10 Pronunciation Mistakes Brazilian Portuguese Speakers Make | Inglês para falantes brasileiros

151,698 views ・ 2020-01-21

Accent's Way English with Hadar


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hey, it's Hadar. Thank you so much for joining me. And today we're going to talk about 10
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of the most common pronunciation mistakes Brazilian Portuguese speakers make.
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Now, if you're not a Brazilian Portuguese speaker - not a problem because some of these
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challenges are going to be relevant for you as well.
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It's just that all 10 challenges are very common for Brazilian Portuguese speakers.
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This is a good time to remind you that having an accent is okay. And making pronunciation
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mistakes is also okay as long as you're clear. The thing is that the challenges that I'm
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discussing today, or the pronunciation mistakes, may cause lack of clarity. And as a speaker,
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of course you want to be clear because you need to get what you want from the other person,
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and you need to deliver your message. So this is why understanding these challenges
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and learning how to overcome them, which I'm also going to discuss in the video, is extremely
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important. Now, since there are many dialects in Brazilian
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Portuguese, if you're a Brazilian speaker, maybe not everything is going to be relevant
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to you. Or maybe you just don't tend to make that mistake. Take whatever you need.
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And by the way, don't forget to download the workbook that I've prepared for you because
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it outlines all those challenges and how to overcome them. And some words for practice.
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So if you really want to take action, and the only way to change is to take action and
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actually do something about it, not just watch this video. Then you need to practice it.
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And to do that, I created the workbook for you. Click the link below or right here to
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download the workbook. So, stick around and let's look at the 10
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most common pronunciation mistakes Brazilian Portuguese speakers make.
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The first one is not distinguishing between similar vowel sounds. In Brazilian Portuguese,
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there are less vowels, vowel sounds, then in American English. So, while in American
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English there is 16 vowels, in Brazilian Portuguese there 13 pure vowels. Five of them are nasal
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sounds that don't exist in American English really.
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Therefore, what happens is that different sounds in American English, vowel sounds,
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merge into some vowel sounds in Brazilian Portuguese. The result - different vowel sounds
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sounded the same. So, like we have the tense 'ee' and the relaxed
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'i' in American English - sheep-ship - in Brazilian Portuguese you only have one 'ee'.
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And there, therefore, these two sounds are going to sound the same. 'sheep' - 'sheep'.
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Same thing with 'pool' and 'pull'. So Brazilian Portuguese speakers are less likely to make
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that distinction, and they may just pronounce both of them the same. 'pool' and 'pool',
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'food' and 'foot' [with an accent]. And also you have the difference between the
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'e' in red and the 'a' in cat. Since the 'a' as in cat, 'a', doesn't exist in Brazilian
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Portuguese, a lot of speakers just merge it into the 'e' sound. And then different words
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may sound the same, like bed and bad, head and had.
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And then it's going to sound like, 'head' and 'head'. Right. And then you're starting
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to affect your clarity because if you're saying 'head' and you mean 'had', native speakers
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we'll look for, and try to make sense of your sentence with the word 'head', 'head'. And
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this is not something that we are looking for when speaking.
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The first step is to start recognizing the sounds that are around you. The brain filters
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out a lot of information, and a lot of times you don't even hear the sounds in American
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English because they don't exist in your native tongue.
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So simply by hearing it and recognizing it, you can start making a difference. You can
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start making a change. So in the workbook that I shared with you, I shared a few, um,
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lists of words so you can practice those sounds and start feeling the difference as you are
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saying those words. Another mistake that Brazilian Portuguese
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tend to make is adding a vowel at the end of words that end with a consonant. For example,
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'wor-kee' instead of 'work', or 'skypee' instead of 'skype'.
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Now, let me explain why that happens. In Brazilian Portuguese usually, at the end, you'll find
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open vowels like 'ei' or 'a' or 'ee', or maybe vowels with a nasal sound, like 'bon'.
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But you are less likely to find words that end with a 'p' sound or 'k' sound, like in
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American English, as in "sleep" or "work". And what happens, as a result, that people
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just add another vowel to create that nice familiar feel of open vowel at the end of
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a word. So instead of saying "skype", you may hear
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people saying 'skypee' - the very tiny 'ee' sound. Instead of "practice" - 'practicee'.
