Hello! Here we will see the most difficutl part in the teaching of portuguese (for me): explain the pronunciation! In portuguese we use the 26 letters of latin alphabet (including K, W, and Y). However, there are not portuguese words using these letters, except foreign words adopted by the portguese system. Here you have some examples: kimono (japanese), Yukon (region in Canada). Diphthongs are very important to be known in the beginning, they will help you much more easily to form words in the future and they will let you to read more fluently! Diphthongs are a huge pier in portuguese grammar.
Fortunately, I found a video on youtube with a portuguese (european) saying the whole alphabet! Then she will give portuguese words started by the respective letter and also a tradution in english =) In the end of the lesson you have all material to use! (K- kapa , Y-Ypsilon, W- dabliu)
Now let's know a bit more about diphthongs. Diphthongs are simply sounds made with vowels. For example, in the english word "
Eustace" or "
oil" the bold letters are diphthongs. In portuguese you use diphthongs very very frequently!
I am going to list all diphthongs I remember, so you might have a good idea of how diphthongs work. The list follows the model: diphthong- word in portuguese using the diphthong- the meaning of the word- the way to pronounce it in portuguese
ia- Mar
ia (same sound as in english)
eu- m
eu (it means mine or meu) the best way to pronounce it is just saying EU (say both vowels in portuguese and try to mix them)
oa- br
oa (broa is a portuguese cornbread also eaten in Brazil). the best way to say "oa" is by saying the bold letters in the word Krakat
oa
ai- s
ai (imperative of verb quit/ go out) this diphthong is said by just saying the letter I (like in
Iceland)
oi- b
oi (it means cattle or male of cow) this diphthong can be said if you say the english word oil. (try to do not emphasis the O sound)
au-
aula (it means class) the best way to pronounce it is just saying A and U one after other. Remember to try making a unique sound with your mouth. Don't say A and U separatedly.
iu- v
iu (it means the past participle of see) this diphthong is easily said if you just say in english letter U
ua- L
uanda (it is the capital of Angola) I have watched an english video with a woman saying Luanda and it matches perfectly with the UA diphthong.
io- r
io (it means river) If you say the name of a very famous city in Brazil called Rio de Janeiro, you will say correctly the diphthong!
ei- l
eite (it means milk) when you see someone in the street and you say "Heeey!!" you are saying this diphthong!
ao- L
aos (it is an asiatic country) By saying english word "So" you are saying the correct diphthong! (So= Sao)
I won't put more diphthongs for now, I think you have a general idea of what they are. Now I am going to give you some exercises to do about this lesson.
Exercise 1 - Alphabet
-Using the youtube video about the alphabet, listen to each group of 4 letters, stop the recording, pronounce them and do the same for the rest.
(try making it harder by making larger groups of letters. ex: 8 letters)
Exercise 2 - Diphthongs
-Find in the following words (they are translated to english) the diphthongs and pronounce them twice. After that try to read the whole word.
Diogo (portuguese boy's name), Joana (portuguese girl's name), dicionário (dictionary), cair (to fall down), biblioteca (library), piano (piano), frio (coldness), água (water), Suécia (Sweden), língua (language/tongue), parceiro (partner), mau (bad/mean), caiu (fell down), canoa (canoe).
Next lesson we will continue going through the piers of portuguese language, we will see what ch, nh, lh, ç sounds are, we will see different accents among other things! I will also start giving you some expressions concerning greetings! Any doubt, don't hesitate, contact me! See you there!
Portuguese Alphabet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW9nbh7VwU8