Customer Reviews

Say It in Portuguese (Brazilian) (Dover Language Guides Say It Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sadly, everyone using this book as a pronunciation guide will show themselves a "tourist" within about two syllables. The authors' pronunciations are closer to Spanish than they are to Portuguese. I lived in the Sao Paulo area for a year, and my wife and daughter are both native Brasilians (no spelling error; they spell it with an "s", not a "z"). The pronunciations used by these authors are akin to a deaf-mute person judging American Idol competition! For example, most of the time, the letters "r' and "rr"are pronounced like "h"! They are very seldom "trilled", as the authors claim. The words Rebecca and Marriot, are pronounced "Hey-BEK-kuh" and "MAH-he-yo". The word "desculpe" (I'm sorry) is a word they mispronounce AND misuse! The "d" is almost always "dj" blend. Thus, "desculpe" is pronounced "djes-COOL-puh". The correct phrase for "excuse me" (such as getting past someone blocking a door) is "Com licença", pron: "KONE leh-SEN-suh", NOT "desculpe" You will also hear this shortened to just "licença" Then there are the "t"s, which are almost always pronounced like "tch", as in "itch" Even "th" gets pronounced "tch". For example, Beth is pronounced "Betch". Portuguese and Spanish have many similarities, but they ARE DIFFERENT! If you want to practice PORTUGUESE, get a good English-Portuguese / Portuguese-English dictionary. The Collins-Gem dictionary is a good one; it served me well while I lived and worked there. It still serves me whenever I go back because my in-laws speak no English at all. Don't waste your money on this book. One important thing more: the word "obrigado" is spoken ONLY by males. Females will say "obrigada", with an "a" on the end, not an "o".

This Portuguese phrasebook is a little gem! It is filled with over 1100 phrases translated into Portuguese with their pronunciations included. Anything you could possibly ever need to say during your stay in Brazil can be found here, and you'll know exactly how to say it. Phrases are easy to find with their clear classifications, and the book is so compact you can take it anywhere. Recommended for people of all language abilities since it is so easy to use.

One thing you must be aware of before purchasing this is that it is a CONTINENTAL PORTUGUESE book. Hence, the pronunciation is completely different than that of Brasil. I speak both accents and it's basically like a completely different language. You'd be surprised, if you are not already familiar with the differences. Like, "e" is not pronunced at the ends of words, the "r"'s in the beginning of words are not pronounced as "h"'s but more like a throaty trill (not like spanish, a bit raspier). The vowels are pronounced more closed. Also, continental portuguese's grammar can be quite a bit trickier.

So, ignore all those comments about the pronunciation being incorrect. It's just simply different.

If you are looking for Brazilian pronunciations, don't look here.

A must have for any visit to Brazil. I travelled to southern Brazil in April. It was my first trip to a portuguese speaking nation. I thought my many years of spanish would get me through(Big mistake!!). This phrase book was with me all the time. It became as essential as my toothbrush. It really saved the day for me. It's also very compact in size and easy to carry on your person..

I am not quite sure how often Dover Say it ... series are updated, but obviously they aren't. Since this book is old fashion and does show its age between vocabulary, lack of technical and modern terms, and a pronunciation guide that makes it sound Spanish or Italian. I recommend the Lonely Planet Brazilian Portuguese book. At least it more slangy and more current. It is a lot more informative too.

This is great for the phonetics of the language.
It is about the size of a packet of cigarettes.
If you want a book for you pocket with phontics its for you..if you want details and grammar....its not !

Very small, both size and number of pages, so it fits in your pocket. It offers a very limited set of phrases, geared to the tourist seeking help with finding their way around. If you are looking to actually learn Portuguese, you may want to pass on this book. At $1.95 it would be a nice pocket phrase book for tourists to Brasil.

As the title says, it's not a dictionary, just a phrase book. However, the index at the back helps you find the words you need, so it can, in a pinch, serve as a basic dictionary. It's nice and small and easily fits in a pocket. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to friends.

this book is about the size of a deck of cards but not as thick. I looked at it for about 2 seconds and have not used it since.

Buy this book. It is really good; I managed to get a really good haircut on new years' eve 2009 using the phrases in there "just a trim please" and "not too much off the top", to give an idea of the breadth of phrases it covers for a traveler. The book was originally printed in 1962 or something like that, but there's a reason why they keep printing that one. For $5 it is totally worth it, and is tiny enough you can always find space for it. It got me through a week in Rio and made me some very good friends on the beach at new years.

This book got me from the bus station to Copacabana beach, to the airport, drinks at new years, rooms in hostels in Rio and Florinopolis for the night. Heck, I even rented a scooter for an afternoon using this thing. What more can you ask of a $5 companion that takes up no space in your already overstuffed backpack?

Yeah, the pronunciation is a little weird, but the key here is that all the phrases you absolutely need to know are in here, and is something you can slip in your pocket on the way to the beach and know you will have your bases covered if you get lost or hurt.