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Instead of "work" - 'workee'. Okay. Now, you want to pay attention to it, cause
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you may not even notice that you're doing it. A lot of these mistakes are unintentional.
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So it's something that just happens to you. And in order for you to recognize it, you
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need to listen to yourself. And the best way to do that is to record yourself.
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So record yourself saying the words on the list in the workbook, or you can practice
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any word that ends with a closed consonant, like "rap" or "sleep" or "hate".
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Okay? So think of words that end with a consonant, and makes sure that you're not adding a vowel
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to make it sound or to make it feel closer to Brazilian Portuguese, to how words are
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pronounced in Brazilian Portuguese. Because when you add vowels, you actually
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add another syllable, and then the word is going to be completely unclear. Because when
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people hear a word with three syllables, they're going to search in their brain for a word
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that has three syllables. Another interesting thing that happens in
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Brazilian Portuguese is that D and T at the end of words - 'd' and 't' are pronounced
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as 'dj' and 'tch'. So for example, instead of saying "made", you may hear someone saying
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'meidj'. Instead of saying "cat", you may hear someone saying 'katch'.
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Now, it may be very, very subtle, but here's the problem - "catch" is a different word
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than "cat". And if you want to say "bad" and you say "badge", people are going to try to
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make sense of the sentence, thinking of the word "badge" and not "bad". Okay. And that's
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"badge", I mean, "bad". Now, why does that happen? Because what you're
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doing is you're not blocking the air completely. To say the D - "bad", you want to bring the
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tip of the tongue up and to block the air completely. "bad", and you don't even have
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to release it in American English, "bad". When you pull the tongue back a bit and you
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leave very little room, "badge", after blocking the air, you get that extra sound - 'ba-dj'.
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Right. You're adding another sound. 'ka-tch'. So the 'tch' is actually a blocked
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T, and then this extra sound, this fricative, it's called. 'ka-tch', so just end it after
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you're blocking the air - "cat", that's it. Sometimes people may even add a little 'ee'
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sound after because of reason number two. And then you may hear 'badjee' instead of
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"bad", or 'katchee' instead of "cat". And again, then it becomes a word with two syllables,
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which would be very confusing. Okay? So pay attention that you're not adding syllables,
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and that you are closing it with a 't' sound or a 'd' sound.
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Let's talk another interesting thing that happens at the end of words. Brazilian Portuguese
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speakers tend to mispronounce the M at the end of words in American English, and turn
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it into a nasal sound, like an N sound instead, or an NG.
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For example, instead of saying "game" they may say "gain", or instead of saying "rum",
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they may say "rung". The reason why that happens is that while in Brazilian Portuguese you
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do have the letter M at the end of words, it is never pronounced as an M, where you
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close the lips and you make this nasal sound - /m/, as if you're humming - 'mmm', 'mmm'.
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Instead, when there is an M in the spelling, the vowel before becomes nasal. That means,
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the air comes out through the nose, and the M is not really an M, it's pronounced as N
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or NG. So this word is going to be pronounced as "bang", "bang". So the 'a' sound turns
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into 'ai' and the 'n' turns into 'ng'. In American English when a word ends with
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an M, and it's in the spelling, thank God, then you close your lips and you release air
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through the nose - 'm'. The lips have to touch each other: "game", "home", "rum".
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Okay, so practice it. You can even hum, hold out the sound to make sure that you're actually
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pronouncing the M sound. That's how you'll start getting used to pronouncing it properly.
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The best way to practice it and to change that is to drill many words that end with
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an M at the end in American English. But don't just say the word separately. Always use them
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in context, always use them in a sentence. So, a simple Google search will give you many
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words that end with an M, or you can use the words in the workbook that I've prepared for
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you. The next challenge is the TH because there
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is no TH in Brazilian Portuguese. So speakers of that language may pronounce words with
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TH with the closest possible sound, usually a T or a D - a T if it's a voiceless TH, like
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"think". Or a D, if it's a voiced TH, like "they",
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so it'll sound like 'tink' or 'dei. What we want to make sure is that the tongue is out,
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and you allow the air to pass between the tongue and teeth - 'th', 'think' and 'they'.
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No matter how awkward it feels, because then it's going to sound like a different word.
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'tanks' instead of 'thanks'. The next mistake is that an L that appears
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at the end of a word is pronounced as a W. So, instead of an L, in this case, a dark
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L, cuz that's how you pronounce the L in American English. Brazilian Portuguese speakers may
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pronounce it as /w/. It's not a real W, it's a blend between a W and an 'oo' sound.
