Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: Nasal sounds

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

PDF: www.decodingwords.com/pronunciation

[@concerninghobbits5536]

Coming from learning French and all it's intricacies of pronunciation, and just being fascinated with linguistics, it's really cool to see a lot of similarities. Some of the nasal stuff is pretty much the same, like bom and bon in French are pretty much the same, and the rr sound is really similar to the French r in the back of the mouth. Even the vowels have a lot of similarities with the open and closed forms.

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Yes, lots of similarities...the way people in Rio pronounce some of the "r" sounds is very similar to French.

[@maraj8215]

Well, I'm a Spanish native speaker but I guess that having learned french pronunciation previously has kind of helped me with these nasal sounds, thanks again for this video!!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

@@maraj8215 A lot of the nasal sounds are very similar to the French ones!

[@xopowo1979]

I’m struggling with (em) and (an) sounds… is the vowel (e) in (en) an open nasal or an open one? (bebo) - e- is closed (bebe) - e- is open So (en) to which one it is closer? Thank you

[@TheHarish6119]

Andrew you are doing a spectacular work. I am immensely enjoying your videos. I am writing here but it applies for all your rest of the videos. Thank you so much.

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Thank you so much Harish, I appreciate that!

[@indiraconnolly2889]

Thanks so much for this video. You just answered a question I've been asking for a couple of months! Thank you for confirming that the AM sound at the END of a word is equivalent to the ÃO sound. I've been pronouncing it like the AM in campo when it should be pronounced ÃO when it's at the end of a word.

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Glad it was helpful! Yes, that is a tricky one for sure! Not all words that end in AM will have the ÃO sound, but most will. 3rd person plural verb forms for AR verbs that end in AM will have it.

[@Kinguniverse-sc1su]

You are excellent of my teacher. Without you that I can’t get it right from pronunciation for learning of Portuguese. Thank you very much, Andrew. Love from USA to Brazil.

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

I really appreciate the kind words, thanks for sharing!

[@zuzannawisniewska4464]

Muito obrigado ....de Fort Worth, Texas

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

de nada Zuzanna!!

[@ludwiglanestudios]

Im actually blown away by this video bro. As an english and Spanish speaker, you basically teach how I learn (auditory). And your cognates are awesome. I love how you would say how an english or spanish speaker would say a word amd what makes that certian pronunciation incorrect. Im learning portuguese because im tired of my portugues friends knowing exactly what I say in spanish and I barely understand what they say when they are speaking in portuguese. I actually can understand the Sāo Paulo dialect of BP if spoken slowly. Same goes for Curtibano. I can't understand Carioca for the life of me. I learned from this video more than any other pronunciation video. Real talk.

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Thank you so much, I appreciate it....I'll be here to support you along your Portuguese journey!

[@johnmccarthy655]

Great teacher. I would never have grasped the different sounds otherwise. Obrigado

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Appreciate it! obrigado a vc, John

[@davidcarrier8435]

Ão is also my favorite sound in Portuguese. That and final l as in igual. Thanks for this important video. I discovered that though I was making the nasal sounds, I was also pronouncing the n as in mundo. Practice needed.🙀

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

So glad you found it useful David!

[@aleks5266]

Ão is my favourite sound in Portuguese too! Andrew, your videos are a revelation. I can't thank you enough. So many clear, logical explanations. Absolutely amazing. Muito obrigada 🙏

[@zulkiflijamil4033]

bem tem sabem fluente mim lindo bem - vindo bom ( good ) pão São Paulo emoção Thanks so much for this lesson on pronunciation. Muito obrigado.

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Glad you found it useful!

[@ChristopherWashington-ko4xt]

Another easy to follow video. Obrigado 😊!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

great to hear that Christopher!

[@nafisaustin5063]

Valeu

[@erictrzaska5771]

Extremely useful, about to start watching lesson number one for my fourth time

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Awesome!!! Keep it up!

[@cb2ization]

wishing you 'd say the word twice. I love the musicians you briefly show ..this is why I'm studying ..themusic !!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

awesome! yes, I recorded this a year ago and have definitely learned from that since then...if you watch my latest video you'll see that I say everything twice :)

[@rohela1122]

For ten years I have been trying to master the concepts that you explain so clearly. Don't sell these gems too cheaply. They are diamonds.

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

So glad to hear things are finally making sense, I appreciate it!!

[@alexsweet130]

phenomenal explainer video, super refreshing to find someone explain something simply and clearly without a bunch of infantilizing music and cartoon illustrations, I subscribed to your channel keep doing good work!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Appreciate it Alex, so glad you're finding the videos useful!

[@alf5835]

Very useful. Thank you!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Glad it was helpful!

[@yourdentist1910]

Great effort 👍

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Appreciate that!

