I thought😍😍😍
Thank you very much - muito obrigado - we're moving to Portugal at theend of the summer and your explanation of vowel sounds has been really informative and helpful!!!
Hi Jason!
My name is Carina, I'm brazilian and I'm trying to teach some portuguese to my husband.
We found this video and I think is really good the way you explain the sound of the vowels.
I just wanna say that the word "COPO" doesn't sound like "oh" it sounds like otimo and nove.
Pronuncia-se CO'PU.
Thank you for the great lesson, it helped a lot!
Um beijo pra voce!
Hello,
I'm brazilian and i need to say that you have a really good pronouncing, and your video classes are very good too!
congratulations!
Thanks goes well with my first lesson.
I have been singing songs for a few years and didn't know the meaning of a lot of words the pronunciation and extensions of vowels was super
Thanks Trudi
Jason, excellent video. You're so clear!! Spanish is my first language and I was curious about Portuguese. Thanks for uploading such quality video!
I am really indebted to you for this precise clarification of vowel sounds. Ciao
Keep making these Portugues videos!!! It is hard to find good lessons and you explain everything perfect. thanks.
your voice is so beautiful. I enjoy your teaching very much. thank you
@languagenow Parabéns! Muito bom o seu método de ensino, muito compreensível. The best part is when you explain how to sound the endings in 'e' e 'o' of the words, you're really really right. Reforce o conteúdo com a seguinte informação: "Palavras terminadas em 'ém' ou o plural ,'éns', apesar de ter acento agudo, o som é fechado"
"Words ended by 'ém' or its plural, 'éns', althought they have acute accent, their sound is closed"
Ex: parabéns, porém, também...
Saudações
Roger, the thing here is about Phonetics. I never said the second "a" in "casa" ou "fala" was nasal. This is so subtle that most Brazilian can not recognize it. It takes a foreigner to point out the difference. Or someone who has studied Portuguese at a higher level (my case). Jason, the professor is doing a great job because he is teaching our language for foreigners. On the other hand, your short video is fantastic. Hang on to the video business and you will do fine!
The way you speak is so clean. I'm in awe...
Hei,,,,,this sort of tutorial is excellent......I am East Timorese studying in Australia and when finish my study should be back to my country and you know....Portugues is our official language.........
I will be using your lessons and tutorials and I would take the most out of them ..........Thnaks so muchhhhhhhh,,,,,,,the are so helpful.......
This is great! I'm a native English speaker and fluent Spanish speaker, so learning Portuguese pronunciation is more of a challenge, esp. the nasal sounds. That said, this helps a lot! Obrigada!
Thanks a lot for the feedback. Of course, you're right! I appreciate the correction!
Thanks so much for this video! Very helpful, and very instructive. My Portuguese friend couldn't quite explain the vowels this well to me.
Thank you so much for these videos. I am learning portuguese because of my heritage (half port. half span.) and never learned portuguese. Muchisimas gracias, espero aprender bastante por medio de estos videos! M
You can describe the different sounds for "a" in words like "fala" or "casa" as open or closed (or even use terms like "more open than" or "closer than"). I used to teach P for foreigners in my younger days. Abraços!
Obrigada! Soy Mexico-Americana tratando de aprender a falar Portugues. Great pronunciation! Please add more Portuguese when you can! Dios te bendiga!
Muito bom
I am learning (or trying to) learn portuguese for I too am in Love with uma Brasileira linda . I know spanish but Portuguese is soemwhat difficult in pronunciation
very helpful thanks
obrigado
very good question. On its own H is not pronounced, but the consonant sound represented by the letters NH is a complex sound, something beyond a regular N sound (as in vowel N vowel). Long story short, most speakers will nasalize a vowel before an NH sequence, sometimes REALLY exaggerating the effect.
YES, the acents is very important...learn ! and we use a nasal sound in a lot of works...good work !
Jason, i loved your "livro". perfect pronunciation...!
I´m proud you!
@rogerpenna I'm Brazilian and a Linguist and they're definitely not the same sound. You could run it through a spectrogram to be sure but it's really not necessary, you just need to pay less attention to the written letter and pay more attention to the actual sound of it. It's not really closed as he say, it's just much shorter and doesn't have a defined identity. You can see that very clearly when foreigners try to speak portuguese. They can't say if the sound is a, e or o.
