Vocabulary
Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Learn about diphthongs
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
Hi everyone. |
Welcome to The Ultimate Portuguese Pronunciation Guide. |
In this lesson, you'll learn about Portuguese diphthongs. |
WHAT ARE DIPHTHONGS? |
Diphthong' means 'two sounds'. It's the term used to describe two vowel sounds that are pronounced closely together in the same syllable. |
"Take the English word 'pain' for example. |
It's not pronounced 'pa-in', but 'pain'. |
Or the word 'foul'. It's not 'fo-ul', but 'foul'." |
Notice the difference? You can think of it like gliding from one vowel to the next very quickly. Diphthongs therefore, begin one way and end in another. |
PORTUGUESE DIPHTHONGS |
There are two types of diphthongs in Portuguese: Oral diphthongs, and Nasal dipthongs. |
Let's focus on Oral diphthongs first. |
Oral diphthongs involves two oral vowels, meaning vowels that are pronounced through the oral cavity. Portuguese has a great number of oral diphthongs, so we'll just cover the most common ones and have you practice them. |
ai, ai |
"raiva - anger |
cai - (he/she/you) fall |
pai - father" |
It sounds like 'eye'. Try it! |
Next. |
au/ao, au/ao |
"aula - class |
mau - bad |
caule - stalk" |
It sounds like the diphthong in 'cow'. Now *you* try! |
Next. |
ei, ei |
"feito - done |
eleito - elected |
falei - (I) spoke" |
It sounds like the diphthong in 'hay'. Try it yourself! |
Next is |
ou, ou |
"chegou - arrived |
louco - crazy |
ouro - gold" |
It sounds a bit like the diphthong in 'goal' except more drawn out. Try it! |
Great, I think you got the hang of Oral diphthongs. Let's move on to Nasal diphthongs. |
Nasal diphthongs involve a nasal vowel and usually occurs at the end of a word. |
-ão, -ão |
"pão (bread) |
cão (dog) |
vão (they go)" |
It sounds a bit like the diphthong in 'pound', but remember, you need to emphasize the nasality of the vowel, so make sure you're pronouncing it through the nose. This is a closed O sound, so don't open your mouth *too* widely. When practicing with the word 'pound', you may find it easier to remove the final D sound altogether. Try it! |
Next. |
ãe, ãe |
"mãe - mother |
alemães - Germans |
pães - breads" |
This is similar to the YIN in the word 'flying'. Since it's a nasalised diphthong, you need to pronounce it through the nose. And as with the previous sound, the A is "closed". Try it! |
Next. |
-õe, -õe |
"põe - (he/she/you) put |
opõe - (he/she/you) oppose |
compõe - (he/she/you) compose" |
For English speakers, it's like the sound that a spring makes: "boing!". Another similar sound is in the word 'ointment'. This is a closed O sound, so don't open your mouth *too* widely. Try it! |
Okay, last one. |
-ui, -ui |
"pinguim - penguin |
ruim - bad |
muito - a lot, very" |
This is similar to the diphthong in the word "quit". But remember, since it's a nasal dipthong, you want to pronounce it through the nose as much as possible. |
Well done! In this lesson, you learned about Portuguese diphthongs. |
In the next lesson, you'll learn about accentuation in Portuguese. |
Do you have any other tips or tricks on how to pronounce nasal diphthongs? Share it in the comments. |
See you in the next Ultimate Portuguese Pronunciation Guide lesson! |
Comments
Hide