Lesson 1: Pronunciation of /i/, Getting the Check at a Restaurant
There’s only one Lesson #1. We’ll never have a first again. Today we introduce listeners to the team: Orlando, Valdo, Michelle, and José Luis. Pronunciation wise, we’ll look at when Brazilians say words with the sound [i].
Culturally, Michelle and Valdo talk about what it was like to get the bill in restaurants in the United States. Tune in, join our discussion, download the lesson notes, and become part of Brazilpod.
PODCAST LINK: Lesson 01
hey good job guys i like this podcast
Comment by Roberto — January 8, 2007 @ 2:17 am
Like the beginning of lesson one said, Ta Falado is the practice of listening to spoken Brazilian Portuguese and comparing it to Spanish and English in order to learn. From what I understood from this lesson which put emphasis on (I) was that it sounds like (eeeee) as does the letter (E) at the end of a word. For example, in the word Ele=him, which is pronounced (Eliii) or the word (vive) which is pronounce like ( viviii). I looked over the supplementary podcast and heard various nasal and oral diphthongs. Comparing Portuguese diphthongs to other languages was really helpful. They were hard to decipher but after hearing it over and over again I began to distinguish one from the other.
Comment by Enrique Arana — January 22, 2007 @ 5:48 pm
Enrique,
You’ve given all of us the big secret, listening. It’s really true that by listening we begin to hear the different sounds. I think it’s amazing how at first we can’t hear the difference and then little by little it makes sense. So everyone, follow Enrique’s advice: listen.
Comment by orkelm — January 23, 2007 @ 8:44 am
Hi guys, first thanks for the greatcast. Second, I´m in argentina right now, going to brazil in a wweek and I´m crashcoursing portugese a bit. I spoke with a brazilian in my hostel about pronunciation and he (from Sao Paulo) pronounced Ele as (Ele) like in spanish. We were also talking about how Cariocas speak different from the rest of the country and I was wondering if these pronunciation guides are cariocan or portugese if you know what I mean.
Thanks!
Jessee
Comment by Jesse — March 8, 2007 @ 2:56 pm
Hi Jessee, so you are in Argentina and I am in Chile.
As to your question about pronunciation, Michelle is also from Sao Paulo and you can listen to the way that she pronounces her vowels. Most generally word final “e” sounds like an “i”. So, words like “come, ele, vive” sound more like “comi, eli, vivi.” By this time next week you should be ordering agua de coco in Portuguese no problem!
Orlando
Comment by orkelm — March 8, 2007 @ 4:47 pm
Hello everyone !
Thank you all for creating this great program. The voices are very clear and I think have interesting regional accents that are good for comparison. It takes a lot of time, planning and preparation to work on something like this. The three of you must be very dedicated.
I studied a bit of Spanish and a lot of Portuguese in my time. The trick is maintaining any language. I think I have forgotten soo much over time. New words go in one end of my brain and unused or old words seem to fall out the other end or be forgotten. So this is how I ended up here “manutenção da língua portuguesa”.
I love programs like this and I’m sure everyone who comes here will enjoy all the hard work you three have done to make it possible !
Sincerely,
John A Donnarumma Jr
Revere, Ma USA
Comment by John Donnarumma Jr — June 21, 2007 @ 10:01 pm
Thanks for the feedback John. I agree that old words sometimes fall out of our brains. But I also believe that they somehow come back quicker when we get back into things again. So, they aren’t totally lost, thankfully.
Orlando
Comment by Orlando — June 22, 2007 @ 3:51 pm
Hello, Orlando, Michelle, Valdo and José Luis,
thank you for this great program. I was always looking for some interesting podcast for learning portuguese. I am German, but speak Spanish quite well and the idea of comparing Spanish and Portuguese is really extraordinary. The sound quality is very good and I love the subjects which also demonstrate the differences between North American and Brazilian/ South American culture.
Kind regards from Germany, Claudia
Comment by Claudia Weller — July 2, 2007 @ 9:04 am
Na minha opinião it is mais fácil to pronounce the “e” in Portuguese than it is in Spanish. Why? Porque in Spanish if you don’t say it juuust right then it sounds weird but in Portuguese…well, how can you mess up when all you have to do is say “ee?”
I don’t know, it just seems easier to me in Portuguese.
I confess that in the beginning não me sentia muito bem when I had to make that “ee” sound at the end of words that ended with “e” (it just felt weird because like you guys said em espanhol it sounds like “eh”) mas já estou acostumada e gosto muito de the way it sounds. ^_^
Não achei difícil to learn the pronunciation of the letter “i” já que it is pronounced the same in both Spanish and Portuguese.
