European Portuguese | WORST Pronunciation Mistakes Beginners Make

[@TalktheStreets]

Which one are you most guilty of?

[@melinda5777]

All, just learning. Lol

[@jazminsy522]

All of them! (sobbing)

[@eduardovalente6416]

It's like here in Italy (north and south) portuguese from portugal and from brazil

[@vervideosgiros1156]

Olá, Liz! Nós geralmente percebemos ps estrangeiros, mesmo que a pronúncia seja má! Olha o António Guterres (Diretor-Geral da ONU): a pronúncia dele em Inglês é horrível, mas dá para perceber, não dá?! Eu gosto muito dele, atenção; estou só a chamar a atenção para este facto! 😉

[@MC-uf6xx]

@@vervideosgiros1156 ya bro ,pois é

[@andreaschristensen7677]

This is so helpful! I'm trying to learn Portuguese on my own and find the biggest drawback is not knowing the correct pronunciation. This gives me a boost for sure! Thank you!

[@TalktheStreets]

So glad! Download the guide to pronunciation in the description that will help a lot too!

[@vervideosgiros1156]

Don't worry, we'll understand you, even if the pronunciation isn't perfect! Native English speaks understand us even if we've got accent!

[@deborahfigueiredo8731]

I started learning by myself but signing up for Liz’s course really made a massive difference. My learning accelerated, my accent improved massively and I can now happily chat away in Portuguese with most people and they don’t often switch back to English. Having a great teacher and a very well structured course makes thing so much easier.

[@MC-uf6xx]

hello , keep going, you will eventually know it ,and it will be automatic to say the words, Dont give up.

[@Ogeroigres]

S also has the sound of zh as in "pleaSure". Only used before voiced consonants b, d, g, l, m, n, r, v. Examples: asma, lesma, Eslovénia, asno, desventrar, Israel.

[@fabiolimadasilva3398]

Eu entro aqui pra melhorar minha compreensão do inglês! :D

[@tikabijo]

Your channel is so lovely! I’m a Brazilian who lived in the US for the past 15 years and I just moved to Portugal last week. I have been saying “você” for a week now, I didn’t have a clue it was rude here.. ugh 😫. Thank you for the wonderful content, already subscribed

[@stevenmichael2178]

You are Amazing Teacher .. Thank you so much

[@stellaberrelly5377]

Liz, my head is hurting already all this to think about before I say anything. I’ve been learning for 3 years and feel I’m not getting anywhere. Now and certainly fed up with grammar books. 🤔😉

[@TalktheStreets]

Hi Stella! Sounds like my program would be perfect for you. Have you checked out my free lesson for beginners? it’s a quick start guide for total beginners covering pronunciation, real life Portuguese & essential grammar! You can sign up for it here: www.talkthestreets.com/speak-portuguese-like-a-pro - let me know what you think!

[@arlenehunt4271]

Brilliant. Stressing the penultimate syllable was my lightbulb. 🙏

[@TalktheStreets]

Yay so glad!

[@moonlightgoodwyn6666]

Muito obrigado. I have been supplementing my formal European Portugal classes with your videos. I am required to know how to write, speak, listen and write in Portuguese for my citizenship. Thanks, your videos are of great help. !Que tem bom ano nuevo!

[@TalktheStreets]

So glad my channel is helpful! Bom ano novo! 😊

[@MC-uf6xx]

olá , não desistas . continua firme na luta para saber mais! Obrigado por gostares de Portugal e da língua Portuguesa!!! Abraço

[@timwilliams1116]

Some great videos. Everything was very well explained and a great help in preparing for a recent holiday In Lisbon.

[@TalktheStreets]

Glad it was helpful!

[@johnbald9639]

Thank you for your encouraging style & clear explanation!

[@TalktheStreets]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Imjust.warmingup]

Hi Liz, your way of explaining how Portuguese works is so clean and acurrate. I truly am Impressed because I can't tell if you are a English person with a perfect Portuguese accent or vice-versa.

[@TalktheStreets]

Thank you so much!!

