Learn about diphthongs
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| 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! |
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