Spanish and Portuguese Vowels

Foreign Service Institute: From Spanish to Portuguese

In this section we will compare the sounds of Spanish with the sounds of Portuguese. We will illustrate our comments with cognates in order to help you transfer vocabulary items from Spanish into Portuguese.

Spanish Vowels with Counterparts in Portuguese

You will recall that Spanish has just five vowels, a, e, i, o and u. These same five familiar vowel sounds, pronounced essentially as you know them in Spanish, occur frequently in Portuguese, but they are interspersed with seven additional vowel sounds, new ones that do not exist in Spanish. The existence of these seven additional vowels and their several diphthongs means that you must now learn to operate within a more extensive vowel system. It also means that you will have to exercise considerable caution in transferring the five Spanish vowels, particularly in cognates. You cannot do so as freely as you would like, as you will discover on these pages.

In addition to accommodating yourself to the seven new vowels, you will also need to learn to handle some very common variations of the familiar a, e and o. These variations occur for the most part when these vowels occur at the ends of words and are unstressed. We discuss each of these in turn below.

1. Spanish /a/ vs. Portuguese /ə/

The Portuguese a has a special variant, not occurring in Spanish, which will probably cause you some problems during your early days of study. We will arbitrarily elect to write this variant for the moment like this: ə. It is similar to a common English vowel sound, the sort of lax, neutral 'uh'-type sound that you and all native-speakers of English say in the final, weakstressed syllable of words like 'sofa', 'comma', 'Anna', when you utter these words in a normal, unaffected way. In your early days of learning Spanish you had to break away from this comfortable English habit and force yourself not to use this sound in the final, weak-stressed syllable of Spanish words. You had to learn to say a, and not ə, in the last syllable of casa, toma, señoras, ganan, and many other words.

Now, in Portuguese, you will find that this sound does occur, and with great frequency, in final, weak-stressed syllables. For example, you will hear it in the last syllable of portuguese casa, toma, senhoras, which is precisely where you learned not to use it in the corresponding Spanish words. It will be in just such easily recognizable portuguese/Spanish cognate words as these, where the final unstressed vowel in Spanish is /a/, that you will need to be particularly careful to use the Portuguese /ə/. It requires a bit of undoing of a familiar and comfortable pattern. Below are a few cases in point.

Spanish	Portuguese
casa	casa
señoras	senhoras
para	para
días	dias
ahora	agora
nada	nada
cabeza	cabeça
toma	toma

Of course the ə occurs in the final, weak-stressed syllable of many non-cognate words as well. Here, too, you will have to resist the tendency to use a Spanish a.

fala
obrigada
fica
feira

lt is interesting to note that in European Portuguese and in the rapid speech of some Brazilians there is a definite tendency to pass over this sound very lightly, sometimes to the point of dropping it.

The a is also heard in stressed syllables when the following syllable begins with m, n or nh sound. In these cases the ə is slightly nasalized. Once again, interference from familiar, cognate Spanish words is likely to be a problem.

Spanish	Portuguese
vamos	vamos
cama	cama
baño	banho
gano	ganho
Ana	Ana

The differences between Spanish a and Portuguese ə may not seem very great, but it is on just such small differences as these - hundreds of them - that Spanish and Portuguese are distinguishable as two separate languages.

Merely as an indication of the considerable frequency with which you will need to perform this a to ə change, we have tabulated its presence below in some very basic, hence constantly recurring, grammatical features of the two languages.

Frequency check: Spanish a / Portuguese ə

The Spanish unstressed a sound marks many feminine nouns and their agreeing adjectives (casa bonita, etc.), the third person singular present tense of -ar verbs (manda, vuela, etc.), and the singular subjunctives of -er and -ir verbs (viva, sepa, etc.). In Portuguese, you will find ə in these positions.

	Spanish	Portuguese	English
Nouns	casa	casa	house
	señoras	senhoras	ma'am
	para	para	for
	días	dias	day

Adjectives	bonita	bonita	pretty
	cara	cara	dear

Verbs	toma	toma	takes
3rd person singular	manda	manda	sends
present -ar verbs	trabaja	trabalha	works

singular subjunctive	aprenda	aprenda	learn(s)
-er and -ir verbs	coma	coma	eat(s)

2. Spanish unstressed o and e / Portuguese unstressed u and i

Spanish very commonly ends a word with an unstressed o or an unstressed e sound (como, baño, sale, vive, etc.) Since you are accustomed to using these two sounds at the ends of words in Spanish you will find that you will want to use them in this position in Portuguese, too, especially if you are dealing with cognates. In very careful, overly precise speech a Portuguese speaker may occasionally end words with the unstressed o and e sounds of his own language, but in normal, everyday speech he will always use u and i sounds, respectively, instead. These two features of Portuguese speech will be among the first to strike your ears. The frequency check presented below will indicate how often you will be required to focus on them.

