English Pronunciation for Portuguese Speakers

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Areas of Difficulty for Portuguese Speakers
Consonants:

I.   /sh/ vs. /ch/ and /zh/ vs. /j/

Portuguese speakers of English pronounce words such as ‘share’ and ‘chair’ and ‘version’ and ‘virgin’ alike.  Pronounce the following words clearly:

Share/chair   shoes/choose    sheet/cheat       shill/chill      shoot/chute
Mirage/merging                 version/virgin              barrage/barging 

II.  /th/ and /d/

Pronounce the following minimal pairs carefully:

Breath/breathe       bath/bathe        cloth/clothe     
                              Now try this tongue twister:
Those three thieves threw thirteen things in the thicket of thorn trees. 

III. /s/ vs. /sh/

Make the distinction between /s/ and /S/ using the following minimal pairs:

Sill/shill                 sign/shine        simmer/shimmer          sue/shoe
Sealed/shield         brass/brash      same/shame                 single/shingle
Lease/leash            crass/crash       last/lashed                   
Now try this tongue twister:
She sells seashells by the seashore. 

IV.  /l/ vs. /w/ in word-final position

Pronounce the dark /l/ in word final position, and distinguish between the dark /l/ and /w/:

Mole          call       fall       fail       mail     nail      coal      ball      small
Mole/mow     goal/go        veal/view         feel/few           old/owed 

V.   Word-final consonants

Pronounce the following words without inserting a vowel after the final sound:

Big      brag            bid       bad      glad     snag     wag     bring    glide
Plug           drag     smack  crud     yogurt  snack   cram    brain    stick     

VI.  /m/, /n/, and /N/ in word-final position

Pronounce the following nasal consonants in word-final position. Be sure to pronounce the final sound in each word.

Flame        stream              prime               slime                shame
Align         benign             restrain            glean                intervene
Fling          string               thing                bring                strung 

VII.       Consonant clusters

Consonant clusters do not exist in Portuguese.  Because of this, Portuguese speakers of English insert a vowel before or after English consonant clusters.  Practice pronouncing the consonant clusters in the following words without inserting a vowel before or after them:

Sky            Mexico            scoundrel         frisk     mixture            skit
School       skeleton           station              string   skim        scanning

VIII.  Past tense: -ed

Portuguese speakers often pronounce the regular past tense as a separate syllable.  There are three morphophonemic rules that determine the pronunciation of the past tense –ed ending.  They are:

·      When –ed is preceded by /t/ or /d/, it is pronounced /Id/
·      When –ed is preceded by a voiced consonant, it is pronounced /d/
·      When –ed is preceded by a voiceless consonant, it is pronounced /t/

                               Now practice examples of each of the above rules:
                               Wanted     guided             padded             patted               distracted
                               Merged     boiled              braised             smeared           geared
                               Searched   kissed              missed             brushed           flushed

IX.  /r/

Portuguese speakers of English pronounce the English /r/ in word initial position as /h/. Pronounce the /r/ in word initial position clearly by raising the tip of your tongue towards the alveolar ridge, but be sure not to touch it.

research     rehearsal          restrain            remain             reproach
rebuild       restore             remnant           reasonable       rooster
roasted       rephrase           reminisce         repressed         remonstrate

Vowels:
I. /I/ vs. /i:/
Practice pronouncing the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

Hit/heat      fit/feet              sit/seat             fill/feel             live/leave
Skim/scheme                     mill/meal          kin/keen           ill/eel

II. /e/ vs. /ei/
Make the distinction between the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs

met/mate    red/raid            led/laid             fed/fade           wed/wade
let/late        set/sate             get/gate            bled/blade        pent/paint

III. /U/ vs. /u:/
Practice pronouncing the short and long vowels in the following word pairs:

full/fool     foot/food         should/shoot                book/boot

In addition to the above short (lax) and long (tense) vowels, Korean speakers also have difficulty with these four vowel sounds:

IV. /e/ vs. /ae/
Make the distinction between the short vowel and the diphthong in the following minimal pairs:

met/mat      set/sat              fed/fad             led/lad              wed/wad

V. /^/ vs. /a:/
Make the distinction between the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

curd/card   heard/hard       curt/cart           burn/barn         hurt/heart

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