FROM SPANISH TO PORTUGUESE

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, weak-stressed syllable of words like 'sofa', 'comma', 'Anna', 'abbot', 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.

Examples Table

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