Brazilian Portuguese sounds: nasal vowels, two r's and 'dia'

This guide is for Brazilian Portuguese, the variety you hear in Brazilian TV, music and most Brazil-focused courses. Brazil is large and accents differ; where a sound changes by region, that is noted below. The aim is simple: after reading, you should be able to practise the four sounds that most often make an English speaker's Portuguese hard to follow.

Nasal vowels: ã, ão and ões

A tilde (~) over a vowel means the vowel is nasal: air flows through the nose and the mouth at the same time. The key point for English speakers is that there is no real "n" or "ng" at the end. You nasalise the vowel itself.

Spelling	Examples	Tip
ã	irmã (sister), maçã (apple)	an "a" said through the nose
ão	não (no), mão (hand), pão (bread)	like "ow" through the nose, with no final n
ãe	mãe (mother), mães (mothers)	like "eye" through the nose
ões	limões (lemons), lições (lessons)	like "oys" through the nose

Plurals of words in -ão vary and are learned with the word: mão becomes mãos, pão becomes pães, and limão becomes limões.

A vowel followed by m or n at the end of a syllable is nasal too. In bom (good) and sim (yes), the lips barely close for the m; the vowel carries the nasal sound.

Check yourself: pinch your nose and say mão. If the sound changes or stops, it is nasal. Then say mau (bad), which is an ordinary oral vowel: pinching your nose should make no difference. Alternate the two words until you can feel the switch.

The two r sounds

In most of Brazil, Portuguese has two clearly different r sounds, and mixing them up can change a word.

• The tap. A single r between vowels, or after a consonant as in obrigado, is a quick tap of the tongue, close to the "tt" in American English "better". Examples: caro (expensive), hora (hour), para (for).
• The strong r. An r at the start of a word, and a double rr, sound like an English "h" or a slightly rougher sound from the back of the throat in most of Brazil. Examples: rio (river), Rio de Janeiro, carro (car).

The pair to practise is caro (expensive) and carro (car). The short sentence O carro é caro. (The car is expensive.) uses both.

An r at the end of a syllable, as in porta (door) or falar (to speak), varies most by region. In Rio de Janeiro and much of the country it is h-like; in the interior of São Paulo state and nearby areas it is closer to an English r. At the end of verbs it is often dropped in relaxed speech, so falar can end on a stressed "a" with no r at all.

The most common English-speaker mistake is using an English r everywhere. Swapping it for the tap between vowels is the single biggest improvement you can make here.

Why dia sounds like "jee-a"

In most of Brazil, d and t change before an "i" sound:

• d becomes the "j" in "jeep": dia (day) sounds like "JEE-a".
• t becomes the "ch" in "cheap": tia (aunt) sounds like "CHEE-a".

An unstressed e at the end of a word is said as "i", so it triggers the same change: cidade (city) ends in "-ji", noite (night) ends in "-chi", and leite (milk) and tarde (afternoon) follow the same pattern. The everyday goodbye tchau is spelled with "tch" and has the same sound. In some parts of the Northeast and the South, d and t stay closer to English d and t, so you will hear both.

A related habit: an unstressed final o sounds like "u", so obrigado (thank you, said by a man) ends in "-du".

Você, a gente and how Brazilians say "you"

• você is the everyday "you" in Brazil. It takes the same verb form as "he" or "she": Você fala inglês? (Do you speak English?), Onde você mora? (Where do you live?)
• vocês is the plural "you", with the "they" verb form.
• o senhor and a senhora are the polite forms for an older person or a formal situation.
• tu is common in some regions, including the far south and parts of the North and Northeast. In casual speech it is often used with the você verb form, as in tu vai.
• a gente means "we" in everyday speech and takes the singular verb: A gente se vê. (See you.)

Two grammar habits also mark Brazilian Portuguese. For actions in progress, Brazilians use the -ndo form: Estou trabalhando. (I'm working.) And object pronouns often come before the verb, even at the start of a sentence: Como você se chama? (What's your name?) and Eu me chamo Tom. (My name is Tom.)

A five-minute daily drill

1. One minute: alternate mau and mão five times, with the nose-pinch check.
2. One minute: alternate caro and carro, then say O carro é caro.
3. One minute: read dia, tia, cidade, noite aloud, slowly, then at normal speed.
4. Two minutes: say Tudo bem?, Você fala inglês? and Onde você mora? as if you were meeting someone, paying attention to every r and every nasal vowel.

Tonada, a language-learning app for adults, has an English-to-Brazilian Portuguese course (A1–B2) with audio and speaking practice.