European Portuguese Pronunciation Mistakes English Speakers Make (and How to Fix Them!)

Struggling with Portuguese pronunciation as a native English speaker? After teaching for over two years, I’ve noticed a few key sounds my English-speaking students are getting wrong consistently. In this video, I’m going through the 5 most common pronunciation mistakes English speakers make when learning Portuguese, so you’ll never get mistaken for a tourist again! - Filmed in Lisbon, Portugal by Liz Sharma, a Portuguese teacher in Lisbon and founder of Talk the Streets.
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[@TalktheStreets]

Which words do you STILL struggle to pronounce? Let me know below & get my free pronunciation guide here: www.talkthestreets.com/pronunciation-guide

[@portu7905]

I have been trying for 3 years, and feel like I still cannot say Ele, Eles, and Eu with correct pronunciation! Also all the third person past tense -er (comeu, aprendeu, etc... they always end up sounding too much like -iu) Help!! Any tricks?

[@mgalant99]

After 8 years, I still can’t say cabeleireiro!

[@brunomadeira8432]

I would like to say to everyone that is trying to improve their pronunciation that the Portuguese people in general have great appreciation for any foreigner that tires to learn Portuguese. We do acknowledge that it's a small country and the effort doesn't go unnoticed. If you try Portuguese and the answer comes in English it isn't a judgement on your skills, usually it's people understanding your are a foreigner and trying to be helpful.

[@darkchia00]

Some of my fellow Americans get mad people who haven't learned English. I applaud those foreigners who struggle because they're at least trying. As someone who works with the public, I've downloaded a few languages in Google Translate to assist with communication. It may not be 100% accurate, but it really helps.

[@vervideosgiros1156]

Portugal não é um país pequeno; é um país médio! Há vários países da Europa que são mais pequenos! Além disso, a língua não tem nada a ver com o tamanho do país!

[@sgoverno1352]

I have been working at my Portuguese for a while and while my tutor (my husband) is extremely particular about my pronunciation, your tips for the "a" and "r" are going to make me sound more like a true Portuguesa! Thanks!

[@loriecasbourne5743]

The course is amazing. I started 13 days ago and practice every day between 30 and 60 minutes and my understanding and pronunciation have improved tremendously!

[@TalktheStreets]

I'm so happy to hear this!!

[@davecole2561]

Keep going Lorie. It's such a beautiful language and vale a pena (it's worth it).

[@erinrockofficial]

What course ?!

[@loriecasbourne5743]

@@erinrockofficial Liz Sharma´s Talk the Streets Pro

[@ottomendez2404]

Wow!, I am feeling so lucky to had found you. You are AMAZING, in 3 videos I have learned and improved a lot>. Thank you!!

[@mrdkjjabs]

The wife tried to teach me the word refrigerator yesterday and I just couldn't couldn't stop laughing! Your content is awesome and I can't wait to actually try you teachings full-time. I left school at 14 and can speak very good English but still struggling to teach my own children.. I plan to move in 5 years and thank you for helping me feel I will be able to pick this all up! Much peace and respect

[@TalktheStreets]

You can do it for sure!!

[@Rita-dz8ez]

Fabulous lesson on pronunciation! It’s not only critical to pronounce correctly, but fun, too! Obrigada!

[@TalktheStreets]

Glad you liked it!

[@juliswift]

Thanks Liz, these tips are so useful. I am an English speaker from South Africa and often find in large corporations such as hospitals, offices, etc, people mostly get impatient when I try to speak Portuguese. The immediately ask if I speak English. I am not sure that it is because they are busy or that I am "murdering" Portuguese (or both). I usually ask if I can continue trying. Some people are willing and others not.

[@TalktheStreets]

I'm glad!! Yes, in hospitals they are extremely busy so don't worry if they switch to English :)

[@stephannieschapiro1816]

Thanks Liz, I have finally arrived in Portugal and while I still freeze when when I want to say something, when the words do come out, people remark on the 'correctness' of my pronunciation. When I was starting out, I watched your video on the vowel sounds and it helped me so much. This video has confirmed I have gotten the other sounds correct. Bless you!!

[@gtxchufxvj]

Hi Liz, how about a video where english and português words are similar, I heard there is about a 1000 such words.

[@deborahcalazans7413]

I’m Brazilian living in Portugal. Although I’m Portuguese Teacher, sometimes it’s difficult for me to pronounce this closed a, once in Brazil we really pronounce every single vowel. Thank you for this video. It helped me a lot getting the right pronunciation.

