Why this matters
Portuguese spelling is very regular — far more than English. Learn a small set of sound rules once and you can pronounce almost any written word correctly. The accents are not decoration: each one is an instruction.
The famous Brazilian sounds
| dia | d before i sounds like "j" in "jeep" → "DJEE-ah" |
| gente | t before i/e sounds like "ch" → "ZHEN-chee" |
| Rio · carro | r at the start / rr = English "h" → "HEE-oo", "CA-hoo" |
| final -o: obrigado | unstressed final -o sounds like "oo" |
| final -e: nome | unstressed final -e sounds like "ee" |
| lh: filho | like "lli" in "million" |
| nh: amanhã | like "ny" in "canyon" |
| ão: não, pão | nasal "ow" — let the air go through your nose |
| em/en: bem, quem | nasal "eng" — bem ≈ "beng" |
Where the stress falls — 3 rules
Rule 1 (default): stress the second-to-last syllable: ca-SA, fa-LA-mos, bo-NI-to.
Rule 2: words ending in -r, -l, -z, -i, -u, -im, -um stress the LAST syllable: fa-LAR, pa-PEL, fe-LIZ, a-QUI, u-RU-BU.
Rule 3: a written accent OVERRIDES everything — stress exactly where the accent is: MÚ-si-ca, ca-FÉ, Ú-til.
What each accent mark means
| á é í ó ú (acute) | stress here + open vowel: café, música, avó (grandma — open O) |
| â ê ô (circumflex) | stress here + closed vowel: você, ônibus, avô (grandpa — closed O) |
| ã õ (tilde) | NASAL vowel: manhã, não, corações |
| ç (cedilha) | c pronounced "s" before a/o/u: açúcar, começar — never at the start of a word |
| à (crase) | a + a contracted: Vou à praia = vou a + a praia (B2 topic) |
Practise this chapter
10 pool questions plus generated ones — 20 fresh practice questions, reshuffled every visit, inside the grammar library.
Practise Pronunciation & written accents — 20 questions →This chapter is taught in Lição 1 of the course — free, no account needed. Rumo is a complete Brazilian Portuguese course, A1 to B2; level A1 is free.