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…
