How To Pronounce and Read European Portuguese like a Native!

ByCarla

Reading Exercise – https://portuguesewithcarla.com/read
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Other Videos:
How to pronounce the R -https://youtu.be/B_xaE9jOaL8
Alphabet and sounds – https://youtu.be/_pYwFUiARJw
Tricky Sounds – https://youtu.be/8BejgsnJjns



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94 Comments

    1. @ogator I am a Portuguese native speaker. Portuguese is second nature to me.
      I don’t think about the rules while I am speaking.
      For instance, I pronounce the word ” Economia” a bit different than Carla. I pronounce the two oo like u
      Good- like those oo.
      Do you think of these rules when you speak in your native language?

      Reply

    2. @European Portuguese with José Até em português, digo uma palavra como a ouvi ser dita. Às vezes, acho que todo mundo tem seu português. Acho que os portugueses começaram a fazer isso para enlouquecer os espanhóis.

      Reply

    3. @ogator Ninguém enlouquece a ninguém. Cada lingua é diferente.
      Dentro de cada lingua há sotaques e dialetos.
      Em portugal, todos falamos mais ou menos da mesma maneira, embora haja algumas diferencas na gramática, vocabulario ou até mesmo na pronuncia. Eu tenho o meu português, eu uso o vós com muita frequencia.
      Para alguns portugueses, os do norte do país, falam uma linguagem arcaica. Em espanhol há duas letras que tornam malucos/as a qualquer aprendente que quer aprender o espanhol. Essas letras são B e v, há duas mais que soam igual até certo ponto.
      C e z- Zoo, cereza. A c de casa é diferente a essa c de cerveza. O chino é muito mais dificil que a minha lingua, já que eles usam tons.
      Por não falar da lingua arabe. Eles não falam a lingua oficial. Em cada cidade fala-se duma maneira muito diferente.
      Os dialetos amendrontam-me

      Reply

    4. @ogator obrigada eu por assistires ao vídeo e partilhares a tua opinião.
      No, the Portuguese don’t think of these rules when they’re speaking, even because we learn to speak before we learn to read. However as they learn to read and, as you say, encounter words for the first time in the written form, then they may have to pause for a sec and refer back to these rules, even if they don’t actually and consciously know them, the unconscious brain should have a pretty good idea.
      As for those learning to read Portuguese as a foreign language, the tendency, and especially when seen for the first time, is to subconsciously apply the rules of their mother tongue to the reading of words in the target language. Hence the reason for this video 🙂 And thanks again for commenting 👍🏽

      Reply

    5. Kn Ng, sorry but I can’t change this video now. But we’ll take your suggestion into consideration for next time 👍🏽 Either way, I hope you enjoyed the video 🙂

      Reply

  6. 2:08 it’s funny the way you pronounce ” Economia”. I pronounce the two oo like u.

    Reply

    1. Oh really? That is funny 😄 I generally hear it it being pronounced they way I did, even in the north of the country. Saying that, you’re way also sounds ok to me 👍🏽

      Reply

    2. @Portuguese With Carla Eu pronuncio essa palavra desta maneira “ Ecunumia” – Economia- um bocadinho diferente a tua pronúncia.

      Reply

    1. Olá Bonnie and thank you for your comment 🙂 I guess I didn’t think of it because that was not the element of the language I was trying to teach, but I agree it would help you even more. Saying that, you could create an exercise from it as it’s going to have an even greater impact on your memory if you yourself write a list of the words (nouns) mentioned here; look them up on infopedia.pt, look for “masc.” (masculine) and “fem” (feminine) and then add the correct article to each one of them 🙂

      Reply

  8. For me this is where language starts very important thank you very much Carla. Anymore on the Portuguese IPA would be greatly appreciated. After which if it’s possible incorporating verb/noun phrases with these sounds to learn the sound & vocabulary. Sorry I’m needy. Then the little bits that are often used…joining words, pronoun, positioning etc to make sense of the sentence. Maybe you’ve already done this or maybe this is part of a paid course.. I realize your time is valuable. TY again.

    Reply

    1. Olá William, we’re glad you’ve enjoyed this video 🙂 most of what you’ve mention is included in our members only program, The Journey. You can learn more about it here: portuguesewithcarla.com/start

      Reply

    1. Co-meu has 2 syllables and because the “u” is at the end we put emphasis on the “meu” part which counts as one syllable. For instance the masculine word for “my” is “meu” and that’s a 1 syllable word (em Portuguese: palavra monossilábica) 👍🏽

      Reply

  11. So clear and well explained. I was always curious about why Portuguese lyrics of songs appeared/sounded so different from what was written. I’m subscribing so I can learn more.
    I want to ask you about you accent in English: It sounds like UK Midlands, but with traces of Australian. Which is it?

