ABOUT THE

PORTUGUESE
ALPHABET

PORTUGUESE ALPHABET
(alfabeto)

What's significant about the

Portuguese alphabet?
* 5 vowels and 21 consonants
* Just like english some letters are pronounced
in diferente ways according to where and
how they appear in a specific word. Per
instance, in English the words ever and even
start with the letter e but this e is pronounced
differently in each of the words referred.

What's significant about the

Portuguese alphabet?
* Vowels and accents (diacritical marks)
Nasal vowels are very common and they are represented by the tilde over
the vowels a and o: cano, me, po, mo, rom, no

Accents are used to show their pronunciation: ,

, , , ,
gua

ncora

caf

voc

me

mpar
av

av

acar

ba

questes

quele

, , , , ,

What's significant about the

Portuguese alphabet?
*

*
The cedilha () before -a, - o, and - u sounds the same as s

Til | Cedilha| acento agudo | acento grave | acento circunflexo

What's significant about the

Portuguese alphabet?
pai, mau, sei, meu,
dois, seis, sentiu, boi,
ouro, me, co,
canes, viu

* diphthongs
(ditongos)

[ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou]

ray buy how boy no;
name ice now oil hope;

[eu]

[iu]

[ui]

[e]

[o]

[e]

phew europe louisiana main pound- boing

What's significant about the

Portuguese alphabet?
* Consonants
The letters g, c, r, s, z and the combinations nh, lh, ch, rr, ss, qu, gu, may prove
more challenging, for example:
G

Galo (rooster)

Like english g in: game

Gelo (ice)

Like english j in: gazz

Casa (house)

Like english c in: carrot

Cebola (onion)

Like english c in: cinnamon

The letter h is silent in Portuguese

Ex: Homem, humanidade, humor

What's significant about the

Portuguese alphabet?
* Consonants
R

Rdio, Areia (sand)

Like english r in: river, pear, fair, air

RR

arroz (rice)

Like english r in: rice

Sozinho (alone)

Like english s in: song

SS

Massa (pasta)

Like english ss in: gossip

CH

Chamar (to cal)

Like english sh in: shop

LH

Trabalho (work)

Like english ll in: million

NH

Vinho (wine)

Its a nasal sound like spanish

GU

gua (water)

Like english gu in: guacamole

Qu

Queijo (cheese)

Like english k in: kale

What's significant about the

Portuguese alphabet?
As a general guide, in portuguese, the stress falls on the penultimate ( last-but-one)
syllabe except:
- Where there is an accent
- The words ends with a diphthong

- Ends with any of the following letters:

i; l; r; z; im; ins; uns ( in which case, the stress is on the last syllable.
Examples: ali/aqui; comprar/comer; feliz/arroz; pudins; comuns

Email and website conventions

@ arroba
. Ponto (dot)
/ barra (forward slash)
- hfen (hyphen)

Did you know that

Portuguese has two diferent verbs for the verb to be?

Verbo Ser
Verbo Estar
Portuguese has three demonstratives?
Este(s) /esta(s) | isto = this
Esse(s) /essa(s) | isso = that (next to person spoken to)
Aquele(s) /aquela(s) | aquilo = that (far from the speaker)