I can hear and read a nasal sound as ONE sound, not as “vowel plus n”, understand why a word has an m or n you can't hear, and read any Portuguese diphthong aloud in one syllable, without splitting it in two.
A nasal sound is one sound, not two
The tilde, and m and n at the end of a syllable
The tilde ~ makes a vowel nasal: the air goes through the mouth and the nose at once, but it's still ONE sound. English has no nasal vowels and tends to add an n: o pão is not “PAWN”, and not “POW” either.
The letters m and n at the end of a syllable do the same job. In sim, o fim, bem, o homem, o som the m isn't pronounced as m: it shows that the vowel is nasal. That gives the full set: am, em, im, om, um.
Nasal diphthongs are two nasal sounds in one syllable: ão (não, o cão), ãe (os pães), õe (as lições). Final em ends in a short y, as in “yes”: bem, a viagem, o homem.
How to practice it. A nasal sound can't be checked in writing: the checker ignores the tilde and accepts “pao” for “pão”. So we listen to nasal sounds and choose, and we write them only where the letters differ.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “PAWN” or “POW” — o pão is one nasal sound, not a vowel plus n.
• NOT “SIM” with an m — in sim the m isn't pronounced.
• NOT “BEM” with an m — bem ends in a nasal sound with a short y.
• NOT “HOH-mem” — in o homem the h is silent, and the m only makes the vowel nasal.
A nasal sound is one sound, not two
The letters m and n at the end of a syllable aren't consonants here: they mark a nasal vowel.
| Written form | Sound | Word | NOT like this |
|---|---|---|---|
| ã, ão | one nasal sound | o pão · não | not “POW” or “PAWN” |
| ãe | nasal, ending in a short y | os pães (bread, pl.) | not “PAH-ess” |
| õe | nasal, ending in a short y | as lições (lessons) | not “lee-SOH-ess” |
| final -em | nasal, ending in a short y | bem · a viagem | not “BEM” with an m |
| -im | a nasal “ee” | sim · o fim | not “SIM” with a clear m |
| -om, -um | a nasal o, a nasal “oo” | o som · um (one) | not “SOHM” with an m |
Lesson notes
The tilde, and m and n at the end of a syllable
The tilde ~ makes a vowel nasal: the air goes through the mouth and the nose at once, but it's still ONE sound. English has no nasal vowels and tends to add an n: o pão is not “PAWN”, and not “POW” either.
The letters m and n at the end of a syllable do the same job. In sim, o fim, bem, o homem, o som the m isn't pronounced as m: it shows that the vowel is nasal. That gives the full set: am, em, im, om, um.
Nasal diphthongs are two nasal sounds in one syllable: ão (não, o cão), ãe (os pães), õe (as lições). Final em ends in a short y, as in “yes”: bem, a viagem, o homem.
How to practice it. A nasal sound can't be checked in writing: the checker ignores the tilde and accepts “pao” for “pão”. So we listen to nasal sounds and choose, and we write them only where the letters differ.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “PAWN” or “POW” — o pão is one nasal sound, not a vowel plus n.
• NOT “SIM” with an m — in sim the m isn't pronounced.
• NOT “BEM” with an m — bem ends in a nasal sound with a short y.
• NOT “HOH-mem” — in o homem the h is silent, and the m only makes the vowel nasal.
Two vowel letters, one syllable
Two vowels in one syllable are run together: ei — a ideia, ou — o ouro, ai — a praia, au — a aula, eu — o museu, oi — a coisa.
The pair ou is one closed o: in o ouro you hardly hear a second sound. The pair eu is “eh-oo” in one syllable: o museu. The pair ei sounds close to English “ay”, but in Lisbon it starts lower, from “uh”, and the y after it is very short: a ideia.
Final ão and am sound the same but are spelled differently. am is a verb ending (falam, “they speak”; the verb forms come in module 2), and ão ends nouns like o pão and o cão. The checker ignores the tilde but sees the letters ão and am: mix them up, and the answer is marked wrong.
One more warning: a lição and a canção have the letter ç, and in o museu and a coisa the letter s stands between vowels and sounds like z in “zoo”. Both rules come in lesson 3.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “OH-oo-roh” with two vowels — o ouro has one closed o.
• NOT “MYOO-zee-um” — o museu ends in “eh-oo”, in one syllable.
• NOT “ah-OO-lah” in three syllables — in a aula the first two letters make one syllable.
• NOT “falão” — “they speak” is spelled falam, with m.