English Pronunciation Tips to Portuguese Speakers

By Luciane Castilho, Academic Coordinator at the Upper West Side

First, let's talk about the consonants:

As with so many languages, the voiced and unvoiced th are troublesome sounds. Make sure you are releasing the sounds smoothly. They are fricatives, so be sure to produce them that way. If you don't, a native speaker of English is likely to hear a t sound or d sound. (Compare den/then and tin/thin)

Make sure you are saying the z sound as a voiced sound; if you don't it will sound like an s sound. (Compare buzz/bus)

Another sound to check is the ch sound. The ch sound is an affricate, meaning we stop the air, then let it go with friction. You may have a tendency to substitute an sh sound, which is a fricative and does not stop the air. (Compare chop/shop) Similarly, you may be substituting a zh sound for the j sound. These sounds are the voiced counterparts for the ch/sh issue. Unfortunately, there are not may minimal pairs to compare these sounds, but hopefully you hear sound in the words version (zh sound) and virgin (j sound).

I will talk about the vowel sounds on a later post.