Frequency check: Spanish /o/ - Portuguese /u/

In Spanish the unstressed o sound marks many masculine nouns and their agreeing adjectives (carro viejo, etc.) as well as the first person singular, present tense of most verbs (tengo, llevo, etc.) In Portuguese, these functions are taken over by the unstressed u sound (which, nonetheless, is written o in standard spelling). Observe the change in the examples shown below, all cognates.

	Spanish	Portuguese	English
Nouns	carro	carro	car
	centro	centro	center
	estados	estados	states
	libros	livros	books

Adjectives	cuatro	quatro	four
	famoso	famoso	famous
	bonitos	bonitos	pretty
	caros	caros	dear

Verbs	tomo	tomo	I take
1st person singular	llevo	levo	I carry
present tense	tengo	tenho	I have
	vivo	vivo	I live

Frequency check: Spanish /e/ - Portuguese /i/

In Spanish, an unstressed e sound marks the 3rd person singular of most -er and -ir verbs (aprende, sale, etc.), and the singular subjunctive of most -ar verbs (mande, trabaje, etc.). It also occurs frequently as the last vowel in nouns and adjectives (hombre grande, billete verde), etc.

In Portuguese these functions are assumed by the unstressed i sound (which, nonetheless, is written e in standard spelling, just as it is in Spanish). Compare these sample cognates.

	Spanish	Portuguese
Verbs	aprende	aprende
3rd person singular	abre	abre
-er and -ir verbs	mueve	move
present tense	cabe	cabe

singular subjunctive	hable	fale
-ar verbs	mande	mande
	pase	passe

Adjectives	grande	grande
	verde	verde
	ese	esse

Nouns	base	base
	noche	noite
	tarde	tarde
	billete	bilhete

The shift from Spanish unstressed e to Portuguese unstressed i is evident elsewhere too. For example, many Portuguese speakers have the initial unstressed syllables is- and dis- where your Spanish experience would lead you to expect the unstressed es- and des-.

Spanish	Portuguese
esperar	esperar
estar	estar
esposo	esposo
escribir	escrever
descuido	descuido
desdén	desdém
destino	destino

Portuguese Vowels Not Occurring in Spanish

Portuguese has seven vowels that do not occur in Spanish. For examination purposes we can divide these new vowels into two groups: oral vowels and nasal vowels.

1. Oral Vowels

We will look at the new oral vowels first. There are two of them.

A. The oral vowel 'open' e

This vowel is somewhat similar to the vowel in the English words bet and set. To produce it, one must have a somewhat larger opening between the tongue and the roof of the mouth than one needs to produce the e. Perhaps for this reason it is sometimes referred to as the 'open' e, in contrast to the e, which in turn may be called 'closed'. Be careful, however, not to think of 'open' e as just a variation of the Portuguese e. It is another vowel altogether, as different from e as a is from o. Notice the difference the 'open' e makes in the following pairs of words.

with closed e		with open e
êste	this	este	east
sêlo	stamp	selo	I seal / stamp
gêlo	ice	gelo	I freeze
cêrro	hill	cerro	I close
sêde	thirst	sede	headquarters
sexta	sixth	sesta	nap / siesta

Inevitably some interference will arise out of the necessity of accommodating two vowel sounds in an area where you are used to dealing with only one. This will be a problem in the case of brand new, non-cognate words. It will be even more of a problem in the case of cognates. Many Spanish words with e (which we may consider closed) will show up in Portuguese with the open e. Among these are Spanish words ending in stressed -el.

Spanish	Portuguese
papel	papel
pincel	pincel
hotel	hotel

In most cases, though, you will find it difficult to predict whether you will find a closed e or an open e in the Portuguese word. Check these examples:

Spanish closed e	Portuguese closed e	Portuguese open e
pelo	pelo
mesa	mesa
pena	pena
pelar	pelar
tenaz	tenaz
menos	menos
mero		mero
sede		sede
bella		bela
fe		fé
ella		ela
es		é
cero		zero
flecha		flecha

Let us look at this open e in another environment. You remember that Spanish has a lot of words containing the diphthong ie. Most of these (a rough estimate would put the figure at 95 per cent) show up in Portuguese with the open vowel e. Although this change may be annoying to you because of the interference factor, you will find that it is a very useful device to keep in mind, simply because it is applicable to so many words. We are listing just a few of them here.