[@HoneymoonAlways]

So helpful! Your pronunciation guide has made SUCH a difference for me here in Portugal 💜💜

[@TalktheStreets]

Yay!

[@kellyburke2319]

Love these little ‘refresher’ videos👍. I needed the reminder about stressing the letter that has its hand up in the air; also when no accent then stressing the penultimate syllable. Obrigada Liz.

[@claudettedsouza7836]

Hi Liz. I am visiting Lisbon is July. I am so excited.

[@TalktheStreets]

Wonderful hope you love it!

[@claudettedsouza7836]

@@TalktheStreets Do you live in Lisbon? I am improving my Portuguese through you. Thanks.

[@Lusitano-ln6od]

The S is also prononced j "lesma" (lejma)

[@jandeolive6007]

Exactly! When 'S' is at the end of a word or before consonants C,Q,F,P and T, it sounds approximately 'SH' as in 'SHeep', before the remaining consonants it sounds approximately 'J' as in 'viSion' or 'treaSure'

[@nargisalmas2359]

explain very nicly thanks a lot

[@bangbang100francis6]

Now I definitely want to get these words Portuguese I want this so match🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@mariajoseredondomoran4890]

Thank you Liz. I am Spanish and have problems with the pronunciation but even when I try to do it properly It is very difficult for me (us) and it takes planty of time to try it and repeat the words and even so we don't get it. I just want to cry...

[@paulo50001]

You are a perfect teacher of Portuguese PT. Thanks for your dedication and great work.

[@StephanieCornell]

Liz, this was so helpful, especially the bit about accents and it being a stress language. That’s a bit of a game changer for me as the written to spoken has been the biggest gap. Now if I could figure out the seven dialects on our one tiny Azorean island, I’d be acing my pronunciation! 😂

[@jul7291]

I would say the hardest ones for me are the ones with reduced syllables, specially those that also have an s/ sc combination in there somewhere as well. I even keep a collection - here are just a few: aquecedor, conhecer, detestava, impressionante, exceto, consciencialismo, decrescente, arrefecer, espaços especiais, desdenhar, professor ...

[@notacop8784]

Been following/studying your content for a good year+ now and am on my first of many trips to Portugal to visit where my wife grew up near Viseu! So so helpful and a shop owner told me I had better Portuguese than most tourists, thanks Liz!

[@TalktheStreets]

Wow that’s excellent! Love to hear it!

[@mikefitzgibbons1133]

Still struggling with stress timing despite speaking English natively, which is also a stress timed language. I never really thought about the stress timing aspect of English and how that is probably also difficult for people learning the language until I tried to follow along with spoken European Portuguese. For example, saying "Whatcha doin'?" instead of "What are you doing?" Your example using Spanish donde estas vs Portuguese onde estas (sorry for the lack of accents) really helped clarify that.

[@TalktheStreets]

Yep definitely hard to get used to but knowing this really helps us look out for it and copy it!

[@MC-uf6xx]

olá , como estás? espero que bem, eu queria dizer que em um português mais informal e mais "abreviado" nas palavras, tu podes dizer por exemplo " q q tás a fazer?" ou "qué que tás a fazer?" que seria "O que estás a fazer" , or "What are you doing?" Nota: este " q q tás a fazer" é muito informal e só é para ser usado com amigos, ou família , ou em jogos online, porque na realidade ele não se usa (formalmente) , terias que dizer mesmo "O que estás a fazer?". Espero que tenha sido interessante, pois tu não aprendes isto em muitos sítios. Abraço amigo, xau.

[@moiramarriott4403]

Guilty as charged!! nasal soooo difficult. Just had an appointment at hospital today , nurses and technicians noone spoke Portuguese... I got through it ...Thank you Liz , Talk the Streets videos but crucified the language ..thank you to everyone who guessed my words .. If stressed my pronunciation leaves me !!!

[@melinda5777]

I love this. It's been some time since I've been notified of one of your videos. When it popped up, I was like, oh yeah. I NEED THIS. I'll unsubscribe then resubscribe. Sometimes it resets KZbin. What a game they play. Obrigada 🇺🇸.

