Have you ever wondered why European Portuguese when spoken FAST is SO DIFFICULT to understand?
The Portuguese drop and swallow sounds all over the place, making it hard for learners like you to pick up on what is being said. In this article I will explain why that is, and some of the most common examples of when this happens, so you can finally start to understand native speakers!
My name is Liz and I’m obsessed with helping people that are moving to Portugal build their confidence and conversation skills in European Portuguese so they can live Portugal at its best.
I cover this and a whole lot more in my free one-hour lesson for beginners – so if you’re ready to get the ultimate quick-start guide to Portuguese conversation go ahead and register for the session!
So let’s take a look at some common phrases in Portuguese, and how they will sound when a native speaker says them in Portugal. Please refer to the video linked above in this article to hear me pronouncing these phrases.
- Como é que te chamas?
That’s how it would sound if we enunciated every syllable.
But the Portuguese would say it like this:
- Comue k’t chamas?
They put the stress on just two of those syllables, the E and the first part of “chamas”, meaning the rest of the sounds become reduced, and they are harder to hear.
Let’s compare that with how it would sound in Spanish.
- Como te llamas?
Said fast, it would sound more or less the same. That’s because the Spanish will stress all the syllables, which are more or less the same length.
So the major reason why the Portuguese sound like they are swallowing words and sounds is because Portuguese is a stress-timed language, we stress some sounds at regular intervals and gobble up the rest, like in English. Spanish is syllable-timed, the syllables are of a similar length so we don’t reduce any sounds.
This is why you also may find Brazilian Portuguese easier to understand, because on the spectrum of stress timed vs. syllable timed, it’s sometimes closer to being syllable-timed when spoken steadily.
Is this blowing your mind a little bit? Let’s take a look at a few more sentences, that should help you start to detect some of these hidden words.
- Hoje o tempo está bom
In this sentence, está is not stressed, so it is reduced to the sound shta!
That’s why phrases containing “está” often sound like this. For example:
Está bem → Tá bem!
This means, that’s fine, or that’s OK. But lots of my students confuse this for the word “também”, because it sounds shortened.
Another example:
- As flores são pra mim
Because the word para, in this context meaning FOR, is unstressed and reduced, it sounds like “pra”.
If you think about it, we do this in English too. The flowers are for me. “Fuh me”. “Fuh”. If you heard that sound just by itself, you’d probably struggle to hear it too. So the Portuguese aren’t the only ones!
Some more common phrases that are affected by this:
Ate já → té já!
Vamos lá → vamolá!
O que é que precisa → okek prec?
Knowing that this is how Portuguese words should sound will prepare you to go looking for those reduced sounds and for it to not come as a shock when things sound so different from how they are written down. It will also help you emulate the way the Portuguese speak!
Now of course, it is going to take time to train your ear to the speed and sound of native Portuguese from Portugal. I recommended some helpful resources in this article about the 7 Deadly Mistakes Beginners Make, so you should check that out next!
You can also watch this video where I offer 3 effective strategies for all levels on how to learn European Portuguese by listening.
I hope this was helpful. Beijinhos pessoal,
Liz Sharma
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