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Very difficult to understand the portuguese speaker I agree with a post I saw it sounds worse than google translate
Google translate has very good voices for the major languages. I say if you already know what the words are, type them into Google Translate to listen to them, it's a better pronunciation.
Yes, but Google is too perfect (except in French), too standardized sometimes, and people are not perfect when they talk, I prefer Forvo, because they have several samples with several regional differences and way to pronounce, some of them are the same than on Duo, and some of them are very different: Ex: http://pt.forvo.com/word/ele/#pt
I personally think the google translate voices are very good for Portuguese. Not impressed by the robot in this question though.
Its impossible to hear the difference between "ela" end "ele", even when listening to the slow voice..
I can notice the difference without problems, but not when speaking it fast
I agree with everyone. The sound of the last two sentences has been really hard to understand.
agreed, it sounds worse than google translate ;( she skips some pauses making text even more difficult to understand, even in slow mode
anyone else think that " pão " sounds like " pallom " (not that's actually a word....)
No. For me sound like it is. My native language is Spanish, so I have a base; both languages are very close, but the Portuguese pronunciation is difficult. I want to learn this particular language because sounds very "melodic" to me, since I love Brazilian music.
pao sounded like "pom" to me. Really difficult to understand some words - especially for a beginner. I am wondering if the Owl could have a listen to some of the spoken texts and perhaps revise and correct the pronunciation where necessary! The program is great - but some of the pronunciation could be a bit clearer. It is discouraging to fail a question because you can't properly hear what is being said.
It's not "pom", it's with a nasalised "a" (pronounced though the nose", a bit close of "om", rather "ang", without the "g". I think Duo lessons are made to be take several times. If you do the lesson 2 or 3 times (sometimes more), you know what they're talking about, and you even learn passively the pronounciation.
I'm wondering who is there to give English translations- bread is never used as 'a bread' (for if it were, you would be insinuating that it is a whole LOAF someone was eating) one either says, a PIECE of bread, or SOME bread. When the correct response came up, ' a bread' may be the EXACT equivalent, but it's not the NORMATIVE one!
I don't get it, as you study also French, when you have in French "Je mange du pain" = the translation is not "I eat bread"?
The more I practice; the more I understand. The pronunciation, is still very hard when I tried to repeat it.
ela = eh - la / ele = e - lee (ela = 1st E has an open sound. ele= first E has a closed sound.)
Sometimes "ele" is prononuced "ayll" or "eell"? It's what I hear from that: http://www.forvo.com/word/ele/#pt Please, Portuguese speakers, comment.
I too have had problems understanding the voice because it goes so fast! So I tried changing the speech rate on my tablet (android)! Go to Settings➡Accessibility➡Text to speech output➡Speech rate. From there you can change the speed of the automated voice to a slower/faster rate. Its not perfect, but it seems to help! (Or it SEEMS to help me anyway, lol! XD ) Tchau!
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Do the accent marks give different sounds? I can't hear the difference between them o vs. ó ; ã vs â ; In fact, once I spelled maçã as maçâ and it marked it correct - no problems.
:)good for you it was correct. But the accents are there exaclty for that! To teach you how to pronounce the words correctly and then they make reading easier. But we dont have â in portuguese, but á, ã, and à. À doesnt change the sound, just because of the grammar rules, á most of time is showing this is the stressed syllable, and ã has a different sound, none to match in english, but slightly similiar to the first "a" in ago, afraid. But accents are really important. They mean so much in portuguese, like é, ê, á, ã, à, ó, ô, ú. There is no longer ü in portuguese. I think this change made it more difficult to know when we have to read the letter u or not. Just as an example on this sentence on maçã. If you read normally, like there was no accent, you'd read maça /mássa/, and "massa" in portuguese is dough, totally different.
thanks a lot ;]] .. and one more question : what`s the difference between "eu" and "eustou"
so fun to listen to when you make it sound fast. all I heard was "ele comejbhefgchhjckfjhfcvf maca"
