Pronunciation: lh – nh

1. You may not have these sounds in your mother tongue. Their symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet might help you:

Lh = /ʎ/

Nh = /ɲ/

Languages such as Spanish and Italian do have these sounds. We can’t use English words to exemplify them, but a good approximation is the following:

Lh: ‘lh’ in silhouette.

Nh: ‘ny’ in canyon.

The above is good enough if you find these sounds hard initially.

2. Let’s hear and repeat some examples. Note that they always combine with vowels.

(1) Lh: Listen

Olhar = to look.

Mulher = woman.

Detalhista = detail-oriented.

Filho = son.

Silhueta = silhouette.

(2) Nh: Listen

Caminhar = to walk.

Dinheiro = money.

Companhia = company.

Espanhol = Spanish.

Nenhum = none / no one.