A1 · Alphabet and pronunciation
The vowels
Stressed, they sound full; unstressed, hardly at all.
A stressed vowel sounds clear and full. For e and o, though, there are two sounds each, an open one and a closed one, and they keep words apart: avó, grandmother, has an open o like the one in « law »; avô, grandfather, a closed o like a short version of the one in « go », without the glide at the end.
The accent tells you which sound is meant. The acute makes the vowel open — café, avó —, the circumflex closed — você, avô. Where there is no accent, the sound is learnt with the word.
Unstressed vowels are heavily reduced in European Portuguese, far more than in English. An unstressed o sounds like « oo »: o carro comes out roughly as « oo karroo ». An unstressed e turns into a very short, dull sound or vanishes altogether: telefone sounds something like « tlfon ». It is not mumbling, it is the rule.
That is why the little word e, « and », sounds like « ee », while é, « is », is open like the e in « bed ». In Brazil the unstressed vowels are pronounced much more clearly; this site describes the pronunciation of Portugal.
The form
| grandmother: open o | avó |
| grandfather: closed o | avô |
| you, polite: closed e | você |
| night: final e barely heard | noite |
| coffee: open e | café |
| car: final o like oo | carro |
| telephone: unstressed e barely heard | telefone |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
Open and closed o keep words apart.
O meu avô e a minha avó moram no Porto.My grandfather and my grandmother live in Porto.
An unstressed o sounds like oo.
O carro é novo.The car is new.
An unstressed e at the end of a word can hardly be heard.
Bebo leite quente.I drink hot milk.
The word e, « and », sounds like ee; the word é, « is », sounds open.
O café é bom e barato.The coffee is good and cheap.
How to spot it
- é
- ê
- ó
- ô
Example sentences
A minha avó tem oitenta anos.My grandmother is eighty years old.
O telefone está na mesa.The telephone is on the table.
Você é de Lisboa?Are you from Lisbon?
Boa noite, até amanhã.Good night, see you tomorrow.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
An English reader tends to give every written vowel its full value and says « te-le-fo-ne ». You will be understood, but in conversation you then fail to recognise words you know perfectly well, because they sound much shorter. And the accent is often the only place where open and closed can be seen at all: only the accent separates avó from avô.
Stressed, a vowel sounds full; unstressed, hardly at all.
Your turn
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