Hinidas, thanks for the comments, and happy new year to you too. I don't know if my terminology in terms of open/closed "a" is the most correct, but clearly many speakers tend to pronounce an "a" postônico with less intensity, which is slightly different than how roger defines a closed vowel (pre-nasal)
you're right about copo... regarding fala I agree, but many linguists, even Brazilians call the post-tonic or unstressed A, especially in final position "closed."
De alto nível essa aula. Mandas muito bem e sua pronuncia é perfeita.
Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! This video answered all my questions regarding the vowels in Portuguese! I was very puzzled by how the words like nao, and sao are pronounced, as well as how it is that words ending in o are pronounced like 'u'. Portuguese is a VERY fascinating language due to its unorthodox pronunciation of words. Words aren't pronounced as they are written and have a certain musicality to them. I like Portuguese!
very interesting! i had never realized how complicated it was. the nasal vowels must be hard just as it's hard to convince students to pronounce the final m in english.
i wanted to point out a couple of things, though. 1) The second "a" in fala, casa, etc, is not an "a" sound at all, it's just like many soft vowels in English, like the "a" in woman.
2) the "tilde" in portuguese is called "til" (final "l" pronounced "u")
3) Even though we pronounce it "vã", we usually spell it van in brazil.
Please, do not forget to note that the nasalized pronunciation of "muito" is a total exception in the rules. It is such an exception that kids when learning how to write make the very same mistake by writing the mispelled form "muinto" so to create the nasal effect! Congrats on your work!
There are some discussions about the pronunciation of n/m after vowels. When a vowel is followed by n/m, the consonants are softly pronounced. We could represent this in IPA as dʒis.tɐ̃n.siɐ with a smaller n that would be like an exponencial number upon ɐ̃ (I couldn't write it here). In Brazil, some people say ko.me.nʊ instead of ko.mẽn.dʊ, depending on the accent. This can show us that the consonants are also pronounced and don't just nasalizate the vowels near them. I'm a Brazilian from South.
brigado Carina, é... varias pessoas já me corrigiram a pronúncia de c(ó)po, rs... I'm glad you and your husband liked the videos!
It depends on the regions of Brazil: in the Northeast people say Dia (with D as in "door") while in Rio and São Paulo (e.g.) people say "Djia", for example.
Thanks for the very informative and helpful videos sharing your detailed observations about Portuguese pronunciation. I think you need to expand the rules for pronunciation of a final "o" - it is not always "oo". I have noticed that words like menino, gato, isto, livro, moro, and tudo are "oo", but cavalo, corpo, coco, isso, and cachorro are long "oh". Not "oo" and sometimes people say "oh" or solely another dialect, but another rule. Can anyone explain the rule? Thanks!
Sua pronúncia é excelente! Parabéns!
Hey nogeira, thanks for the comment. Where in Missouri do you live? The Prof lives in Springfield, MO. E minha esposa é brasileira de Paraná... Accents sometimes help, but many open and close vowels are not marked with accents at all (eu pronuncio errado a palavra COPO errado no video justamente por ela não ter acento para me indicar que o O é aberto...) tchau! abraços
I find this VDO very useful for me as a Portuguese learner! Obrigada : )
Parabéns sua pronúncia está ótima
It's very nice... but I would like to alert to just a little mistake (besides "copo"): "húmido" (actually it's "úmido", without "h")... But I like it... Btw.the pronunciation it's nice... Congrats... Cheers!
Excellent video! Just a note, the first "o" in the word "copo" is open, not closed!
If you need any hint in brazilian portuguese (I'm a native speaker) just let me know, I'd gladly help you.
Keep up the good work :)
Wow I learned a LOT in less than half an hour! Loved this one and the series about consonants the most, I think. Yeah I'm a geek! Did degrees in two foreign languages (English and German) and I'm a bit of a phonetic fanatic ;) Until today I only knew written Portugese, which I came across by mistakenly choosing Portugese subtitles for a dvd I was watching. What caught my attention was how I was still able to make out what it meant because it was a BIT like Spanish. And it sounds NOTHING like it!
anynick, excellent point, and you are exactly right, thanks for the clarification. you even gave some examples of triphthongs!
I’m a native Spanish speaker and as a kid learning when too use tildes or differences between some letters were hard. so, I wonder if Brazilian kids also get confused starting out ?
não no uso de sinais mas na escrita mesmo, as crianças tendem a escrever da mesma maneira que falam então decifrar o que uma criança comenta em um vídeo infantil é quase impossível.
