Portuguese Phrases For Dummies
Chapter One
Say It How? Speaking
Portuguese
In This Chapter
* Recognizing what English and Portuguese have
in common
* Spell it out: Saying the alphabet
* Looking at vowels and consonants: Basic
Portuguese sounds
Believe it or not, the Portuguese language comes
in different versions. Pronunciation of Brazilian
Portuguese and Portuguese from Portugal, say, is
totally different. Some Brazilian tourists in Portugal
report that they don't understand a word! I think it's a
little more of a stretch than the differences between
American and British English, just to give you an idea.
But if a group of people from Texas, South Africa, and
Scotland got together, they'd probably scratch their
heads when trying to understand each other, too!
Written Portuguese, on the other hand, is very standard,
especially when it's in a newspaper or some
formal publication that doesn't use slang. A Brazilian
can understand a Portuguese newspaper or read the
works of Portugal's Nobel ... read full excerpt from Portuguese Phrases For Dummies ebook