Comment by Lisa Martinez — August 29, 2007 @ 8:39 pm
Gosto muito o dialogo e tambem a explicacao. Parece a mim que as regras da pronunciacao sao mais relaxadas em portugues que no espanhol.
Comment by Chris Morley — August 30, 2007 @ 12:33 pm
I almost forgot that in Portuguese the “o” sounds like “u”! It is very easy to forget things when you don’t practice frequently. I recently started my third semester of Portuguese and I found this first lesson very refreshing
Cynthia
Comment by Cynthia Z — August 30, 2007 @ 7:09 pm
Goste dos clipes, foi bom ter as traduçãos em ingles e em espanhol para entender melhor o que estavam dizendo. Também as notas culturais e os diferente sotaques de Valdo e Michelle são boas para aprender do Brasil e a gente de la. A lecão e interesante porque tem muitas palavras que tem o son do “E,” especialmente em palavras que terminam com t o d, mas não tem e.
Comment by Elisa — August 30, 2007 @ 7:45 pm
Muito bom! Eu gostaria dos restaurantes no Brasil =) Mais comida por favor!
Comment by James Lander — August 30, 2007 @ 8:15 pm
Gosto muito de poder justapor a gravação e o PDF. Também, gosto que a apresentação usa exemplos fácis; é dizer que a apresentação é acessível a qualquer pessoa; é “multilíngüe”; e não depende dos exemplos lingüísticos esotéricos. A ênfase em pronunciar a “e” final como “i” é útil. O conteúdo cultural da gravação é uma boa adição que aumenta a pertinência socio-lingüística do “podcast”. Bom trabalho, gente!
Comment by dmonzingo — August 30, 2007 @ 9:00 pm
Brasil é mais similar a Inglaterra! Tipicamente, como Brasil, o empregado/a traz a conta depois que você pede, também. Eu gosto de sistema dos países além dos Estados Unidos mais!
-Daniel
Comment by Daniel Kietzer — August 30, 2007 @ 9:03 pm
Para mim, esta diferença entre a pronúncia do espanhol e o portugues é o mais dificil. Depois de ler o falar o portugues e muito dificil pronunciar o “e” em espanhol corretamente. Também acho que é mais divertido a pronúncia portuguesa.
Comment by Amelia Crawford — August 30, 2007 @ 10:50 pm
É legal que comparam as pronuncações da lingua espanhola com as da lingua portuguesa para dar-lhe uma meior ideia das diferenças nas culturas. Como a maioria das pessoas que falam português (pelo menos os que aprendam o português na universidade) ja falam espanhol, reconheço que é importante explicar as diferenças.
A lição foi informativo porque é importante entender os costumes de outros paises para não aparecer ter mala educação.
Comment by Kellsey K — August 30, 2007 @ 11:36 pm
I really like how they do the spanish, portuguese, and an ocassional english transaltion.
Comment by Leonel — September 15, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
I hope that this late posting might still get an answer…
When Valdo says he thinks that it is rude they bring the check, does the direct translation really deal with bad education? Not just that he thinks it is rude? Is this the way to say one thinks something is rude?
Ta Falado has helped me a lot to become familiar with the sound of portuguese. Thanks.
Comment by Katherine — December 3, 2007 @ 10:50 am
Katherine,
You are right on, when a Brazilian says that someone is “mal educado” it takes on the meaning of being “rude” and really doesn’t have anything to do with the person’s formal education. If you want to say that someone has a poor education, a Brazilian would probably use something like “mal instruido”. Orlando
Comment by orkelm — December 3, 2007 @ 11:30 am
Awesome site!!
Comment by Ruben — May 29, 2008 @ 10:03 pm
Terrific and dedicated job you have done! My compliments from Italy! By the way, the comparison between Spanish and Portuguese is very useful to me too, as Spanish and Italian have a great number of similarities. Thanks again for your effort, guys!
Comment by Cesare — June 12, 2008 @ 6:12 am
Cesare,
Agreed, when I studied Italian I was continually comparing it to Spanish and Portuguese. You’ll find out that in many ways Portuguese sounds are more similar to Italian than Spanish is.
Te vediamo.
Comment by orkelm — June 12, 2008 @ 6:23 am
Acabo de escuchar la primera lecciòn y me gustò! Hablo italiano y se algo de francès, por eso se me hace un poco conocida la pronunciaciòn, A Cesare ti faccio sapere que possiamo imparare insieme per Skipe! ok zulayrosario@hotmail.com
Comment by Zulay — June 13, 2008 @ 10:10 am
Great first lesson, a good way to get our feet wet as we move into a more complicated pronunciation world. As a former waiter here in the states, I always made a point of telling customers to take as much time as they wanted, although this was offset by the management’s desire to “turn more tables.” I digress.
