Pronunciation

"Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him." – Judges 12:6

Pronunciation is arguably the most important aspect of learning a language. Of course, you don’t have to be able to pronounce everything perfectly to be understood, and it will take time to get used to the strange sounds that you have to produce.

However, it is well worth spending time on getting the pronunciation right early on, as it can be extremely difficult and frustrating to try to correct bad habits later. As Portuguese is written virtually phonetically, learning the pronunciation rules will also give you confidence to read aloud fluently – even if you don’t fully understand what you are reading.

Throughout the pronunciation pages that follow, you can hear an audio clip demonstrating the correct pronunciation of each word - just click on the word you want to hear.