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So instead of "pal", you will hear 'pow'. Instead of "people" you may hear 'peepow',
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and instead of "ball", you may hear "bowl". Now, it's really close, like, you may, it
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may sound almost the same to you cause the dark L does sound like a W a bit, but it's
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not the same. Because for the dark L you do create tension
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in the back and you don't round the lips so much. While for the 'oo' sound, for that W
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sound, you do. "people". See my lips are not really rounded
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- "people". And 'peepow', 'ow', 'ow' - the lips round. For this, a mirror would help
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when practicing it. You need to look in the mirror and make sure that you don't round
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the lips. And for Brazilian Portuguese speakers, I always recommend to lift the tip of the
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tongue to touch the upper palate at the end of a word no matter what.
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Now, a lot of people, including myself, may tell you that you don't have to bring the
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tip of the tongue to pronounce the dark L. For example, in the word "people", I just
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pulled the tongue back and created some tension here.
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But clear is better than accurate. And for Brazilian Portuguese speakers, not to bring
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the tip of the tongue up will result in pronouncing a W sound or an 'oo' sound, which is the tendency.
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So to avoid that tendency, make sure that you still bring the tip of the tongue up,
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to touch the upper palate for the L, First of all, because a lot of native speakers do
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do that anyway, and it's clear. Second, because that will tell you for certain that you are
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not pronouncing an 'oo' sound, but an L. Okay, so when there is an L at the end, you've
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got to make sure that your lips are not rounded, you're not doing this, and that the tongue
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doesn't touch that little bump behind the teeth.
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Another very important thing that you need to keep in mind if you're a Brazilian Portuguese
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speaker, is that you may replace the primary stress of the word because of the stress patterns
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of Brazilian Portuguese. In Brazilian Portuguese, whenever you have
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a long word, usually the primary stress falls on one of the last three syllables in a word,
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usually the one before last. And in American English, that's not always the case.
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So sometimes, especially when we talk about long words, you may apply the stress patterns
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of Brazilian Portuguese onto English. So instead of saying something like "FRUSTrating", you
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may say "frustRATING. Instead of saying "COMfortable", you may say "comforTABLE".
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Because it follows the stress patterns of Brazilian Portuguese, but it doesn't follow
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the stress patterns of American English. And stress is important for clarity. Really important.
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So you always want to make sure that you are not changing the primary stress of the word,
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especially in long words. The way to do that is first, become aware. Be aware of the fact
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that there is a primary stress that is the most important syllable in the word. That
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primary stress is usually longer, louder and higher in pitch.
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And you want to make sure that you're hearing that primary stress and that you're able to
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replicate it to actually stress the right syllable when saying a word.
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How would you know if you're pronouncing the right stress or not? Well, you have dictionaries
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for that. If you open any kind of dictionary, or a simple Google search will show you the
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primary stress by showing it in bold. Or you'll see an apostrophe to the left of
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the syllable, and that indicates that that's the primary stress, and that's the syllable
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that needs to be longer, louder and higher in pitch.
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The next pronunciation challenge is the American R. Now, it's really interesting with Brazilian
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Portuguese because there are a few types of R's in Brazilian Portuguese. And in some dialects
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you may even hear a sound just like the American 'ur' sound.
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But, for some speakers, they only have a /r/ [trill R] sound, and a /h/ sound, like 'h/r/afael'.
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'hafael', like an H sound. So, actually there is an H, it's just pronounced as an R. 'Hafael',
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a good friend of mine, his name is 'Hafael', from Brazil. So that's how I know how to pronounce
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that R sound. But if you don't like my pronunciation, let
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me know in the comments below, and tell me what I need to change, all you Brazilian Portuguese
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speakers out there. Anyway. So, in American English, it's not
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a /h/ sound or a /r/ sound. These two R's exist in Brazilian Portuguese. In American
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English, to make the R sound, you want to pull the tongue in to let it sit there, in
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the middle of the mouth. Make sure that there is contact between the
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sides of the tongue and the sides of the teeth, and you round the lips just a bit - 'ur',
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as in "red", or "around". So it's not 'red' and it's not 'head', okay,
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'head' [with BP sounds]. I need to work on my Portuguese R. But anyway, you get the point
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and there is a lot more to know about the R sound. This is why I'm going to share my
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video about the R in the description below. The next challenge is the Schwa. Actually,
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the lack of schwa in Brazilian Portuguese. So, in American English there is the schwa
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sound, and I just released a long podcast episode about the schwa sound.