Comment by Matthew Johnson — June 26, 2008 @ 2:21 pm
Bom Dia! Meu duvida é sobre a pronunciacao cuando uma palavra termina em “e”, mas é uma sílaba tónica. Como se pronuncia entao?
Comment by Tatiana Reinoza Perkins — July 1, 2008 @ 3:26 pm
Hi, I only discovered this site today but I think it is FANTASTIC. I am from Romania
and I am a learner of Spanish but when I heard protugues for the first time i felt in love with this language. I want to congratulate you for the great job you do, there are a lot of people like me who love learning foreign langauges.
you’ll hear from me soon writing in Portuguese.
keep the good work.
Comment by DANNA — July 31, 2008 @ 4:46 am
Thanks Danna, How fun to know that we have listeners from Romania! Hello to all of you from us at Tá Falado!
Orlando
Comment by orkelm — July 31, 2008 @ 9:16 am
i am so glad i found podbean and this site today. i am from south korea, interested in spanish and portuguese
learning.it’s so great to learn two languages at the same time.God bless! thank you so much.
Comment by Sujeong — July 31, 2008 @ 9:36 am
So we have South Korea and Romania, all on the same day. Cool!
Orlando
Comment by orkelm — July 31, 2008 @ 9:40 am
Thanks for your reply. Plz don’t shut down this site till I learn all lessons. ;)It will take a l~o~n~g time.
Comment by Sujeong — August 1, 2008 @ 9:11 am
Sujeong, and everyone else,
No problem, we won’t be taking Ta Falado down. I should mention that unlike many blogs, we use this site for our course at UT. So, even though new posts are not appearing, we reuse these lessons for new groups of students every semester. So, even though we aren’t doing “new” lessons, we do recycle them a lot. So, be assured that they’ll be here for quite a while. Thanks again to all.
Orlando
Comment by orkelm — August 1, 2008 @ 9:39 am
I find the pronunciation of the final ‘e’ at the end of words in Brazilian spoken portuguese interesting, but also challenging for someone with a english/spanish background. Sometimes it feels like I am pronouncing /i/ /i/ /i/ a lot of times in a row for one phrase. On the subject, I noticed that English words that are incorporated into Portuguese that do not have a final ‘e’ are still pronounced with the /i/ at the end. For example the music terms hip hop, pronounced hipi hopi or rock, rocki. I believe this is due to the lack of words in Portuguese that end in consonant sounds.
Comment by Golden Dale — August 27, 2008 @ 9:59 pm
When I first learned Portuguese I had difficulties with the double sound of the letter “e” as opposed to Spanish that always is pronounced the same. I have a question, when I was in Brazil I heard the word “bife” and “carne” is “bife” a particular cut of meat and “carne” just meat in general or are both words the same?
Obrigado,
Comment by Eduardo Gonzalez — August 28, 2008 @ 10:20 am
Que interessante, não? O que é um costumo de conveniência para uma cultura é um símbolo de mala educação para outra. Eu acho que a lição utilizou bem exemplos da pronunciação do “e” e “i” na fala brasileira. Foi muito útil ouvir as translações no espanhol como no inglês para entender melhor a conversação.
Comment by Elissa Wev — August 28, 2008 @ 10:43 am
This and the rest of the pronunciation lessons are very useful to getting an introduction to Portuguese. I think it is also interesting/confusing the way the letter “e” will sometimes be pronounced as “i” even when it is not at the end of the word.
Comment by Erin Daley — August 28, 2008 @ 9:50 pm
I like this dialogue and how it was presented, I think it really helps someone understand the difference in the “i” pronunciation
Comment by Liana Depew — August 28, 2008 @ 11:40 pm
When I was in Recife and João Pessoa, even though there was a different dialect where people didnot pronounciate the t like ch, they still pronounced the e’s at the end of the words like i’s.
Ex:
- Eu te amo - eu chi amos - eu ti amo.
- diferente - diferenchi - diferenti
Comment by Ebony Jackson — August 29, 2008 @ 12:03 am
Tenho 2 duvidas, a primeria é que não sei se eu gosto de colocar mais letras que deveria. Em Pronunciation 1, têm uma dialogo que é assim: Acho isso uma falta de educação….mais eu colocaria Acho QUE isso É uma falta de educação. Têm diferente significado colocar assim?
