Os sons da Língua portuguesa
The pronunciation of the Portuguese of Portugal

Bilabial, not aspirated.

For the vowel difference between porto and porta, see also Regular alternations, item Pronouns.

Allophones: although this is a single phoneme, its exact realisation depends on context. More details in note ¹⁹, item 1.

Always labiodental, as in most other languages. Not bilabial, as in Spanish, and it doesn’t coincide with /b/, as does written v in Spanish.

The sample vai o bem fugindo ^© shows the difference between labiodental /v/ (in "vai") and bilabial [B] (in "o bem").

Regional variant: In the north of Portugal, the letter v is pronounced in a way similar to b.

This is always a dental [t_d], not an alveolar [t]. Not aspirated.

In Brazil, many palatalise this phoneme before high front vowels, as in triste [triSt'i] ^© and gente [Ze~t'i] ^©. See note ²³, item ³.

This sound is always dental, not alveolar.

Allophones: although this is a single phoneme, its exact realisation depends on context. More details in note ¹⁹, item 2.

In Brazil, many palatalise this phoneme before high front vowels, as in grande [gr3~d'i] ^©. See note ²³, item ³.

I consider this sound as part of phoneme /s/, although in Portugal it nearly always sounds the same or practically the same as phoneme /S/ or /Z/.
See also z and /z/, and note ⁵, item ¹.

This final [S] often seems voiced, and so behaves the same as the corresponding [Z] allophone of phoneme /z/.

Same as above for written s in word-final position. In the first two examples, the [S] becomes [Z] due to assimilation with the voiced /b/ = [B] or /d/ = [D] that follows.

Where a final s meets an initial s, there is no assimilation: they both retain their own allophonic character (although some books deny this; and it may well be different in Brazil). This sample, das sendas ^©, is a very clear example of how these sounds meet. A similar situation, with final /z/ instead of s, is uma voz sem tom ^©.

About initial "es" before a consonant, see also note ²⁰.

In Portuguese, the l is always a bit velarised, i.e. the back of the tongue is raised somewhat, giving a dark colouring. It is similar to what happens in Dutch and British English in final and pre-consonantal positions, and in all positions in American and Scottish English. It’s also the same as in Russian before a back vowel.
In the Portuguese of Portugal, this velarisation is also more apparent in final positions and in the vicinity of non-front vowels, as in the words fatal ^©, and "mal" which sounds almost like "mau". But it also happens in initial position, even before a front vowel, as in the name of the capital city: Lisboa ^©, although the degree of velarisation varies, cf. Lisboa ^©. Also between central vowels like /1/, as in velejar ^©.

In Brazil, some palatalise this phoneme before high front vowels, as in gole [gOLi] ^©. See note ²³, item ³.

Note ³, item ².

See also the other r-like phoneme /R\/.
Minimal pairs are given here.

In Brazil, this /r/ often becomes uvular in VrC en VrF positions. For more details, see note ²³, item ⁶. This never happens in Portugal. In VrV position the sound is always lingual in Brazil too.

In Portugal a short [1] or [i] is sometimes added after the final r of an infinitive ending in -ar or -er, as in this sample: quem quer ^©.

In Brazil (Caipira) and Cabo-Verde on the other hand, this final r is often omitted altogether, turning written ar into á. Example: vortá (dialectal variant of voltar) ^©.

In Caipira (Brazil) a retroflex r is heard, see note ²³, item ¹⁰.
In Portugal, sounds occur in this position that may also be called somewhat retroflex, although it’s probably something else, which I find hard to describe phonetically. I think it is similar to the r often heard in Turkish. Examples:
porto ^©, corte as vagas ^©, tarde demais ^©, e tarde uma palavra ^©. It may be due to influence of the following very dental sound. Cf. r before th in English pronunciation styles in which the r is not mute in this position. But there the change is from an already retroflex r to a more dental approximant, while here it sounds as if the dental sound that follows makes the r retroflex.

In connection with phoneme /S/ see also phoneme /s/, allophone [S], and note ⁵, item ¹.

For ch, Portuguese has the same spelling rule as French, not the same as Spanish.

J is usually only written before a, o, or u, before e or i the letter g is used. But sometimes j is written before e or i: jeito, enjeitar.

In connection with phoneme /Z/ see also phoneme /z/, allophone [Z], and note ⁵, item ¹.

See /O/ and /o/ for the sound difference between "I look" (/OLu/) and "eye" (/oLu/), both written olho. See also note ⁷.

The combination lh plays same the role in the Portuguese spelling system as ll in Spanish, and gli in Italian. However, in Portuguese (in both Portugal and Brazil), it really denotes a palatal l sound, whereas in Spanish, this sound exists merely in theory and perhaps in history, the real sounds being [j], [d'], [d'Z] or [Z] (or even [z], Argentina), depending on region and personal preference. In modern spoken Spanish, written ll phonemically coincides with written y everywhere, whereas in Portuguese, /L/ is separate from /j/.

Allophones: although this is a single phoneme, its exact realisation depends on context. More details in note ¹⁹, item 3.

Note that u before a or o is sounded, as in the word guardar.

Same as above.

Note that the u is not sounded here, and serves only to indicate that the written g sounds as /g/, not as /Z/.

