Something I’ve always wondered about is why Brazilians, when speaking English, add and subtract Y’s from words. I know it isn’t at will, but from what I gather, usually words that end in a hard consonant, they add a “y” to, while words with “y” at the end, they don’t pronounce.
My favorite example is Luck vs. Lucky. Brazilians will pronounce the first like the second and the second like the first. Although the video above is an example of a Brazilian who doesn’t speak English well, I personally know some who do…and they still commit the “y” error. So, why the “y”? Anyone know or have an educated guess?
Right now, I’m going over my Portuguese vocabulary in my head and can’t come up with an example of a Portuguese word that ends in a hard consonant. Plus, I can say with certainty that Portuguese has no K’s nor Y’s naturally in their alphabet. Portuguese also doesn’t have a W and perhaps that’s why the W sound is difficult for Brazilians learning English also. Such words like World or Squirrel are often found to be challenging to my friends. Aside from letters that take Brazilians some getting used to, there’s also the S+consonant which almost always comes out as ES+consonant. Again, squirrel is a good example.
As for myself, I doubt I’ll ever master the LH sound in Portuguese but that’s something I’ll just have to live with. When my tongue agrees with me, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, here’s a resource to tide you over…
Oi!
I love your comment about Brazilians adding a “y” after words that end in a hard consonant. I actually see it more like we add an “i” or “e”. As you said, we don’t have the letter “y” in our vocabulary.
The thing is that in Portuguese we do not have consonants – except for a few – that do not form a syllable with a vowel. Therefore, we are conditioned to pronounce the consonant as if it were forming what in our view is a complete syllable.
This happens even with words in Portuguese. Take, for example, “admirar”. We pronounce: “adimirar”.
Regarding the “lh”, try reading it as “ly”, just do not over stress the “y”.
Same with the “nh”; you can read as “ny”.
Tudo de bom pra você.
I think the hardest to me is the TH sound in english, it simply cant occur in a natural conversation.
But for english speakers and many others I think th nasal sounds and the distinction from some open and closed vowels must be hard.
Examples are coração, ovo X ovos, côco
Carlos, yes, I’ve noticed the TH is generally hard for Brazilians even though it’s second nature to us. Luckily for me, I can pronounce just about everything in Portuguese except a good LH sound and actually I still don’t know the difference in pronunciation between avó and avô. It can be funny to see some of the Portuguese language books out there that try to help the English speaker by offering pronunciation guides for every phrase. When I try to say what they have written, it doesn’t sound like Portuguese to me.
This is the first time I’ve heard of this. I actually find it strange, because a lot of Portuguese speakers add an -i sound a the end of English words that end in harder consonant, like big -> biggy.
Ray, I think we’re on the same page then as that is what I was trying to convey. Luck becomes lucky, big > biggy, etc. Later I noticed the opposite was true as well. Words ending in Y usually lost the Y-sound when Brazilians speak.
Carlos, you are right on target. The “th” sound will forever be difficult for me. Another one that kills me is the “rl”, like in “world” or “jewelry”.
And yes, the difference between “ovo” and “ovos”, or “corajoso” and “corajosa” is challenging for English speakers.
Here is another funny thing that we Brazilians do when speaking English. We sort of add and “e” in front of words that start with an “s”, like “smart”, “schedule”, etc. Or at least I do so :)
One thing I forgot was the R rolled sound. English speakers hardly do it right.
Like in caro, raro, Nero, espero, etc
But the other way is hard too, for most of brazilians to say the english R.
Altough english R sounds a little like R in some regions in Brazil, like São Paulo north and Minas south (maybe because this there are so many Governdador Valadares citizens in USA) and Goiás.
One thing I forgot was the R rolled sound. English speakers hardly do it right.
Like in caro, raro, Nero, espero, etc
But the other way is hard too, for most of brazilians to say the english R.
Altough english R sounds a little like R in some regions in Brazil, like São Paulo north and Minas south (maybe because this there are so many Governdador Valadares citizens in USA) and Goiás.
PS.: watch this famous brazilian talking strange english. I wonder if a native could fully understand him!