Também, Pronunciation 2, quando é bom usar ser, e quando é bom usar ficar. Há um dialogo que disse assim Prometo FICAR mais atenta, mais eu colocaria prometo SER mais atenta. Ha difereça?
Comment by Lorena — August 29, 2008 @ 12:06 am
I am a former teacher of German and French, and I speak Spanish fairly well.
I have just started to learn Portuguese (in preparation for a trip to Brazil).
The problem is that I am 65 years old and don’t have the patience for this sort of project I once had. In short, I simply want to apply my Spanish pronunciation rules, i.e. tres and not tresh, ele and not eli, and so on. Will this seriously hinder my communication?
Comment by Bob Redman — September 30, 2008 @ 10:05 pm
Bob,
What an interesting question. You know, I believe that for the casual traveler, what matters most is having a good time. If you can enjoy the sites, buy the things you want to, try the foods that interest you, I’d say do so with whatever combination of Spanish/German/French/English works for you. On the other hand, the more you know about the topics that are presented, for example here in Tá Falado, the more that you’ll be able to understand the Brazilians when they talk to you. So, for example, since many words that begin with “h” in Spanish begin with “f” in Portuguese, by knowing that little change, you’ll understand a lot more. Since your question is “will this seriously hinder my communication?” the answer to a certain degree is yes, more because you’ll have a harder time understanding them. Chances are that they will understand you. Bottom line, when you go to Brazil, try all the great foods, try to do a little samba, listen to some bossa nova, walk along the beaches, drink açaí, and throw in a few “tresh” and “eli” while you’re at it.
Comment by Orlando — October 1, 2008 @ 7:52 am
Orlando, thanks for the quick answer. Don’t think I’ll see beaches. I plan to stay 3 months in São João del Rei. I will be the guest of former students of mine. They say I will love it, and if I want, they will find a way for me to teach and stay longer.
I’m not worried so much about my understanding Brazilians because that will come with time. I mainly want to be understood as soon as possible. My theory is that if what I say interests my interlocutors, then they won’t mind slowing down and repeating if necessary. I call this “eliciting the cooperative response,” something even an experienced linguist needs when speaking a foreign language.
What impression will a gringo (or whatever we are called there) make speaking fairly correct Portuguese with a Mexican accent?
Comment by Bob Redman — October 1, 2008 @ 2:39 pm
Bob,
Any American who tries to speak Portuguese is already exceeding expectations. They’ll appreciate your effort, com toda certeza.
Comment by orkelm — October 2, 2008 @ 9:29 am
Hello,
very good site for learning portugues and refreshing spanish and english.
Thanks for your dedication.
claudio, Genoa (Italy) 21 november 2008
Comment by claudio — November 21, 2008 @ 8:51 am
Hi Orlando, Michelle, Valdo and José Luis,
I just stumbled across this website searching for a good podcast for learning Brazilian Portuguese. I must say it just cannot get any better than this.
I am learning capoeira in Japan, and wanted to learn Portuguese as well as Brazilian culture in general to understand the cultural context of the songs that are sang in the roda.
Comparison of Portuguese w/ Spanish, as well as the cultural tidbits are excellent. I can’t wait to tap into all of the backlogs available. Although I don’t have any immediate plans to visit Brazil, I am sure that this podcast is a solid starting point for learning the language and the culture.
Thanks again,
Hide
Comment by Hide Hirashima — February 26, 2009 @ 3:11 am
Hirashima-san,
Yokouso, What an interesting combination, “a person in Japan, learning Capoeira, listening to Americans who are comparing Spanish and Portuguese!”
Kore wa totemo sugoi desu!!!
Thanks for joining with us,
Orlando
Comment by orkelm — February 26, 2009 @ 8:39 am
Thank you for the opportunity to study this beautiful language with this website. I’m a native Spanish speaker, so I’m sure that I’m going to enjoy studying these podcasts.
Regards,
Joey
Comment by Joey — April 27, 2009 @ 7:35 am
UT-Austin/ Spring ‘09/ POR508/ Instructor: Joao Valentino Alfredo
La realidad es que la pronunciación es una de las cosas que diferencia al español del portugués. Al menos, es una de las cosas que primero aprendí; por ejemplo, decir universidade, saude, saudade pronunciando esa ‘e’ final como ‘i’. Esta lección con Valdo, Michelle y José Luis fue muy buena porque se aprecia la diferencia en la traducción de portugués a español. Fome, ele, bife, vive vs. Hambre, él, biftec y vive. Tengo que decir que me encanta cómo suena en portugués
Comment by Bárbara — April 28, 2009 @ 4:37 pm
UT-Austin/ Spring ‘09/ POR508/ Instructor: Joao Valentino Alfredo
Para mim Português pronúncia de algumas palavras é confusa. É importante que ouvir outras gente, como eles falam, mas você precisa fazer isso muitas vezes para aprender.
