FROM SPANISH TO PORTUGUESE

2. Nasal Diphthongs

The nasal vowels õ, ẽ, and õ combine with the vowel sounds i and u to form four nasal diphthongs:

• õi, as in mãe, cães, pães
• ẽi, (usually spelled em), as in vem, tem, bem, dizem
• õi, as in põe, canções, botões, funções
• õu, as in não, pão, falam, saíram

(A fifth diphthong, üi, appears only in the word muito.)

The õu diphthong is very useful. It corresponds to the Spanish verb endings -án, -an, and -on. It also corresponds to Spanish noun endings -ón and -ión. Observe the samples below. Additional practice is available in exercises 4, 5, and 6, Part IV.

a. Third person plural verb forms:

b. Nouns:

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