Mr. Jason, thank's for your effort in teaching details of my mother tongue. I like your humility, in tell people that this isn't your strong skill. That's very good. First thing to teaching, you have to be humble, and also teachable. In this case, of "nh", you should take it as in spanish simbol of a N with a ~ in the top. As in the word "senhor" Mr., visualize, the english 'senior', and try to cut the "i" in half. Then you will have the sound similar to the brazilians.
I'm learning to sing Travessia and O Cantador. I think learning a song is a good way to get into the sound and feel of a language. And I see from your lesson why Portugese sounds so musical in these songs. I wonder how to get some coaching. Portugese is also spoken in Northern Namibia near the Angolan border, and I would like to gain some traction with it before heading back there.
I'm from Central Brazil and I'd like to warn you that in the words "distância" and "cama", both first "a(s)" are more characterized as nasalized vowels than closed vowels. Of course they r closed vowels, but before being closed, they are nasalized. Both "n" and "m" after the vowel turn the "a" into nasalized ones, like in: trânsito. An ex. of "e" nasalized would be in: encher, ema, sêmen. "i": introdução, impossível. "o": pronto, bomba. "u": assunto, fumo. Ex. of closed "e": pêssego; o: ovo etc.
Good job! Congratulations!!!!
Bom trabalho! Parabéns!!!!
Parabéns! Excellent video for those who want to learn Portuguese.
Congratulations, Jason, your video is very good. I just want to add a small detail, I don't know if you already know about this: in European Portuguese, there's one more vowel sound (7 vowel sounds globally). That sound is written with the letter "E", and it corresponds, roughlly, to a very closed "E", almost unpronounced, more closed that the "E" in the word "medo".
Hinidas, is the 2nd A was closed, fala would rhyme with maçã (apple). It doesnt rhyme cuz the 2nd A is open.
You can separate the A sounds from the consonant sounds (f and l) in any good WAV editor, and you will see the sounds are the same.
Parabéns Jason!!! você é um bom professor.
see my lesson on diphthongs in Brazilian portuguese... I may have some examples there... the õe nasal diphthong is very close to saying a made-up English word like "boings": what happens is that as you are about to pronounce the G sound, more air is forced through the nasal cavity
Jason, as I said before, you are absolutely right. The thing is that this kind of stuff is not an issue for Brazilians who pick up Língua Portuguesa at the regular school (and that is only obvious). Brazilians hardly notice that "o" and "e" have three different sounds depending or their position on the word... (to be cont´d)
Great job and thanks much. One minor point of correction though, the r in Portuguese has an h sound not like the r in Spanish. Tchau for now.
Where you are right is indicating the presence of the E and I combination that happens... BEI(ng), (ng) = nasalization
Hi, I loved you dynamics and calm while explaining it. But I'm just happy that I can already speak it. Anyway, great job!
The word "van" is also "van" in Portuguese. Va(with the tilde above the "a" means "vain" in its feminine form. The masculine is "vao"(also with the tilde above the "a". This is to make a comment, not to criticize. You are doing a great job!
I have only been in brasil once and I have only noticed some difrences expecialy in the words pronuciantion (accent) and that brazillian people have invented a Couple of words that dosen't exist in Portugal, but naturaly, the Portugal-Portuguese has equivalents for that NEW words.
MsG Continues on next commenT!!
To me, CAMA has both open and closed vowels. First A is closed, second A is clearly open. In FALA both As are open.
Second E in sete is closed. Of course, E in the end of words usually is pronounced I in Brazil, but there are several places in Brazil (and in Portugal) where the final E is pronounced correctly.
The ending E is more of an accent than a rule.
Same thing with D and T sound when followed by I or E. In Brazil, its usually pronounced like TCHI or DJI.
Obrigado, Flavia :) Thanks for the correction. I haven't mastered pronunciation of the vowels yet! But I keep trying! Thanks for your kind words!
That was a amazing explanation, great work Jason.
VERY good job, it was quick but clear...very helpful, thanks..
I love your passion for your language, Alexcetera! Concordo que o português do Brasil é distinto, mas a variante européia é muito rica tb! Não briguemos com nossos irmãos do outro lado do Atlântico, não :) Muito obrigado pelos seus comentários, amiga! abraços!