[@TalktheStreets]

Woo glad to hear that!

[@jandeolive6007]

if you pronounce the 'a' using an 'open realization, it won't normally cause any miscompreehension😊. Don´t forget the portuguese generally pronounce all the vowels (with a few notorious exceptions🙂), albeit using closed or reduced forms, in non-stressed vowels. Stressed vowels are habitually pronounced very 'open', sometimes even more than in Brazil (like 'António' or 'você'). The 'closed' forms usually also occurs in Brazilian Portuguese with the post-tonic unstressed vowels. So, that is something you are well accustomed to. In my opinion, the problem seems to be the difficulty many brazilians have with the closed 'e' (like in 'dElusional').🙂

[@MsSpiffz]

I've only just learnt that em is pronounced ime. So its amazing that when I asked if 'this is the right platform for Santarém', I got an intelligent answer. And now I have to remember to apply it to other words.

[@TalktheStreets]

its a gamechanger!

[@toyuki1515]

When I try reading Portuguese sentences out loud and fast, I seem to do pretty well with the vowels, thanks to hours of practice. What remains difficult is what I call “nasal clusters”-something like ‘CoM uM Comboio’ which sounds like “cong-oong-comBOI-oo”. So I practice them, making sure the connections are smooth and understandable.

[@TalktheStreets]

Yesss it is so hard but that’s a great way to go about it!

[@lynnpiper1144]

Yes, this helps, sooo much!

[@francescatappi3241]

Thank you!

[@kazichanchal4138]

Thank you dear teacher .

[@lifewithkatwalsh]

Hi Liz! Such a helpful tip with that American ‘t’! Also thinking of it as a “d”. Guess now it’s just the practice of saying it over and over again. Thanks again for everything!

[@TalktheStreets]

Glad it was helpful!

[@geekwif]

The word I have the most difficulty with is "livraria". I can manage a single tapped r pretty well, but when it comes to two tapped r's in succession, my tongue just can't keep up!🤣

[@TalktheStreets]

Oh gosh yes I see how that could be hard! Split it into syllables!

[@danielzuluaga4232]

Very helpful!! Muito Obrigado!!🥳

[@markdragone7147]

Oh-buh-dee-gah-doo Liz! Lots of great pointers!

[@philshallat9043]

At last! I’ve been waiting for this. The first building block. Haven’t known until now how to pronounce certain letters.

[@TalktheStreets]

So glad this helped! You should definitely check out my lesson for beginners that dives deeper into this --> www.talkthestreets.com/speak-portuguese-like-a-pro

[@futhiedlamini4031]

hi Liz thanks a lot for this video

[@gibau1000]

Que boa professora!

[@davidstoeckl6439]

Single R is the most challenging sound for me. Sometimes easy, but other words terrible difficult, usually when conjoined to another consonant.

[@tabbyp4754]

I love your videos!!!! I refuse to hit the skip buttons on the ads so you can get paid also!!! Thank youuuuu for everything you share 🥰🥰

[@randylow3915]

Muito Obrigada Liz I am flying for my first time to Portugal next week my girlfriend is Portugies but I speak American englisch..i have a few things in my head but I believe this will be a learning by hearing and doing experience.

[@yasminh]

so helpful

[@TalktheStreets]

Glad it was helpful!

[@erikjohnson1309]

So helpful! Thank you!

[@TalktheStreets]

De nada!

[@leshoffman4959]

These are such good tips, Liz, and I'll be cramming for a trip with your site in mind. Obrigada!

[@TalktheStreets]

so glad you enjoyed this video! 😊

[@jessicazoe9045]

Absolutely fabulous.😂 Fabuloso.

[@TalktheStreets]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ColinSmith2001]

I have an uncommon Scottish island dialect accent, and then a Engishised version for the rest of the world, so I think maybe a wider range of things to draw on that helped - or maybe my mistakes were just not obviously sounding like English ones. My pronunciation issues came with "tongue twister" words, where you have to rapid fire through combinations of sounds that are less usual to you. Cabeleireiro and Analfabetizações i remember being especially easy to mash up.

[@TalktheStreets]

Ufff VERY hard words!!

