We realize Portuguese is not a first choice as a second language, and nobody expects you to become a pro. Learning to read the words may be a useful skill, though. It will surely come handy when you have to say the name of a street, or some place you are going to.

The only letter in the Portuguese alphabet you may not be familiar with is the "ç", a consonant that always sounds like an s. The sound of the "r" is also a little tricky. It usually sounds pretty much like the h in loch, or the German Nacht. When surrounded by vowels it sounds like the Italian prego, or Corleone, thus Rio (HEEoo), and Carioca (ca-ree-O-ca). The h has a mute sound, unless combined with a c, l or n, as in chato (SHA-too), alho (A-lyoo), and punho (POO-nyo). The s may sound like an s in sábado (SA-ba-doo), a z in asa (A-za), or an sh before some consonants, or at the end of words so it's gatos (GA-toosh), and afasta (a-FASH-ta).

Vowels may have an open or a closed sound, and sometimes there is an accent to indicate. The one that looks like a little hat means a closed sound, thus você (vou-SAY) and até (a-TE). The "~" lends a nasal sound to the a in maçã (ma-SUN). The ão combination is very common in words like chão (sh-AWn) and pão (PAWn). This is the maybe the hardest sound for the foreign speaker to pronounce. To practice, imagine you are repeating a mantra that goes AWn, AWn, AWn... Here are the key sounds: