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Portuguese nasal vowels: how to hear them

Answer in brief

Portuguese nasal vowels carry resonance through the nose. Listen for them in whole words, because spelling alone does not tell you how each speaker sounds.

Examples show patterns, not a rule for every speaker.

By Jibber Jabber · Updated

An example

Compare pão (bread) and pau (stick). They differ in more than the written tilde: listen to each word in a recording and notice the nasal quality of pão.

What to notice

A tilde can mark nasality, as in mãe. A vowel before m or n can also be nasal, as in bom. Do not treat final m in bom as an English m; listen to several speakers before you copy the sound.

Try it

Find a short recording with a transcript. Listen once without looking, note which word you hear, then check the transcript. Repeat with a different voice; accents can differ.

We make Jibber Jabber. Its related guide offers more context. The app supports Portuguese videos with interactive captions and word lookup. Check whether a video fits your goal and level before you use it.

Sources for this entry

  1. Related Jibber Jabber guide Our related language or product guide.

Continue this reading path

  1. Why European Portuguese vowels can be hard to hear
  2. Brazilian Portuguese T and D before an I sound

Connected entries

Why European Portuguese vowels can be hard to hear → Brazilian Portuguese T and D before an I sound → How to use Portuguese subtitles for listening →

How the related sites connect

This guide is one of a coordinated collection of comprehensible input guides published by Jibber Jabber. They share one publisher and are not independent endorsements. See the related websites and the Jibber Jabber profile.

Cite this entry

Jibber Jabber. "Portuguese nasal vowels: how to hear them." Comprehensible Input Portuguese, updated 2026-11-09. https://comprehensibleinputportuguese.com/portuguese-nasal-vowels/