A Guide to Portuguese - The Portuguese alphabet 1n1l4
What's the Portuguese alphabet like? 4wk71
- Portuguese has a Latin-based alphabet consisting of 26 letters, the same as English
- You may well have to spell out your name and perhaps your address in Portuguese. Here is the alphabet and how to pronounce it
mp3 - right click and choose 'save target as'
What's significant about the Portuguese alphabet? 2m1j1w
Vowels and accents 2b6z4x
Portuguese has 14 vowel sounds. Accents are used to show their pronunciation: á, â, ã à, ç, é, ê, í, ó, ô, õ, and ú
These accents also indicate the stressed syllable, eg:
café, coffee
você, you (formal)
mãe, motherNasal vowels are very common and they are represented by the tilde over the vowels a and o:
canção, song canções, songsThe cedila (ç) before -a, - o, and - u sounds the same as ‘s’
Consonants: 251119
The letter h is silent in Portuguese
The letters r, s, z and the combinations nh, lh, ch, rr may prove more challenging, for example:
rádio, rádios, radio(s)
sozinho, sozinha, alone
chamar, to call
trabalho, work
correio, mailFrom 1943 k, y and w were considered foreign letters and not included in the official alphabet. They were reintroduced as part of the spelling reform of 2009, but are still mainly found in foreign names and words imported from other languages
These three letters also have different names in Portugal and Brazil. Respectively:
k: kapa, ka
y: i grego, ípsilon
w: duplo ve, dábliuEmail and website conventions 1r6w37
@ arroba
. ponto, dot
/ barra, forward slash
- hífen, hyphen

BBC Languages links 72c43
Quick Fix: Essential phrases in Portuguese
Brazil Inside Out: Brazil's carnival, its music and its football