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So I'm going to post the link to it in the description below, so you can learn all about
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the schwa cause it's really, really important. But to make a long story short, I'll tell
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you that the schwa sound is a reduction of a vowel, and it sounds something like this
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- 'uh'. Now, the representation of the schwa can be any one of the five vowel letters,
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A, O, U, I, E, or any combination of the five. Since the schwa, which is a reduced vowel
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that occurs only in unstressed syllables, since the schwa does not exist in Brazilian
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Portuguese, then speakers of that language may not pronounce the schwa cause they don't
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detect it as a real sound. It's so small, 'uh'. Like in the word "about"
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or "against" or "melody". And they will replace it with a vowel. Now how do they decide what
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vowel to use? Well, they look at the spelling. If there is an O, they may pronounce the schwa
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sound, this 'uh' sound as an 'o', like in the word "computer". So you may pronounce
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it as "c'o'mputer". Or the I will be pronounced as 'ee', like
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"hol'ee'day" instead of "hol'uh'day". Or the U may be pronounced as 'oo'. Like "foc'oo's"
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instead of "foc'uh's". As you can see there are a lot of places where
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Brazilian Portuguese speakers may add vowels that don't really exist because of the spelling,
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and because they're not familiar with the schwa sound.
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So one of the first things that you need to do is start recognizing that there is such
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a sound. Cause to make that sound, it is really easy. You just relax your jaw, and you release
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sound - 'uh'. And you want to make sure it's not 'a', it's not 'u'. 'uh'.
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The last thing that I'm going to talk about today is not really about pronunciation, but
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more about intonation. Intonation is the melody of the language.
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Now, let's agree that the melody of Brazilian Portuguese is very different from the melody
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of American English. In Brazilian Portuguese the pitch shifts from high to low, quite often.
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<Video fragment of a woman speaking Brazilian Portuguese>
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"Tata-duh, tata-duh, tata-duh, tatata-duh, nuh-nuh-nuh, taduh-daduh, daduh". Am I right?
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"Tata-duh, tada-duh, tada-duh, tada-taduh-duh". So, there is like this internal rhythm: "taduh,
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tada-duh, tada-duh, dadatada-duh, na-nuh-duh". Wherever the stress is on a higher note, and
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it usually hits the same note: "Tata-duh, tada-duh, tada-duh, tada-daduh-duh". And then,
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what you may be doing is that you may be applying this melody onto English.
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Now, other than the fact that it's beautiful cause I love the melody of Brazilian Portuguese.
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Because stressed words are higher in pitch, every time you raise the pitch, because that's
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the melody pattern, it feels like the word is stressed.
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It may confuse the listener a little bit because you're not helping them understand what the
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point is. Uh, and it feels like there are a lot of emphasis. What the main stress is,
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cause you always have to have like that one leading word or one leading phrase in a sentence.
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And when there are a lot of them it's harder to decipher what's more important and what's
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less important. So the brain is kind of like following you, but there are a lot of stress
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words to follow. So you want to remember that when you go higher
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in pitch, that means that you're stressing word. And also, sometimes because of that
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pattern, you may stress unimportant words, like "on" or "if" or "is".
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So, you want to make sure that you're only stressing content words like nouns and verbs
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and adjectives. And you're very choosy about what words you stress. Cause you don't want
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to stress too many words in a sentence. You should have like one, two, three really stressed
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words, but not much more than that. And if you apply this melody of Brazilian
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Portuguese, it may seem like you're stressing many words. So you want to be aware of that.
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And again, awareness creates clarity. And with, after clarity, you need to take action
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and practice it, but that's how you start changing it.
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Okay, that's it. Let me know in the comments below, which one of the 10 pronunciation challenges
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is the one that you're struggling with the most. And if you have any other questions
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about , let me know in the comments below as well.
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Also, don't forget to download the American accent guide for Brazilian Portuguese speakers.
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It's completely free. You'll find the link in the description below.
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If you liked this video, please share it with your friends. And don't forget to subscribe
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to my YouTube channel. Have a beautiful week, and I will see you in the next video. Bye.
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