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Portuguese

Wikis > WikiAccent > Non-Native Pronunciations of English > Portuguese

Below are listed some of the common issues facing native Portuguese speakers.  We have divided these issues into Sound (Phonemes), Prosody (Rhythm, Tempo, Stress, and Intonation), and Other Stuff (Other Stuff). 

Sound:

  • Depending on dialect, may confuse /ʃ/ and /ʧ/, /ʒ/ and /ʤ/
  • May confuse /s/ and /ʃ/
  • The final /l/ is often pronounced as a /w/ or /ou/
  • /θ/ and /ð/are often pronounced as /t/ or /d/
  • Confusing /æ/ and /ɛ/
  • Confuse /I/ and /i/
  • Confusing /ʌ/ with /ɒ/
  • Confusing /ʊ/ with /u/

Prosody:

  • Tend to pronounce the vowels in unstressed syllables, but in English those vowels tend to be reduced to /ə/
  •  Tend to stress adjectives more than nouns
  • Tend to stress the first content word as opposed to the last

Other Stuff:

  • Portuguese speakers sometimes inadvertently insert an extra vowel sound when they say English words beginning with /s/
  • Tend to drop the second letter of a consonant cluster
  • May insert a vowel to break up a consonant cluster
  • May drop a single consonant at the end of a word
  • Often omit /m/, /n/,  or /ŋ/ at the end of a word