[@TalktheStreets]

Woohoo glad this was helpful Melinda! Thank you for your support!

[@PortugalForYou]

Parabéns pelo profissionalismo e por explicar tudo tão bem. Video excelente!

[@virginiaronning9356]

Really enjoying your videos - they are so helpful. Thank you.

[@TalktheStreets]

You are so welcome!

[@cfoj8089]

Great class braking down differences between Spanish and Portuguese!

[@skurinski]

careful though, the tilde "~" isnt a stress signal, its a nasal one. Which is why you can have words like "órfão", stress goes to the "ó" not the "ão". Nasal combinations are with syllables, so -am/-an/-em/-en/-im/-in/-om/-on/-um/-un, they can happen in the middle.

[@cleaningtime8156]

You are such a great Language Teacher .

[@av2597]

Thanks Liz... very useful. One tip I heard elsewhere was the "IRUL" (said 'eye-rule')... If the word ends in I, R, U or L then the stress will almost always be on the last syllable (unless there's an accent of course). Also... I do get confused sometimes how to break down the word in to its syllables. For example, Coimbra is pronounced more like "kweembra" and not "coim" as in "coin". I read the word as having two syllables: Coim-bra, but it must be Co-im-bra... Is there a general rule or is this just one of those ones you have to know?

[@jandeolive6007]

'Coimbra' does have 3 syllables as you mentioned -> 'coo.'eem.bruh' ('eem' is nasalized) Generally words have an accent mark to signal that 'break' (of the diphthong): 'Coina' (a portuguese village name) -> 'coy.'nuh' (no break) 'Ruína' (ruin) -> 'roo.'ee.nuh' (break and 'ee' not nasalized)

[@richardmcgreary6368]

New to the channel and finding it SO helpful! As well as interesting ☺️ Thanks Liz

[@333Hedgehogs]

You have perfect pronunciation in every language. Jeez !

[@mashupmusicshow]

Tienes algún curso para españoles interesados en aprender portugués de Portugal?

[@TalktheStreets]

No tengo 😣 mi curso es en inglés

[@a.s.7578]

I love your videos. You are the best!

[@TalktheStreets]

Glad you like them!

[@Sunali7753]

Excellent

[@TalktheStreets]

Thank you so much 😀

[@davidandrade3786]

Quando estou a ensinar Português a estrangeiros, também começo por falar de uma forma bastante intensiva sobre a pronúncia. Basicamente, percorremos todas as consoantes do alfabeto, falando das possíveis formas de pronunciar, e depois passamos para as vogais, explicando muito detalhadamente como identificar a sílaba tónica. Pode parecer bastante aborrecido no início, mas é mesmo um "life-changer" para todo o processo de aprendizagem do Português. Estou mesmo muito contente por ver que há mais alguém que faz também esta abordagem, de colocar muita ênfase na forma como se pronunciam as coisas. Saber palavras de cor sem saber como as pronunciar corretamente não é tão útil (e, no pior dos casos, pode provocar, no início, vícios errados de pronúncia que depois serão mais difíceis de largar). Só queria fazer um reparo: o til (~) não é considerado acento na língua portuguesa, mas sim um mero sinal gráfico. Daí que possamos escrever "cãozinho", mesmo quando "zi" é a sílaba tónica; mas somos obrigados a escrever "avozinho" ("avôzinho" está errado, pois a sílaba tónica é "zi"). Temos também as palavras "órgão" ou "bênção". O acento grave (`) marca, nas palavras com mais do que uma sílaba, uma vogal de uma sílaba não tónica; mas, neste vídeo, mais resumido, faz todo o sentido não se falar de um pormenor tão específico. Mas fica assim também registado que existe um acento que não serve para adivinhar a sílaba tónica. Eu adoro os vídeos do canal, são muito divertidos e, ao mesmo tempo, muito pertinentes na aprendizagem. Sou fã! 😍

[@andreapereira1426]

Rolling R's I really struggle with. My Portuguese husband makes this sound so easy😢

[@MC-uf6xx]

is natural 😊think about R's like this: Rês . R pronunciate like "Èrre" or "Rê". why? because if im not mistaken the "Èrre" would be for a maiuscule "R" and "Rê" for a minuscule r , i think. I am portuguese but i learned this along time ago in school. Xau

[@Roosmarijn035]

Isn't their like a mnemonic like you have in spanish that if a word ends with n, vowel or s, the stress goes on the penultimate syllable (unless there's a vowel with an stress on it).