Spanish	Portuguese
siete	sete
ciego	cego
piedra	pedra
piel	pele
miel	mel
tierra	terra
pierde	perde
pie	pé
fiesta	festa
diez	dez

If Spanish ie is followed by n or m in the sarne syllable, as in siempre, the vowel in the Portuguese cognate word will most likely be the nasal vowel ẽ. It will not be the open e.

B. The oral vowel 'open' o

The other new oral vowel is 'open' o. Once again we can apply the term 'open' to refer to the fact that there is more space - more of an 'opening'- between tongue and roof of mouth for this vowel than for the closed o. The 'closed' o is very similar to the Spanish o.

The closed o and open o are quite different and quite separate vowels in Portuguese. Here are several pairs of words which will illustrate this.

with closed o		with open o
avô	grandfather	avó	grandmother
côro	chorus	coro	I blush
almôço	lunch	almoço	I eat lunch
gôsto	taste	gosto	I like
poço	well	posso	I can

Just as you will have some trouble learning the distribution of closed and open e, so you will also have trouble learning the distribution of closed and open o. When is it one and when is it the other? Again, the answer seems to be: Take each word as it comes along, and learn it. Of course, your well-established habit of saying a closed Spanish o will tempt you to carry this sound over into Portuguese too, particularly in cognates. In the case of some cognates, you will be right, as these examples show.

Spanish closed o	Portuguese closed o
gota	gôta
boca	bôca
mozo	môço
como	como
boba	boba
popular	popular
noticia	notícia

But in the case of many other cognates you will have to switch to the open O, as the following examples show.

Spanish closed o	Portuguese open o
nota	nota
moda	moda
norte	norte
obvio	óbvio
bota	bota

As you can see, there does not appear to be any pattern you can follow.

Spanish has a large number of words that contain the diphthong ue. Many, but not all, of these show up in Portuguese with the open o.

Spanish	Portuguese
fuerte	forte
luego	logo
cuerda	corda
puerta	porta
nueve	nove
rueda	roda
muerte	morte
escuela	escola
puede	pode
suelo	solo

Spanish puerto and hueso, however, show up as porto and osso, both containing the closed o. So you will have to be careful not to assume that every Spanish ue will turn out to be an open o in Portuguese. It is, nonetheless, a good rule of thumb. And, if the Spanish ue is followed by an m or n in the sarne syllable, as in cuenta, the Portuguese cognate will most likely have the nasal vowel õ, as in cõta.

For additional occurrences of both the open o and open e sounds see the sub-division on 'Irregular Verb Forms.'

2. Nasal Vowels

You know, of course, that Spanish has no such thing as a nasal vowel. Nor does English, for that matter. So the process of pronouncing a vowel 'through your nose', as the saying goes, may be new to you. Rest assured, though, that it is not a particularly difficult thing for most people to learn to do.

Portuguese has five nasal vowels. They are: ẽ ĩ õ ũ and ə̃

In standard spelling, nasal vowels are frequently signalled by the presence of an m or n after the vowel in the same syllable, as in vendo, sim, bom, ums, and banda. In addition, the tilde designates many õ and ə̃ sounds (the latter being written ã).

It is important to remember that these nasal vowels are not mere variations of their non-nasal, or oral, counterparts. They are completely different vowels, every bit as distinct from the non-nasals as a is from o and as i is from u.

The nasal vowels show up frequently in easily recognizable Spanish/Portuguese cognate words. In the Spanish version of these words, you first pronounce the vowel, then you pronounce an m or n sound. In Portuguese, however, you simply nasalize the vowel. That's all. You do not pronounce an m or an n. If you do, nobody will have any trouble understanding you, but your Portuguese will be more Spanish than you should want it to be. Be alert then to the changes you will have to make in such cognate items as the following:

Spanish a	Portuguese nasal ə̃
cuando	quando
cuanto	quanto
banco	banco
cantar	cantar
mandar	mandar
andando	andando
(and other -ndo forms of -ar verbs)

Spanish e	Portuguese nasal ẽ
senda	senda
vencer	vencer
mentir	mentir
vender	vender
aprendiendo	aprendendo
(and other -ndo forms of -er verbs)

Spanish i	Portuguese nasal ĩ
fin	fim
pintar	pintar
insulto	insulto
importante	importante
dirigiendo	dirigindo
(and other -ndo forms of -ir verbs)

Spanish o	Portuguese nasal õ
responder	responder
montaña	montanha
donde	onde
onza	onça
onda	onda

Spanish u	Portuguese nasal ũ
fundar	fundar
tumba	tumba
mundo	mundo