Learning new vocabulary in a different language can be a daunting task! And trying to figure out if what you’re saying sounds right or not can be even more challenging. But not to worry, I’m here to share 10 difficult Portuguese words so you can be prepared. The level of difficulty will vary depending on what native language you speak!
Sounds vs Spelling
In the spelling of any language, the letter doesn’t always correspond to the same sound and the sound isn’t always represented by the letter. This is very true for European Portuguese unless you know all the pronunciation rules of course. Moreover, we also know that this relationship between letters and sounds isn’t the same across languages. The way we pronounce the letter “g” in English is doesn’t have the same sound in Dutch or Portuguese.
Below, is a list of some of the trickiest words that my students of Portuguese as a second language struggle with. The pronunciation guide is in the video further below.
- esquecer-se (to forget)
- análises (analyses or blood tests)
- veterinário (veterinary)
- explicação (explanation)
- eu (I)
- lhe (to you / to him /to her)
- saúde (health)
- freguesia (civil parish)
- frigorífico (fridge)
- cabeleireiro (hairdresser)
Video Lesson
The next step is to learn what they sound like and how you can pronounce these 10 difficult Portuguese words properly. The following video has a detailed guide to pronouncing these and examples of these words used in a sentence. The guide includes the International Phonetic Alphabet transcriptions with each word and sentence.
Lastly, I shall make more of these lists as I get more submissions of difficult words. So please don’t hesitate to send some my way. You can do so by commenting on this post or in the comment section on Youtube. It can also be a sentence or expression. And if you’re wondering if you should post or not, worry not, I’m positively sure you’re not the only one struggling with the pronunciation of that word!
See you soon, até já!
Lina xx