Comment by Ilya — April 29, 2009 @ 9:14 am
Por508/Valentino
I really liked this Brazilpod. I really did not know that ele sounded like elii. Since I’m a native Spanish speaker I just say ele with the eh sound at the end. I was always confused whether or not the e sounded like ehh or ii but now after listening to it on this pod it is now easier to remember. Even though I listen to a native speaker it is hard to differ the sound because they talk fast and fluently.
Comment by Wildren Andrade — April 29, 2009 @ 9:33 am
UT-Austin/Spring ‘09/Instructor: Valentino/POR508
Eu gosto de esta lección porque para mim, é dificil a lembrar q pronuncia o “e” nas palavras como “universidade” como “i.”
Comment by Maya — April 29, 2009 @ 11:44 am
Hi guys! I just want to say THANK YOU!!! for this website. I’m from Guadalajara, Jalisco (Mexico) now living in Los Angeles, California (USA). I became interested in learning Portuguese because I play Capoeira. I noticed in class how similar Portuguese and Spanish are and thought that it would be a fairly easy language to learn. I started visiting various sites and listening to different podcast to try to learn the language on my own. But what I found myself doing was translating from Protuguese, to English, to Spanish (I think in Spanish the majority of the time). Plus, I was also having dificulty with the pronunciations because I tend to want to read Portuguese just like I would Spanish. Anyhow, all of us in cap. class started an online group discussion and one of the capoeirstas posted this link. I figured what the heck, it wouldn’t hurt to check it out. And its perfect! I love the fact that you have two people from different parts of Brazil. This really helps to get an idea of the difference in accents from various regions. Once again, THANK YOU! and keep up the good work!
Comment by Laura Romero — May 22, 2009 @ 7:59 pm
Hi Laura,
Thanks for the feedback. Ironically, I’m in Salvador, Bahia this very minute and just got back from my capoeira lesson too! Boa sorte, btw, here’s the URL to my Brazilpod site, that should give you a link to more of our materials: http://tltc.la.utexas.edu/brazilpod/
Comment by orkelm — May 22, 2009 @ 9:02 pm
My name is Frank Strong and I am taking Joao Valentino Alfredo’s Portuguese class to help fulfill language requirements for my Comparative Literature PhD. He recommended this site as an extension of our class, and I have to say I am very pleased and impressed. As a Spanish speaker, I’ve looked at Portuguese texts in a few of my classes, but I’ve had no idea how to pronounce any of the words on the page. I’m looking forward to working through your pronunciation section, and I know that the grammar podcasts will be helpful as well. Thanks for putting this together!
Comment by Franklin Strong — June 8, 2009 @ 10:31 am
Hi Professor Kelm,
I am a student in Valentino’s POR 406 course this summer. As part of our additional exercises for the FLAS fellowship, a few of us will be supplementing our course study with the materials on Ta Falado. Valentino has asked us to post something in response to each of the pronunciation and grammar lessons, so please be aware that I will be in touch via this discussion board.
I just completed the first pronunciation and grammar podcasts — both of which I found very helpful. It is especially helpful to listen to the dialogues while reading along with the written transcripts.
I’ll be in touch soon!
Obrigada,
Mary Slosar
Comment by Mary — June 8, 2009 @ 10:31 am
Professor Kelm,
My name is Carlos Barrera. I was awarded a FLAS scholarship and I am taking POR 406 with the instructor Joao Valentino. I will be doing the Ta Falado pronunciation and grammar lessons for the extra work that the FLAS recipients are required to do. I will be posting comments or questions on each lesson I’ll do.
I must say that I find this material very interesting and helpful. I was looking online for Portuguese lessons for Spanish speakers (I am a native Spanish speaker from Colombia), but this is making it a lot easier. I am very pleased to find this great help within the university.
Thanks,
Carlos Barrera
Comment by Carlos Barrera — June 8, 2009 @ 10:35 am
Franklin, Mary, Carlos, welcome to 406. Always nice to have FLAS students with us (we’re always looking for extra projects and hours for them. I’m here in Salvador right now and we’re giving our FLAS students extra assignments here too.
So, here’s a little “Bahia” homework for you. Do you put acarajé in the vatapá or vatapá in the acarajé?
Orlando
Comment by orkelm — June 8, 2009 @ 5:06 pm