"I eat an apple."
Translation:Eu como uma maçã.
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Hello JoshBolland! Here is the trick!
A lot of us learn to memorize this (written phonetically for you):
KÁ - SSÉ - SSÍ - KÓ - KÚ
This is essential to understand "ç", so look at it again and say it out loud-- you'll understand this much better if you do! What the thing you hopefully just read out loud and kind of memorized does, is it shows you the natural state of the "c" sound. Here are words to show that:
Café -- Cerveja -- Cidade -- Cobra -- Cubo
As you might have noticed, without modifications, c+e
and c+i
have an SS sound, and the other ones have a K sound. So, In order to make the ones that have the K sound have an SS sound, we put a little sssnake at the bottom of the c. Because ce and ci already have the SS sound, you never use ç before an i or an e.... Never. Ever.
SO, an all-SS-sound row would look like this:
ÇÁ -- CÉ -- CÍ -- ÇO -- ÇU
Examples: Cabeça -- Acerola -- Macio -- Braço -- Açúcar
Cabeça without the second ç (cabeca) would be pronounced "kabayka". There is a similar rule for the use of G, and whether you should add the U after it or not. ( GÁ - XJE - XJI - GÓ - GÚ ), but that is too much for one post. =)
Important:
We don't use K much (we don't use Y and W much either).
Important:
A word will NEVER begin with ç. If it sounds like Çapato, it starts with an S.
I made the snake things up, although I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that when I was learning to write. I hope this helps!