[@hannahwalmer1124]

Another well, put together video, Liz; however, I'm not gonna lie, I caught myself checking the date of the video because I could've sworn I've seen this vid before. I get there's always newcomers who haven't seen the previous content, so, all is well. Maybe my Portuguese has advanced too far for me to be in your target audience :(.

[@OphirYahav]

Muito Obrigado !

[@jgkiwi]

I have tried to sign up for your lessons but I have not been contacted?

[@ianstobie]

The letter "e" is still sometimes a puzzle. It crops up in Se, Me, Que, on its own as E, on the end of words where it can just wander off altogether, and inside other common words like Quem, Sem, Vem and Veem. Even Tejo, which I thought I could pronounce right, actually sounds more like TARjoo when sung by my favourite band, who come from Lisbon so ought to know. We could put that last one down to artistry, but e does vary a lot.

[@ianstobie]

Faluas do Tejo, performed by Madredeus kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zoa2eoiQqdCDn9U Singer Teresa Salgueiro, born in Lisbon through which the river flows, manages to make Tejo sound almost like Targe by the end (rhyming with English large but with a softer g). I think what this tells me is firstly the pronunciation of the letter e varies more than I thought, and secondly individual Portuguese will do what they like, especially when they are singers expressing a feeling. The Faluas by the way, which I couldn't find in a dictionary, turn out to be large slow traditional sailing boats, the sight of which inspires the nostalgic dreamlike song.

[@aliciatavizon001]

Liked and subscribed

[@TalktheStreets]

Obrigada Alicia!

[@kenliewcontento4460]

Obrigado! Could you show the pronunciation of letter A? 😂

[@anttikuusmetso]

Muito obrigado, Liz! Of cause I have met spanish first and my first portuguese language learning program was Duolingo, so no wonder that first time I came to Portugal I used to say "Bon dzhia" etc. 😄

[@guvnor1971]

Trying to pickup European Portuguese now. I started learning Brazilian Portuguese 8 years ago. Lucky for me my mother (born in Brazil) spoke Portuguese around me heaps when I was young. Whilst I didn’t really learn any language, it must have rubbed off on me as the pronunciation seemed to just happen naturally. Makes me believe we learn stress timing and vocalisations the same way we learn things like singing. And separately in the brain from the task of learning vocabulary.

[@annepjulien5328]

I keep stressing the gem in viagem!

[@TalktheStreets]

You and everyone else 🤣

[@silverfang6668]

I learned Spanish first and it is really making it challenging for me to learn Portuguese, so many mistakes.

[@carlosoliveiraoalfacinha]

Pertinente e direta ao ponto. European Portuguese is a stressed language like russian.

[@jxavier3876]

Always do the e More like an a just like in the example @2;17

[@mateusquasetuga]

Is the proper term not “reduced” vowels rather than “closed”?

[@brunomadeira8432]

As the video advises going through Brazilian Portuguese for a foreigner that wishes to speak in Portugal will be most frustrating. We will understand everything you say and you won't understand anything we say due to the timed stressed (among other things) way of our brand of Portuguese. Even Brazilians sometimes struggle with our pronunciation.

[@martinwainwright3591]

Pronouncing the word for hairdresser. Cabeleireiro!

[@SuperEohippus]

The different s sounds are really difficult for me, being a Finnish speaker, where we only have one type of s. Sometimes I don´t even hear the differences, because my ear is not trained to pick them - so how could I produce them? A good example of a word I just cannot pronounce how ever much I try is "well" in Portuguese: poço. I try and try and my Portuguese girlfriend says it is wrong every time. 😑

[@TalktheStreets]

Its the same as “posso”!

