Portuguese Grammar/Alphabet

Portuguese alphabet, like in other Romance languages has a natural evolution from latin and so it is not strictly phonetic and has some features inheirited from its history. Although, compared to English or even French it is easy to read and not so hard to write.

Letters

The sounds are better explained in the next chapters.

Letter	Name of the Letter	Sound (IPA)	Sound (compared to English)	Example
A	a	a	a as in american father	fado	fate
B	be	b	b as in bee (no aspiration)	beber	to drink
C	ce	k	c like in account	coisa	thing
		s	c like in since	cedo	early
D	de	d	d as in dozen	dois	two
E	e	e	é as in French fiancée or e in Spanish negro	bela	beautiful
		ɛ	ai as in french Palais or e as in English bed	ferro	iron
F	efe	f	f as in fine	folha	sheet
G	ge	g	g as in ago	Gótico	Gothic
		ʒ	s as in pleasure or j as in French Jean	geográfico	geographic
H	agá	soundless		hora	hour
I	i	i	ee as in bee but shorter or i as in spanish mina	mito	mith
J	jota	ʒ	s as in pleasure or j as in French Jean	joia	jewel
L	ele	l	l as in lamb, never as in jungle	letra	letter
M	eme	m	m as in mother	morteiro	mortar
N	ene	n	n as in never	nada	nothing
O	o	o	o as in French mot or o as in Spanish no	total	total
		ɔ	a as in ball or aw as in law	lorde	lord
P	pe	p	p as in people; not aspired	pata	paw
Q	que	k	c like in account	querer	to want
R	erre	ɾ	dd as in ladder	caricatura	caricature
		ʁ	more or less, r in French patrie	carro	car
S	esse	s	s as in since	sela	saddle
		z	z as in zoo	casa	house
T	t	t	t as in tongue	tropas	troops
U	u	u	oo as in boot, but shorter or ou as in French fou	utopia	utopia
V	ve	v	v as in victory	vitória	victory
X	xis	ʃ	sh as in she	xílofone	xylophone
		ks	x as in oxyde	óxido	oxyde
		s	s as in since	explosão	explosion
		soundless		exceção	exception
Z	ze	z	z as in Brazil	azimute	azimuth

Note: the letter q is always preceded by a u. k, w, and y are not used in native Portuguese words.

Digraphs

Digraphs is a pair of letters used to sign one sound.

Digraph	Sound (IPA)	Sound (compared to English)	Example
ch	ʃ	sh as in she	achar	to find
lh	ʎ	aprox. ll as in million or gli as in Italian figlio	filho	son
nh	ɲ	aprox. ny as in canyon or ñ as in Spanish mañana	amanhã	tomorrow
qu	k	c like in account	questão	question
rr	ʁ	h like american hello	carro	car
ss	s	s as in since	passo	step
sc	s	s as in since	descer	go down
sç	s	s as in since	desça	go down!

Diacritics

In Portuguese, a letter with no or with Diacritics are considered the same thing. So, in alphabetic order, we have: entender, ética, Europa.

Letter with diacritic	Name	Sound (IPA)	Sound (compared to English)	Example
á	a com acento agudo	stressed a	a as in american father	cálice	calix
à	a com acento grave (Crase)	a	a as in american father	Fui à cidade.	I went to the city
ã	a com til	ã	a as in american what	não	no
ç	ce cedilha	s	s as in since	moça	girl
é	e com acento agudo	stressed ɛ	ai as in french Palais or e as in English bed	patético	patetic
ê	e com acento circunflexo	stressed e	é as in French fiancée or e in Spanish negro	bêbado	drunk
í	i com acento agudo	stressed i	ee as in bee or i as in French midi	Líbano	Lebanon
ó	o com acento agudo	stressed ɔ	a as in ball or aw as in law	próprio	proper
ô	o com acento grave	stressed o	o as in French mot or o as in Spanish no	tônico	tonic
õ	o com til	õ	aprox. on as in French bon	canções	songs
ú	u com acento agudo	stressed u	oo as in boot, but shorter or ou as in French fou	múltiplo	multiple

Up · Next chapter