Pronunciation: ta – te – ti – to – tu / da – de – di – do – du

1. Watch the video. Pronounce the sounds and words along. You will see some use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. It helps us understand the sounds of a language. Example: ‘te’ in estudante may sound like /tʃi/.

2. Rules 2 and 3 mentioned in the video have exceptions.

Exceptions for rule 2:

When there is an accent on te. Examples:

Até Listen = until

Comitê Listen = committee

Exceptions for rule 3:

Exceptions may be random, but these types of words are a tendency:

Recentemente Listen = recently

Frequentemente Listen = frequently

3. The cases with da – de – di – do – du are similar.

Like ta – to – tu, da – do – du are more straightforward:

(1) da:

Listen

obrigada = thank you

dar = to give

nacionalidade = nationality

(2) do:

Listen

Estados Unidos = United States

sábado = Saturday

domingo = Sunday

(3) du:

Listen

duvidar = to doubt

durante = during

adulto = adult

4. And just like te – ti, de – di will commonly have a particular sound in Brazil.

(1) de:

de = /dʒi/ Listen

de = /dɨ/ Listen

cidade = city

eu gosto de ler = I like to read

nacionalidade = nationality

(2) di:

di = /dʒi/ Listen

di = /di/ Listen

médico = doctor

diferente = different

diretor = director

(3) On the cases above de sounds the same as di.

de = /dʒi/ —— di = /dʒi/

When should you say /dʒi/, if you want to follow the common sound in Brazil?

• di is always /dʒi/.
• Usually de is /dʒi/ at the end of words. Same exception as te, when there is an accent. Example: dendê = palm oil (in Brazil).
• Usually de is /de/ before the end of words. There are random exceptions where de may be /dʒi/ before the end of words, e.g. comi demais = I ate too much.

5. Just like for te and ti, de and di are /de/ and /di/ in some regions in Brazil.

Listen

cidade

médico