Brazilian Accent in English: 7 Sounds to Make Lighter

A Brazilian accent in English comes mostly from seven sounds: th, the American r, t and d before an i sound, extra vowels at the end of words, the short i in “ship”, the weak schwa vowel, and final m and n. Portuguese handles each of these differently, so the mouth reaches for the familiar version. Many other English sounds are already clear for Brazilian speakers. Working on these seven, one at a time, is the fastest way to a lighter accent.

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What a Brazilian accent in English really is

An accent is the trace your first language leaves on a new one. It is normal and it is part of who you are. Research by Munro and Derwing found that a strong accent does not necessarily make speech harder to understand. So the goal here is simple: make a handful of sounds lighter so your English takes less effort to follow.

Brazilians also start with real advantages. The Portuguese “rr” in “carro” or the r in “rato” is very close to the English h, so “house” and “happy” usually sound clear. The quick tap in “caro” is almost the same sound Americans use for the t in “water” and “better”. And Portuguese already has nasal vowels, open and closed e and o, and the sh and zh sounds in “chá” and “já”.

Here is a quick map of the seven sounds.

Sound	What often happens	Example
th	becomes t, d or f	“tank you”, “fink”, “dis”
American r	starts like a Brazilian h	“red” sounds like “head”
t and d before i	turn into ch and j	“tchicket”, “djifferent”
word endings	an extra i is added	“Facebooki”, “worked-i”
short i	becomes ee	“live” sounds like “leave”
schwa	full vowels in weak syllables	“ba-NA-NA”
final m and n	lips or tongue do not close	“team” sounds like “tee”

Consonants: th, r and t or d before i

Th

Portuguese has no th, so Brazilians usually swap in t or d (“tank you”, “dis”) or sometimes f (“fink”, “wif”). In one recording in the Speech Accent Archive at George Mason University, a speaker from Rio de Janeiro reads a set paragraph and says “with” with an f and “these” and “the” with a d. The fix: put the tongue tip lightly on the upper front teeth and let air flow. Our full th sound guide has word lists and pairs.

The American r

At the start of a word, many Brazilians use the same sound as in “Rio”, which English ears hear as h. “Red” can sound like “head”, “right” like “height”. For the American r /ɹ/, curl the tongue tip up and slightly back without touching anything, round your lips a little, and keep the sound smooth. If you are from the interior of São Paulo, Minas Gerais or Paraná and use the “r caipira” in “porta”, you already have a sound very close to the American r at the end of words like “car” and “four”.

T and d before i

In most of Brazil, t and d before an i sound become ch and j: “tia” sounds like “tchia”. In English that gives “tchicket” for “ticket”, “tcheam” for “team” and “djifferent” for “different”. Keep the tongue tip on the ridge behind your upper teeth and release it cleanly with a small puff of air, as in “top”. Practice: ticket, team, tip, teacher, different, dinner, deal, did.

Try it now: Say “top, tip, top, tip”. Keep the t in “tip” exactly like the t in “top”. If you hear “tchip”, slow down and release the tongue faster.

Endings: extra vowels, -ed and final m or n

The extra i at the end

Portuguese words rarely end in consonants like k, p, t, g or d, so Brazilians often add a soft i: “Facebooki”, “hip hopi”, “dogui”. The same Rio de Janeiro speaker in the archive adds a light vowel after “fresh” and “snack”. The fix is to end the word with the consonant and stop. Hold your mouth still for a moment after the last sound.

The same habit appears before s plus a consonant at the start of words: “istreet”, “ischool”, “ispeak”. Start with a long “ssss” and go straight into the next sound.

The -ed ending

The -ed in past tense verbs has three sounds, and only one of them adds a syllable:

Ending sound	After	Examples
/t/	voiceless sounds (p, k, f, s, sh, ch)	worked, liked, stopped, washed
/d/	voiced sounds and vowels	played, called, lived, opened
/ɪd/, an extra syllable	t or d	wanted, needed, started

“Worked” is one syllable. Saying “work-ed” or “worked-i” adds one or two extra.

Final m and n

In Portuguese, a final m in “bem” or “sim” makes the vowel nasal, but the lips never close. English needs the full consonant. For “team”, “time” and “same”, close your lips and hum for a moment. For “ten”, “sun” and “pen”, touch the tongue tip to the ridge behind your teeth. That is also how English keeps “team” and “teen” apart.

Vowels: short i and the schwa

Short i

Portuguese has one i-type vowel, so “ship” and “sheep”, “live” and “leave”, “fill” and “feel” can sound the same. The short i is shorter and more relaxed, with loose lips and the tongue a little lower. See our short i sound guide for pairs and drills.

The schwa and weak syllables

English squeezes unstressed vowels into a short, neutral schwa /ə/. “Banana” is “buh-NAN-uh” (/bəˈnæn.ə/), “about” is “uh-BOUT”, and “chocolate” has two syllables in American English: “CHOK-lit”. Brazilians often give every vowel its full sound, which makes the rhythm feel even. Find the stressed syllable, make it long and clear, and let the others shrink. Our guide to sentence stress shows how this works across whole sentences.

A four week practice plan

Pick one sound a week. Ten minutes a day is enough.

Week 1: th. Mouth shape, then “the”, “this”, “that”, “think”, “thank” in short phrases.

Week 2: endings. Read verbs in the past tense and stop on the last consonant. Record “I worked, I liked it, I stopped” and check for extra vowels.

Week 3: t and d before i, and the r. “Ticket”, “team”, “different”, “dinner”, then “red”, “right”, “really”, “rock”.

Week 4: vowels. Short i pairs on Monday and Tuesday, schwa words for the rest of the week.

After four weeks, record the same paragraph you recorded on day 1 and compare. For a broader view of the method, read our guide to accent reduction training.

Frequently asked questions

Can a Brazilian lose their accent in English?

Most adults keep some accent, and that is fine. What you can do is make it lighter, sound by sound, so it takes less effort to understand you. Focusing on the few sounds that change meaning, like th, short i and word endings, gives the clearest results.

Why do Brazilians add an “i” at the end of English words?

Portuguese syllables usually end in a vowel or in a small set of consonants like s, r, l or a nasal. When an English word ends in k, t, p, g or d, the mouth adds a vowel to make it feel like Portuguese. Stopping cleanly on the final consonant fixes it.

Is a Brazilian accent hard to understand in English?

Usually not. Research shows that a noticeable accent does not necessarily make speech hard to understand. The sounds in this article are the ones most likely to cause small mix-ups, which is why they are worth practicing first.

What is the hardest English sound for Brazilians?

It varies by person, but th, the American r and the short i in “ship” come up most often. The extra vowel at the end of words is the most frequent habit, and one of the quickest to improve.

Sources

• Munro and Derwing (1995), Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility, and Intelligibility in the Speech of Second Language Learners, Language Learning 45(1)
• Speech Accent Archive, George Mason University: Portuguese speaker 25 (Rio de Janeiro)
• Cambridge Dictionary: “chocolate” (US pronunciation /ˈtʃɑːk.lət/)