[@lxportugal9343]

Don't worry about "Analfabetizações" because actually it doesn't exist (at least in Portugal). It only exist "Analfabetismo" and no, it's not the name of a brand of a fabulous suppository

[@ColinSmith2001]

@@lxportugal9343 Interesting, I'd noticed I wasn't finding it online when i was checking the spelling, but it was definitely that that my Portuguese teacher used (it's burnt into my memory!). She did grow up in Angola though, so i wonder if it's used there..... I did master saying it in the end, but strangely have never found a need for it ;-)

[@lxportugal9343]

I find it strange if they use that word in Angola. I don't even understand the concept of that word. We do have Alfabetização (or the plural: alfabetizações)

[@ColinSmith2001]

@@lxportugal9343 Ah, interesting..... that makes me doubt my memory a little , but I was so sure! :o

[@charleskelley3133]

I struggle to pronounce Cabeleireiro and the name of a village outside Paderne Ameijoafas, Thanks

[@bidibibip]

Thaaaank you so much for these wonderful lessons, Liz! I am moving to Portugal in a month's time, from South Africa and I'm finding these lessons so useful 😍 Obrigada Liz! ❤‍🔥💓❤‍🔥

[@TalktheStreets]

So glad to help!

[@bidibibip]

@@TalktheStreets Could I contact you for some lessons when I arrive in Portugal? I have a tutor at the moment but I so like your style of teaching and I think it would be great to have a teacher that is actually in Portugal :)

[@richardmcgreary6368]

I routinely make all of these pronunciation errors! 😂

[@auditdb7433]

Great video as always, wondering why you are using a large bed as your background though :)

[@sibyllab7704]

Liz, that’s even helpful for German. Just the R sound is much different. So interesting 😊👍🙏

[@TalktheStreets]

Glad it’s helpful!

[@camillesolange182]

For the French it's hard too! We share the R with you and I think that with Israelians too :-) Maybe with some more people but not many. People always make fun of us the French because of our R.

[@adrianwhyatt1425]

The ends of words are sometimes sliced off, e.g. obrigad'

[@jaymeokmalee9078]

Filha, Filho!!!! Still working on that one!

[@Luckyamor]

Muitos ingleses não sabem pronunciar grande marcas internacionais como Adidas ou Porsche e outras

[@davecole2561]

É verdade! Também a pronúncia de Lidl é errado na grande maioria dos casos. A minha esposa é alemã, então tenho de pronunciar com cuidado!

[@karinamdominguez]

Hi Liz, could you please make a video explaining how to use the 'por acaso' phrase? I am struggling to understand what it means, and the definition of Wordreference doesn't have sense in all the situations I have heard it.

[@nielschristiansen731]

Muito bom. pronúncia mais difícil para mim é o duplo r. Tens video sobre isto também?

[@TalktheStreets]

Não tenho mas posso fazer !

[@jandeolive6007]

O duplo 'R' é pronunciado em Portugal de duas possíveis maneiras: 1) aproximadamente uvular, como em Francês 2) aproximadamente alveolar, como em Castelhano ou Italiano

[@kirstennielsen9210]

Hi Liz Could you make a video with Portuguese expressions like: "Ai ocheirrinho" Google translate it like "There little eye" I saw it as a comment several times to some beautiful sea photos. I guess it means something like: how pretty. Just a suggestion. Obrigada!

[@erinrockofficial]

Do you do private classes?

[@sangeetaS7]

I always have a problem with e and é

[@TalktheStreets]

e (on its own, meaning and) = an eeeeee, sound. It's the same sound as i. é = open your mouth to make an open e!

[@sangeetaS7]

@@TalktheStreets obrigada

[@richardcasecase7445]

How do I get to the description?

[@TalktheStreets]

Hi Richard, which link are you looking for? ☺️

[@davecole2561]

Olá Liz e todo o pessoal! Eu estou de férias em Lisboa, mas ainda não te vi na rua, Liz ;-) . Just today I have encountered two real beauties: excecional - like our exceptional but just try it with the first e dropped and you'll see - and (take a deep breath) desassossego, as in Fernando Pessoa's Livro do Desassossego. Gulp! Where is the stressed syllable in that?! There are even more 's' than in Mississippi!

[@lxportugal9343]

Actualy it is "excePcional" But the last spelling reform took the P out (I think). But most Portuguese don't care about the last reform and stil write with "P"

[@davecole2561]

@@lxportugal9343 Without wishing to argue over a single letter, I've just had a holiday in Lisboa and seen exceção and excecional written a few times, so this spelling does seem to be used in more formal contexts. Bom dia.