[@thomshrike]

@@TalktheStreets in fact the first “o” in poço is similar to the one in “word” whereas the first “o” in posso is similar to the one in “more”

[@Ana-hz3lv]

Hi! I'm a native speaker and the letter 's' has different sounds depending where it stands in the word: -In the beginning of a word, it sounds like 'ss': saco, sesta, seta, sarampo, solha, sopa... -In the middle of a word: -between 2 vowels: it has a 'z' sound : casa, casinha ,caso, mesa, coisa... (if we want the 'ss' sound between two vowels we use ss (posso, fossa, mossa, massa, assar, isso, promessa, russo, pássaro) or ç (poço, moço, praça). The vowel can have a different pronunciation though, but they all have the ss sound. So the word "poço" has a 'ss' sound and a nasal sound in the 'o' -between the letters "n" and a vowel it has a 'z' sound: transe, trânsito, transação . It can also have an 'ss' sound in words like suspense (i don't know if that's an exception) - between consonants and and vowels it has a 'ch' sound (Estudo) - At the end it usually has a "ch" sound and usually words are in the plural form I may be forgetting some rules and exceptions, but a quick search from google like "different s sound ins portuguese" might help. And you can always write the word in translators like deepl which have the european portuguese translation, if you want a fast answer So usually it is possible to predict the sound of the 's' if you can see the word on paper or if you can understand which letter surround the 's' . Now, it gets more complicated because we also have the letter z for the 'z' sound (limpeza) and the letter x with a 'z' sound (Exemplo) and 'ch' sound (Exceção). In addition we have ch for the sound 'ch' that is used in the beginning of words (chato, chupeta, chorão) or in the middle (cacho) (the plural form of cacho is cachos, and it has 2 'ch' sounds).

[@skurinski]

@@TalktheStreets the s yes, but not the first o. Poço has a closed o, posso has an open o.

[@skurinski]

@@thomshrike more was a bad example, its closer to "hot".

[@wilfredfranco4159]

I was actually disappointed after learning quite a bit through Duolingo. Yes there seems to be a lot of differences. I will have to unlearn or relearn a lot. Thank you anyways for your advice

[@joaomartins6537]

Apesar de ser português, adoro ver os teus vídeos! Provavelmente por gostar de linguística e os teus vídeos serem muito bons de ver! ;) Quando estavas a explicar a diferença na pronúncia do "Onde estás" e "Donde estás", fez-me questionar se uma vez que já dominas a língua, é-te fácil entender sotaques dos diferentes dialetos? Lembrei-me disto porque no caso, no Algarve diríamos "Deq tás?" Vindo de "onde é que estás". Bjinhes grandes do sul!!! 🖤🖤🖤🖤

[@sheikad0w]

one thing that saved me from sounding brazilian with my vowels is that my family is from são miguel, so we barely pronounce any of them, but the words with “lh” continue to be hard for me. i get tongue twisted on a lot of them

[@TalktheStreets]

Probably the most difficult sound!

[@vervideosgiros1156]

@@TalktheStreets Olá, Liz! Pensei que para os anglófonos o som mais difícil seria "ão"! Som que dizes de forma perfeita! O que é mais estranho nem é pronunciares tão bem, mas o facto de não levares a 'musicalidade' do Inglês! 😉

[@helencalcari8411]

Pão vs. pao. My cousin was laughing so hard because of the slang for pao 😳

[@meninofonseca6970]

Why the letter "E" in Portugal's accent sounds like a French "E" ?

[@jandeolive6007]

In PT-PT, the letter 'E' can have 4 different realizations (not including nasal and special diphthongs variations). Do you mean the closed 'E' as in 'elèvE' ?

[@andreaeisenberg8851]

My street has the name Ferriera in it. It's become a running joke, my trying to pronounce it properly. I'm close but cannot get it.

