The nasal vowels õ, ẽ, and õ combine with the vowel sounds i and u to form four nasal diphthongs:
(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.
Spanish | Portuguese (spelling) |
---|---|
pasan | passam |
pasaban | passavam |
pasarán | passarão |
pasarían | passariam |
pasaron | passaram |
van | vão |
dan | dão |
digan | digam |
reciban | recebam |
están | estão |
son | são |
Spanish | Portuguese |
---|---|
limón | limão |
melón | melão |
montón | montão |
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