Of
course, this is my own analogy, but it seems to strike a chord with the
unschoolers in my program. Even those who already speak Portuguese have had
lightbulb moments after hearing about my “queen” analogy.
I’m
actually talking about stressed syllables. If this is a new concept, try saying
“comfortável” in a robotic way to figure out the number of syllables. Hopefully
you get to four: com-for-tá-vel. Now, instead of me telling you which of these
components is going to be stressed more (I’d rather avoid the word “stress” in
my approach…), I talk about the queen. Think of an imposing, impossible-to-miss
female figure behind “tá”. The accent, quite often dismissed as an annoying
detail of the language, is, in fact, a friend. It’s there to help you. Most
words in Portuguese ending with an L will have the queen hiding behind it.
Since this is an exception, we signal it with a graphic accent. Don’t ignore
them, is my friendly advice.
When we
combine words, the queen is present too. Look: centro de saúde, /setru de
saUHde/ may well become /setd saUHd/. If the queen is hiding behind cen- and
saú- and an “e” at the end of a word gets swallowed up, why bother pronouncing
anything else in between?
The
queen rules in Portuguese, não é?
If you
have enjoyed this quick lesson and would like to learn more Portuguese outside
of the box, then please contact Catarina from The Language Unschool - catarina@thelanguageunschool.com