[@agostinorei8515]

❤❤❤

[@Bergamot88]

The words with “lh” can be a challenge

[@luiscarvalho1140]

Are you sure?

[@bangbang100francis6]

Must say though Portuguese is definitely 100% doable my uncle gets annoyed with me because I can't speak Maltese cos I'm half Maltese is not doable Portuguese definitely is I can get it and I'm going to make 🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹

[@averylayne]

I have a hard time with sixteen and seventeen.

[@keanancupido]

I'm guilty of saying viaGEM when I don't think properly ahh🙈🙈🙈

[@TalktheStreets]

Haha its so common I don’t know why!!

[@keanancupido]

@@TalktheStreets I think it's because in an English mind it sounds right haha. It happens when I try to speak really quickly.

[@SergeMTL]

With all the Brazilians moving to Portugal in the last couple of years, I suspect the European Portuguese accent could evolve to sound more Brazilian in the future. Also, just as most people around the world who learn English as a second language adopt the American accent instead of the British one, most Portuguese learners are probably more drawn to the Brazilian accent on account of its popularity and ease of learning. 🤔

[@helenagracio7556]

Serge - No way!

[@jandeolive6007]

I have recently commented on this curious 'phenomenon'... 🙂 Amazingly, after more than 70 years from a relatively high exposure to Brazilian Portuguese (especially since the late seventies through TV programs and popular music), there is not the slightest hint of phonetic influence on the PT-PT accent. In terms of expressions and syntax, although the influence may be very low, it is detectable nonetheless.

[@martaferreira1228]

Are you joking? We are not adopting the brazilian accent and it must better to learn english and not american english.

[@pmlbeirao]

Not really. Usually is the other way around, Brazilian immigrants tend to adopt the European accent and vocabulary very quickly. The locals will at best use some Brazilian words.

[@luissousa4715]

Você so falou merda

[@HyperlapsePro]

Portuguese pronunciation is much more easier than English

[@Memedued]

Hehe as soon as you said Spanish I died laughing. I have to catch myself from time to time. Because when I do speak it. I will start off speaking in one than start changing over into something else 🤣. But as you mentioned Brazilian Portuguese is very different from European Portuguese. And I always tell people that I speak Brazilian and not European.

[@TalktheStreets]

Hehee Portuñol is a thing!

[@andrew1575]

I'll never forget how my wife told me that to tell the difference between Avô and Avó, is that your grandpa wears the hat over his o

[@TalktheStreets]

Yes!! Grandad wears the hat!

[@jamesmay1322]

Can youtubers stop calling it European Portuguese!! It's Portuguese (just!) The other countries need to specify not the originator! It's Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Angolan Portugese etc. If you MUST state something to make the distinction say PORTUGUESE PORTUGUESE .. Portugual is the ONLY country in Europe that speaks Portuguese so it's not Europen Portuguese.. meu deus!

[@TalktheStreets]

It is essential to label it this way for SEO purposes within KZbin, so people learning Portuguese "from Portugal" know where to find the content. Portuguese Portuguese makes no sense 😂

[@antoniocecilia]

Sorry, but you should firstly master, the actual, Brazilian pronunciation... The word perfeito, in a city like São Paulo, depending on the district, has tons of different ways of pronouncing. São Paulo has more than 12 million inhabitants from all over Brasil and the world. Now imagine the wide range of pronunciations for perfeito in the whole country,..

[@kamenkokasikovic2499]

Cara Liz, é verdade que um muito rigoroso Rei de Portugal punia seus súbditos com as multas extra pesadas por cada vogal claramente pronunciada, e que tinha cortado os narizes todos que não pronunciavam as vogais nazais ? 🥺

[@goncalomeneses5611]

Grandíssima mentira.

[@ciprianoneves7246]

Ainda falo muito bem Tuga depois de viver nks Estados Unidos ja la vao 64 anos. You are pretty good….

[@ciprianoneves7246]

Learn to pronounce aeou in Portuguese and you will be fine.

[@gloraroig]

Muito obrigada!