Biel, Thanks and very helpful comment. Do you speak the Carioca dialect? Your comment about the diphthongization of final vowel+s does not apply so much to paulista speech, acho... Thanks a ton for the tips.
understanding the different sounds of vowels is of special importance in HOMOGRAPHIC HETEROPHONIC words... written exactly the same, SAME stressed syllabe, but which have different sounds... the different sounds are exactly because of the change in one or more vowels, from open to close sound, and vice versa.
examples: deste (pronounced dêste) and deste (pronounced déste), gosto (gôsto) and gosta (gósta), peso (pêso) and peso (péso), conserto (consêrto) and conserto (consérto), etc
@nobordersatflickr Parabéns! Muito bom o seu método de ensino, muito compreensível. The best part is when you explain how to sound the endings in 'e' e 'o' of the words, you're really really right. Reforce o conteúdo com a seguinte informação: "Palavras terminadas em 'ém' ou o plural ,'éns', apesar de ter acento agudo, o som é fechado"
"Words ended by 'ém' or its plural, 'éns', althought they have acute accent, their sound is closed"
Ex: parabéns, porém, também...
Saudações
I'd like to contribute with something:
4:24 The first "o" on copo has open sound, like in Boston, not closed.
Great video, nice pronunciation. Good to see a "gringo"(its not derrogative in Brazil) striving to learn portuguese.
Peace!
Very nice! I’m Brazilian and man your pronunciation is very good!
thanks a lot for both of these comments! I appreciate the feedback... I need to post some more portuguese vids!
I am Brazilian and your pronunciation is fantastic. Better that ours, I would say. I think the main thing to pay attention is for open/closed vowels, if you do not want to get into trouble. Nasalization is quite a bore for foreigners, esp. for Germans (LOL), who just cannot nasalize AT ALL.
Uh, sind Sie Deutsch?
Atravessada, muito obrigado pelo seu interesse nas minhas aulas e pelos comentários! Fiquei curioso sobre esse outro E, faz um video sim, pode? abraços!
que bueno que te gustaron mis videos! Gracias por el comentario! CTR!
Very nice of you to say, my friend!
@nobordersatflickr Muito obrigado pelos seus comentários, Catherine. I am glad you are interested in Brazil and its language. Best of luck to you!
@willianfender what are you talking about? what could possibly make you say I have a certain prejudice against Brazil or Brazilians?
Ninterx, thanks for those comments. We are all learning together. Maybe you can post a video speaking peninsular Portuguese :)
About "E" sound it can vary in different parts of Brazil. In the southern states people say "e" as an "e", so in Paraná state and Rio grande do Sul, elephant sounds like "elefante" and not "elefanti" like São Paulo.
im portuguese and i never realised how complex my language was, thank you for posting this video
Very good work. Thank you.
Hinidas, Thanks for your comments here and on my other Portuguese video! I am no expert, just trying to pass on what I have learned and keeping it simple for the beginner. I appreciate the support!
Só uma coisa: a vogal "o" não tem o som do "Oh" do inglês..., ela é muito mais "curta".
americano falando português "ótimo" fala "ótimoouuu". e o "copo" está errado, não é "côpo" e sim "cópo" a pronúncia. Mas estão muito boas as aulas.
novamente, muito obrigado. Super gentil. O próximo projeto é uma série de lições sobre as consoantes... wish me luck! abraços
your pronunciation is pretty much good.
the only word you pronounced wrong was 'copo'
co-po: co = open - po = closed
but other than that, your portuguese is really good.
Most of english-speaking people have huge problems with the portuguese pronunciation, but you do it very well.
wonderful! You do speak very well. Keep up the good job, man.
Parabéns!
Very good lesson, thank you.
probably by most speakers, yes. in fact, I usually pronounce initial d before i as [dʒ]
Awesome video! Can you also recommend some extra sources for learning Brazilian Portuguese? :)
do you mean when it is before the letter "i" especially, such as in the word "tadinho"? In that case, I'd say it sounds like the pronunciation of the letter G, but in "cadê" it does not... correct?
Muito bom! Parabéns pelo vídeo e pela pronúncia do português!
I speak Spanish and I am trying to learn Portuguese. Thank you this was very helpful. Do you have more classes like this ? Can someone recomend me some book Brazilinian Portuguese for Spanish speakers ?
Thanks!
Parabens, sou brasileiro e vc fala perfeitamente bem