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- Topic: Portuguese >
- "Ela lê um jornal."
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on the "slower" read through, it sounds a bit like "ele" instead of "ela" to me... maybe it's just me
so it seems like the 'm' of 'um' has fallen away entirely here? Is this standard? I have noticed that often when words end in 'm' and 'n', these consonants are often quite suppressed. The 'm' seems to come from farther back in the throat than English (where it's generate on the lips) - would this be correct?
You are correct, the 'm' sound comes from the throat, and you do it with your mouth closed. As for the consonant being suppressed, I don't think it's standard. In this case the "mmm" sound should be clearly heard, even if very shortly. As an European Portuguese speaker I could easily mistake the phrase for "Ela lê o jornal".
It's because the final "m" is there to nasalize the sound. On some audio of Forvo I use to train myself, I hear a slight "m", and for some I don't hear the "m", but only the nasalized sound. http://pt.forvo.com/word/homem/#pt