    Reply

  14. Good teaching. Suppose it’ll be more helpful to demonstrate how the strong syllable reads, or sounds, in a sentence.

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  15. Carla, is a great thing to keep all these suggestions in mind! Obrigado pelo empenho e paciência! É um grande prazer ouvir-te! 😉 Keep the good work! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

    Reply

  17. Olá amiga! Tenho dificuldades de pronunciar as palavras em português de Portugal. No nosso caso nós Timor-Leste temos muitos dialetos por isso dificulata- nos a pronunciar. Sou timorense, nosso país fica localizado no Sudeste asiatico e nosso país eis colônia portuguesa. Pode me passar o seu IG. Queria melhoras o meu português com Amiga.

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  19. There are exceptions to the diacritics rule: àquela, àquele, àquilo or àqueloutro and their declensions are still stressed in the antepenultimate syllable.

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    2. @Portuguese With Carla One can argue that these are not exceptions as àquela, àquele, etc are simply contractions of “a aquela, a aquele , etc”. This is the only way to reproduce the sound of what would happen in spoken Portuguese. Just a thought.

      Reply

  20. Congratulations Carla! Besides being an excellent teacher you have the best standard European Portuguese pronunciation that I have heard in a long time. Your British accent is also very pleasant and clear. I vote that your way of speaking become the standard worldwide versions for Portuguese and English.
    The other day I noticed that you pronounced “frio” in a manner that I did not expect but that I had heard before. This lesson seems to support the most common alternative pronunciation. You may be correct and normally I would not have noticed it, except that nowadays I listen critically to Portuguese in an attempt to restore my former purist knowledge. Only for me. I am fine with Brazilian Portuguese and in many ways it is a more pleasant sounding version of Portuguese. I admit to being biased but no other language is as pleasant, to my ears, as standard European Portuguese when spoken by a good speaker. Keep up the good work!

    Reply

  23. Wooow,this is so so so clear ,Never understood this till now, thanks alot,I feel like I know have a strong base after this video

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  25. Como professor e nortenho, considero que chamar o Português do norte de Portugal um “não standard” é um overstatement… mas se for pela quantidade de pessoas que o fala, então sim, podemos considerar que o sotaque do Centro-Lisboa-Sul é mais standardizado porque mais pessoas o têm.

    Reply

  31. This video explained it really clearly! That was awesome! I was looking for something like this. Also, for some reason I thought it was really funny when you said the word “fazem” with the wrong emphasis. I literally laughed out loud!

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  32. This is amazingly helpful! Have been studying Portuguese at home for some time now and was a bit afraid I would never be able to pronounce it correctly since I’m learning it from a book and not from a teacher.

    Muito obrigada!

    Reply

    1. Happy to know it helps you, Nadia 🤗 our podcasts may be of help too, especially when it comes to pronunciation! You can find them all here:
      Portuguesewithcarla.com/podcasts

      Reply

  35. HI! My name is Celio. I’m from Brazil, I’m learning English and I need to speak English native with from USA.

    Reply

    1. I wish you all the best with your English learning, Célio ☺️ you just need to make sure you have plenty of exposure to the language and try to practice regularly (daily, if possible!)👌🏽

      Reply

  36. Muito obrigado Carla! I love everything about this video: the clear explanation, the examples, the pace, your voice. Top quality content 👍👍👍

    Reply

  40. Na escola primária a minha professora ensinou nos a descobrir qual a silaba tónica se gritasse mos a palavra

    Reply

  42. Hello Carla, found your channel and decided to watch it all the way. We will be visiting Portugal in October for the first time. Looking forward to visiting your beautiful country. Thanks for the lesson! Oh, I just subscribed too.

    Reply

    1. Olá 😊 thanks for subscribing! And very happy to hear you’re watching all our videos – I’m sure this will help you a lot with your trip to Portugal 🤗

      Reply

  45. Ola Carla
    I am new to your channel still not getting my reading in order. This video is a big help and if you can do something with more examples will be amazing

    Reply

  47. Thanks Carla for your amazing videos.
    I´m a big beginner, new to Portugal, only 3 months. And I really need to learn this language.
    I have started learning on youtube but I need to have people to speak with.
    would somebody like to meet and practice sometimes?

    Carla, if I want you to teach me, is it possible in person (I am in Lisbon) or you only have online classes?

    Reply

    1. Olá 👋🏽 muito obrigada 🥰 I’d would be happy to teach you, but I don’t live in Portugal and even for the online 1-1 lessons I’m not taking on any new students as we’ve been focusing more on our online course The Journey which many feel is very personalised. If you wish to receive more info on that go to: https://portuguesewithcarla.com and register your interest (bottom of the page).

      Reply

  49. This is unbelievably useful! I’ve only just started Portuguese today and the pronunciation is a little bit overwhelming so far.

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    1. Pronouncing Portuguese words can be tricky.. 😅 but I’m super glad to know you found the info in this video helpful 😊

      Reply

  50. Like the way you approach the subject. Just enough but not too much analysis, makes it pretty easy to understand and remember.

    Reply

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