Note ³, item ².

See also the other r-like phoneme /r/.
Minimal pairs are given here.

This sound is written as a double rr, except where initial. In cases where it is not word-initial, it can be seen as starting a syllable of its own, which is sometimes indicated in spelling using a hyphen, as in mil-reis and ab-rogar. Cf. abrir and many similar words starting with abr, which have the "single" r sound.

For more details about this usually uvular, but sometimes lingual r, see note ⁶.

When an unstressed written e, which would normally be /1/, is followed by a vowel, it becomes /i/. Note that both sounds are phonetically close sounds (high tongue position), so there isn’t really that much change: the central sound is fronted a little more.
Confer the word "the" before a vowel in British English.

Whether a stressed written e sounds as /e/ or /E/ is not usually indicated by a circumflex accent, although it could be. The accent used to be used to distinguish different words that would otherwise look identical (see the two uses and sounds of emprego). But after various more or less officially accepted spelling reforms (1947, 1971, 1987, 1994) this is now abolished. The foreign learner will have to rely on memory and those few dictionaries that indicate the difference.

Some cases are left where the written accent avoids confusion in some short words, for example quê vs. que.

The accent is also used where it is required to indicate stress. The stress rules are described here.

There is some regularity regarding masculine vs. feminine adjectives, nouns vs. verbs, and verb conjugation. Details are given in note ⁷. See also /O/ vs. /o/

The phonetic quality of /e/ isn’t always too easy to identify. See note ⁸ for a discussion of this with more examples.

Like with the ê, the accent on the é is only used where it is required to indicate stress, and to distinguish some short words: e (and, /i/) vs. é (it is, /E/).
The stress rules are described here.

The open /E/ is sometimes also found in unstressed position: arrefeçar (to lower) /3R\1fEsar/, arrefecer (to cool) /3R\1fEser/, arrefecedor, arrefecimento, aquecer (to heat) /3kEcer/, aquecedor, aquecedouro, aquecimento, aquecível, esquecer (forget) /1skEser/ [SkEser] or [iSkEser], esquecido, esquecimento, frecharia (bundle of arrows), /frES3ri3/, freguês (client), freguesia (parish) /frEg1zi3/, república /R\Epublik3/, elite /Elit1/.
See also unstressed open /O/ and /a/.

The phonetic quality of /e/ isn’t always too easy to identify. See note ⁸ for a discussion of this with more examples.

This sounds a bit like the schwa we find in many other languages, like English, German, Dutch, Hebrew, French. But this Portuguese sound is very different, darker, which is because the tongue is much higher than for a normal schwa (where it is halfway between low and high). More on this phoneme in note ¹⁵.

This vowel is a central vowel, as is low /a/, but /3/ is higher, more in the direction of a schwa.
Because a low /a/ more or less automatically turns into a /3/ when it is unstressed, and before /n/, /m/ and /J/, these vowels may seem to be allophones of a single phonemes. But minimal pairs exist, viz. all first person plural present tense verb forms of the a-conjugation have /3/ (example: falamos ^©, whereas the same form in the past tense (perfeito) has /a/, for example: falámos ^©. The acute accent marks this difference in spelling.

See also note ¹⁴, the closing influence of nasal consonants.

See also the explanation about how two merging phonemes /3/ produce a single [a].

See also note ¹⁵, and note ²³, item ⁴.

In this sample of lágrimas the difference between the two sounds spelled "a" (/a/ and /3/) can be very clearly heard.

Before /l/ and /u/, this open and clear sound [a] turns into a much darker [A]: Examples are mau, mal, and fatal ^©. See also /au/.

The open /a/ is sometimes also found in unstressed position: padaria /pad3ri3/, ganhar ^© /gaJar/ ²⁴, Tavares /tavar1S/ (not */t3var1S/), Camões /kamo~i~S/ (not */k3mo~i~S/).
See also unstressed open /E/ and /O/.

See also unstressed o[CP][CÇT], where it is pronounced /O/, not /u/.

See also /ou/

Like with the ô, the accent on the ó is only used where it is required to indicate stress, and to distinguish some short words. An example of both: avó (grandmother) vs. avô (grandfather).
The stress rules are described here.

The open /O/ is sometimes also found in unstressed position: você /vOse/, normal, nocturna ^©, adoptar, aeroporto /3ErOportu/, autocarro, horizonte /Orizo~t1/ ^©, obrigada /Obrigad3/, obrigado /Obrigadu/, procuro ^©,
See also unstressed open /E/ and /a/.

An unstressed final a (pronounced /3/), when followed by an unstressed o (pronounced /u/, often of the definite article) tends to combine into something which goes in the direction of a single sound /O/. "Para o" is therefore sometimes written as the single syllable contraction "prò". Likewise "para a" can be written "prà".

See also the merging of two a’s.

In the standard accent (Lisboa/Coimbra), this is identical with /o/. The older diphthong is however preserved in the north of Portugal and Galicia.

Note that in the Portuguese spelling system, this combination 'ou' never has the [u] sound, which it has in French and Greek. Thus Couto and Douro are pronounced [kotu] and [doru], not [kuto] and [duro]. This is exactly the other way round as especially Dutch people who know some French, almost invariably think.