[@extasja]

@@lxportugal9343 resposta extremamente baseada utilizador do youtube, fuck acordo ortográfico

[@chynaelias1357]

Do you always roll the r in the middle of words?

[@TalktheStreets]

Only double R and at the beginning of a wors

[@fabiolimadasilva3398]

Even for a Brazilian like me the european Portuguese pronouciation is quite difficult to understand. For this reason, Portuguese movies need subtitles in Brazil. In Brazilian Portuguese, of course! :P

[@user-op2cn7st1t]

Estacio

[@jgkiwi]

I asked to be contacted about your course but no body has come back to me.

[@chynaelias1357]

And is r like h in the beginning of the word?

[@TalktheStreets]

Yes that is one way to pronounce it!

[@skurinski]

only in brazilian

[@mdtaylor2274]

One of these days I’ll be able to pronounce bacalhau. 😅

[@richardcasecase7445]

Maca

[@taunyagesner7335]

I've heard pronunciation is different in the azores... Are you familiar with the differences?

[@brunomadeira8432]

It's a whole different accent and in very thick varieties can be hard even for Continental natives...

[@TalktheStreets]

Yes it is true and I HAVE to do a video on this soon!!

[@davecole2561]

Isn't it heavily influenced by French? I watched an interview with an açoriana on the excellent channel Portuguese with Leo once.

[@brunomadeira8432]

@@davecole2561 I am far from an expert but from what I have seen it does seem French arrivals do have some influence. Also what usually is called as the Azorian accent means the accent from the island of São Miguel, other islands are more in line with the typical accent.

[@jandeolive6007]

@@brunomadeira8432 That's one theory... another theory claims those accents from S. Miguel have been influenced by certain particular accents from Alentejo (southern Portugal), which may well be true ...😊

[@61hotelproductions17]

I always get turned around on pronouncing "ei," whether it's like a long I or more like long A. and then I start questioning everything else.

[@TalktheStreets]

Yep definitely a sound people struggle with. For dipthongs (or more simply "vowel pairs") you want to think of the sound sliding from the "e" into an "i", creating a longer sound. I tell my students to think of Fonzi saying...eeeehhhhh!!! It will also vary regionally.

[@61hotelproductions17]

@@TalktheStreets the fonzi visual definitely helps... though I'm now going to have to focus on not actually gesturing as I pronounce it 🙃 😅

[@TalktheStreets]

@@61hotelproductions17 Hahaha!!

[@jandeolive6007]

The most common realization of 'EI' is the sound as in 'mAY'... (may slgihtly differ regionally). 'Lei' ('Law') is pronounced as 'lay'. I don´t recall any case where 'EI' is pronounced 'I' as in 'recEIve'...

[@61hotelproductions17]

@@jandeolive6007 it was something I encountered awhile ago, I think I just got confused by whatever I was reading and integrated the wrong information. So I've been working to correct it in my mind ever since.

[@module79l28]

4:48 - English speakers do know how to say the "nh", it's the same as the "gn" in lasagna. 😉

[@TalktheStreets]

Haha true!!

[@PuiDeZmeuYT]

love your videos. i'm romanian so the vowels aren't difficult but the normal r kills me because i can't pronounce it. like some other romanians our throats form so that we can't pronounce that kind of r no matter how hard we try and our Rs sound more like the rr sound

[@josegoncdf9412]

I find homem ie man very hard to pronounce

[@vilmanoronha5122]

A bit too fast. Please keep the phrases up for a longer time so we can say it. Thanks.

[@stocksmarts_]

Hello! Sent a DM via IG! Would like to ask if we could connect :)

[@bartoszwojciechowski2270]

The main problem I've noticed English speakers have when speaking a foreign language is that they use the diphthongs /ou/ and /ei/ by default, while in most languages, they are realised as the monophthongs /o/ and /e/ or something similar. Many of them also realise any rhotic sound as their native /ɹ̠ʷ/, which instantly gives them away as English speakers. Idk why it's so hard for them to get rid of their native pronunciation when speaking a foreign tongue as, at least from my experience, native speakers of other languages such as German or Portuguese try not to incorporate their native language's phonetics into their target language from the very beginning. Most English speakers seem unable to do so until they are exposed enough to their target language. Are they just particularly lazy or what?

[@camillesolange182]

They are bad :-) I am sure there is another explanation. French native speakers like me are bad too.