[@ad_1273]

You are an awesome teacher. These videos are supper helpful. Thank You!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Thanks, I appreciate it! I hope these videos continue to help you with your Portuguese.

[@musicislife8755]

Excellent! So happy I found this channel 🫶🏽

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@mateuszpatua3016]

Fortunately I'm familiar with the nasal sounds a bit, cause we have these in Polish! Polish "są" and Portuguese "são" mean the same, and are pronounced almost the same! BTW, can I have a question for you Andrew? Do you recommend taking the FSI Portuguese Programmatic Course? I've read this in its preface, and it left me pretty confused: "The Portuguese presented in both volumes is educated speech drawn principally from Brazilian sources but intended to serve the needs of students going to Europe or Africa." So, is it Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, or some weird mix of both? I'm puzzled. Thanks for your reply in advance!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Have you seen my video about the FSI course? It's a good course for what it is (especially since it's free), but you have to keep in mind that it was produced in the 1970's for US diplomats so you will learn some outdated/useless language. It is pretty much all Brazilian voices in the recordings, but it can be confusing because they all have very different accents (would've been better if they just stuck to one accent IMO). You can tell they try to be sort of a middle ground between Brazilian and European, but it's definitely much more Brazilian-influenced. People have asked me about creating a course, which I'm a little too busy to work on at the moment, but if and when I do, it will incorporate a lot of the elements and drills in the FSI program and completely modernize it to teach contemporary Brazilian Portuguese, focusing on the spoken language. So I do believe in the methodology, it's just that the material is outdated.

[@mateuszpatua3016]

@@DecodingWordswithAndrew Thank you for your insight, Andrew. And I'm sorry - I should have checked if you had made a video about the course. I guess I'll take the course, but I'll only focus on the pronunciation, not the language/expressions themselves. Wish you all the best!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

@@mateuszpatua3016 100%

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

@@mateuszpatua3016 Definitely still a useful resource....you can learn about the many differences between standard textbook language vs the modern street language by watching my videos :)

[@cb2ization]

I wish you could use this song for the pronunciation of each word . I fond the lyrics on line and tying very hard to sing with him ..🤣 you are my teacher now !

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Great to have you here!! Maybe I can find a way to fit parts of that song in a lesson, we'll see! :)

[@phen-themoogle7651]

You deserve millions of views, your videos are always super high quality, I love them, really appreciate the work you put into them too!! Thanks so much!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

Thank you so much, so glad to hear the videos are helping you on your Portuguese journey! 😀

[@robken84]

Thanks! Another incredibly helpful video. Drilling this repeatedly while building vocabulary. I find the ão nasal sound especially challenging, I’m trying to think of it like the “oun” in “sound”. Also had a laugh when encountering pão / pau! 😂 tricky! If I walk into a Brazilian bakery at this point, it might be an interesting experience!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

hahaha! :)

[@robken84]

@@DecodingWordswithAndrew is thinking of that nasal sound kind of like the “oun” in “sound” correct? I’ve been trying my best to mimic your pronounciation, but still finding it tricky!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

no, it's pretty different--there's really nothing like it in English. You can go back to lesson 1 where I explain how to pronounce "não", or lesson 9 with "irmão". This is probably the toughest sound to get down for an English speaker.

[@robken84]

@@DecodingWordswithAndrewthanks for the tip. Just went back to lesson 1, and trying to mimic “nowng”. still having difficulty even trying to mimic that sound! hopefully practice makes perfect, otherwise I’ll be avoiding bread for the time being! 😂

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

lol!

[@YouCanCallMeBiscuit-bg4uy]

Muite obrigado. This helps so much!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

glad you found it helpful!

[@andresleon2293]

holy cow, the open vowels are the most annying thing so far to learn lol, but as a spanish speaker, who started consuming content in portuguese from day 1, i cant complaint, something had to be hard about this language lol, I had already mastered english tho, which also has these tricky differences, so protuguese should be a piece of cake... I wonder how absurdly easy it has to be to learn spanish as a protuguese speaker lol

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

the open/closed vowels is definitely a huge challenge for any Portuguese learners since it isn't always obvious from the spelling!

[@JordannGeorge]

where do we put our tongue if not the roof of our mouth? genuinely curious!

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

besides the roof of the mouth, another common position in Portuguese is against the backside of the front teeth. I explain more in my Portuguese for beginners series

[@Jettfuel81]

I wish we could see your mouth forming these words. I’m struggling with these sounds.

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

I'll eventually do something like that!!

[@roguebossa]

I am an american singer of bossa nova, do I need to explain my appreciation more?

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

you'll see a lot of bossa nova references in my videos...this is an area I will definitely be exploring more in the future