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The word maçã ends in a nasal vowel; that's probably easier to pick up for speakers of other languages can employ these vowels (like French or Polish), but you'll get there eventually.
You can start by reading Danmoller's propedeutic experiment with nasal vowels for beginners here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8494087
The difference between maçã and massa is mostly in where you place the emphasis. In maçã, it is on the ã. In massa, it is on the first a.
I like the way she speaks - its no use only being able to understand the language when people speak it s-l-o-w-l-y and carefully - welcome to real world speaking! The main recording can be challenging but is far from indecipherable, and I find the slowed down version pretty clear.
Yes I agree!! That's what I'm trying to say. When you go to Brazil, they are not going to be speaking slow, I'm around Brazilian every week, all week, they speak fast, she sounds just like them, that's how you have to learn, getting used to the sound and melody of the language
Hhmn I don't agree actually lol I could about that she can pronounce the e and um way clearer but I am around a lot of Brazilians and her accent is just like them
exactly. the only problem I see with the recordings is that it's a bit fuzzy and a bit fast, but that is how most Brazilians speak. Want to learn the language? Get used to listening to fast and joined speaking.
This woman speaks so horrible! She does not separate her um and e good enough for me to hear and she sounds like a robot. Please improve!
I agree with everyone! The speaker does a poor job pronouncing the words whether you play them slow or normal!
Okay, so I am not sure if I have this right but, e without a macron is and. E with a macron is " is". Is that right??
So it tells me I was wrong because the correct translation is. "I have got a tomato..." I wrote it how it is here on the disscusion. Got isnt even a real word. Also how is "have got" proper english anyways?
Is it normal in tenho to have it sound more like tenhooooooo? Cuz that's basically what the recording sounds like, so I'm wondering if that's actually how you pronounce it...
That overlong oo sound you're hearing is actually the result of saying "tenho um" really fast (the "u" is actually a nasal vowel, but no one can expect you to catch them, much less with this robotic voice).
A native speaker would probably stop for a little bit between the two, but speaking fast does make pronunciation slightly more chaotic. That said, you should probably check these recordings of actual speakers to get a gist of how these words should be spoken:
Make sure you read the information in brackets to know whether the person speaking is from Portugal or Brazil.
Thanks, this clears a lot up. Didn't even realize I lost the "um" in the recording. And the links help a lot :)
I heard the nasal sound for macã but I thought I must have heard wrong because who has a tomato and an apple?? Its my fault though because I always get sentences like 'eu falo ao chão'
