A1 (Beginner)Lesson 1: Gender, Number & Articles
The Brazilian Portuguese alphabet consists of 26 letters since 2009, when K, W, and Y were officially added, with unique pronunciations that often surprise English speakers and special letter combinations that create distinctly Portuguese sounds.
26 letters total (A-Z)
K, W, Y added in 2009
Vowels: A, E, I, O, U (always pronounced)
Special combos: CH, LH, NH, RR, SS
Ç (cedilha) = soft C sound
Letter names differ from English
No silent letters like English
Consistent pronunciation rules
Knowing the alphabet is your key to Brazilian life! From spelling your name at the pharmacy ("Meu nome é John, J-O-H-N") to understanding addresses, WiFi passwords, and phone numbers given over the phone. Brazilians constantly spell things out, especially foreign names. Plus, many Portuguese sounds hide in familiar letters – "R" sounds like "H", "E" sounds like "eh" or "ee". Master the alphabet to stop confusion at reception desks, call centers, and anywhere your name doesn't sound Portuguese!
letter name + common sound(s) + position rules
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| Letter | Name | IPA | Sound Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | á | /a/ | ah (father) |
| B | bê | /be/ | beh |
| C | cê | /se/ | seh |
| D | dê | /de/ | deh |
| E | é | /ɛ/ | eh |
| F | éfi | /ˈɛfi/ | EH-fee |
"Meu nome é Ana. A-N-A." (My name is Ana. A-N-A.)
"João. J-O-Ã-O. J de José, O, A com til, O." (João. J-O-Ã-O. J as in José, O, A with a tilde, O.)
"É Smith. S-M-I-T-H. S de sapo..." (It's Smith. S-M-I-T-H. S as in sapo.)
"Com dois S. C-A-S-S-I-O." (With two S's. C-A-S-S-I-O.)
CPF [se-pe-ˈɛfi] (tax ID)
RG [ˈɛʁi-ˈʒe] (ID card)
CEP [se-e-ˈpe] (zip code)
USP [u-ˈɛsi-ˈpe] (University of São Paulo)
Never pronounced: hotel[o-TEW], homem[OH-mem]
Except in CH, LH, NH
But spelled out: "agá"
Brazilian Portuguese officially had only 23 letters between 1943 and 2009. The 1943 Formulário Ortográfico dropped K, W and Y (replacing them with c, qu or v), and the 1990 Acordo Ortográfico — which Brazil fully implemented in 2009 — restored them so the alphabet matches the 26-letter ISO Latin standard. So the "new" letters are really returning letters.
Sources: 1943 Portuguese Orthographic Form (Wikipedia), 1990 Orthographic Agreement (Wikipedia).
The word cedilha comes from the Spanish diminutive cedilla ("little ceda/zeta"). In medieval Visigothic script, a tailed variant of the letter z (ꝣ) was written beside a c to mark a /ts/ sound; over time that little z fused into the curly tail we now write as ç. Portuguese kept the cedilha; Spanish officially dropped it in 1726.
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