My Speaking Score · L1 Pronunciation Guide

Portuguese → English: the sounds that cost you points

The English sounds and patterns Portuguese doesn't use — with mouth diagrams, minimal pairs, and drills. Tuned for Brazilian Portuguese speakers.

Why this matters for your TOEFL Speaking score

Portuguese rarely ends a word in a hard consonant, turns t and d into "ch" and "j" before an ee sound, melts a final L into a "w", and swallows final m/n into a nasal vowel. English keeps all of these crisp and separate. When your mouth fills the gap with the nearest Portuguese habit, words blur together and your Intelligibility construct drops. A handful of targeted fixes move the needle fast. (Most patterns below are strongest in Brazilian Portuguese; European speakers, see the vowel notes.)

No extra "ee" on final consonants

Portuguese rarely ends a word on a hard consonant, so a small "ee" sneaks out after it.

The Portuguese habit"dog" → "dogi", "club" → "clubi", "Facebook" → "Facebooki", "big" → "bigi". An extra vowel lands on the end.
The fixStop the word on the consonant. Close your mouth on the final sound and let no vowel escape after it. Freeze there.
dogi→dog
clubi→club
Facebooki→Facebook

Drill (30s): say the word and freeze on the last sound — dog—, club—, stop—, big—. No "ee" after.

dog stop on /g/ ✓ dogi added "ee" ✗
End on the consonant; drop the extra vowel.

Construct: Intelligibility + Fluency. Extra vowels add syllables and blur where one word ends and the next begins.

/t/ & /d/ — keep them, don't slide to "ch/j"

In Brazilian Portuguese, t and d before an "ee" sound become "ch" and "j".

The Portuguese habit"teen" → "cheen", "forty" → "forchy", "did" → "jid", "lady" → "layjy", "night" → "naitchy".
The fixTap the tongue tip behind the top teeth and release it cleanly — a pure t or d. No "ch/j" slide, even before "ee".
cheen → teenjid → didnaitchy → night

Drill (30s): clean stops before "ee" — tea, team, teen, deed, did, lady — recorded. Listen for any "ch/j".

ti → chi ✗ di → ji ✗ ti → ti · di → di ✓ clean tongue-tip stop, no slide
Release t and d cleanly — no "ch/j" glide.

Construct: Intelligibility. "cheen/teen" and "jeep/deep" are different words.

/θ/ & /ð/ — think, this

Portuguese has no "th"; it turns into t, d, f, or s.

The Portuguese habit"think" → "tink" or "fink", "three" → "tree", "this" → "dis", "mother" → "mudder".
The fixTongue tip lightly between the teeth, then push air. Voiceless for think; add throat voice for this.
tink → thinktree → threedis → this

Drill (20s): tongue between teeth — th-th-th, think, three, the, this, mother.

tongue tip between teeth
The tip peeks between the teeth, then air flows over it.

Construct: Intelligibility. "think/sink", "three/tree" change the word.

Final L — "Brazil", not "Braziw"

Brazilian Portuguese turns a final L into a "w".

The Portuguese habit"Brazil" → "Braziw", "full" → "fuw", "milk" → "miwk", "hotel" → "hotew", "people" → "peopo".
The fixFor a final L, lift the tongue tip to the ridge behind your top teeth and leave it there. If your lips round, you made a "w" instead — keep lips relaxed.
Braziw → Brazilfuw → fullmiwk → milk

Drill (30s): hold the L — feeel, fuuul, miL-k, hoteL. Tongue tip up; lips not rounded.

L = tongue tip UP ✓ touch the ridge, lips relaxed lips round = "w" ✗ "Braziw, fuw, miwk"
Tongue up makes L; rounded lips make a "w".

Construct: Intelligibility. A vocalized L hides the word ("fill" vs "few").

H vs R — "red", not "hed"

A word-initial "r" in Brazilian Portuguese sounds like English "h" — so the two get swapped.

The Portuguese habit"red" → "hed", "rice" → "hice", "really" → "heally". The English /r/ also picks up a throaty or tapped sound.
The fix — /r/: pull the tongue back and bunch it — no tap, no throat. It's almost a "w" made with the tongue.
/h/: just a soft breath — house, hello.
hed → redhice → riceheally → really

Drill (30s): glide the r — red, rice, right, around (no throat); breathe the h — house, hello, behind.

red → hed ✗ /r/ = bunched glide ✓ /h/ = soft breath ✓ keep them apart
English /r/ has no tap and no throat; /h/ is just air.

Construct: Intelligibility. "red/head", "rice/heist"-type swaps confuse the listener.

Finish the M and N

Portuguese turns a final m/n into a nasal vowel instead of a real consonant.

The Portuguese habit"time" → a nasal "tĩ", "man" → "mã", "in" → "ĩ", "down" → "dãw". The closing consonant disappears.
The fixActually close the consonant. For M, bring the lips together at the very end. For N, put the tongue tip up. Let the listener hear it.
tĩ → timemã → mandãw → down

Drill (20s): exaggerate the close — time-m, man-n, down-n, sing-ng — then relax it to normal.

man → mã ✗ nasal vowel, no consonant man — close the N ✓ M = lips together · N = tongue up
Land on the consonant, not just a nasal vowel.

Construct: Intelligibility. The final nasal carries meaning ("time" vs "tie", "down" vs "dow").

Vowels & the schwa

English has more vowels than Portuguese, plus a weak "uh" (schwa).

Keep these apart
sit /ɪ/ vs seat /iː/live /ɪ/ vs leave /iː/full /ʊ/ vs fool /uː/cat /æ/ vs cut /ʌ/
The Portuguese habitthe Portuguese "i" is tense, so the short, lax English /ɪ/ collapses into the long one: "ship/sheep", "bit/beat", "live/leave" all sound the same.

Drill: short and relaxed /ɪ/ — sit, ship, live, bit — vs long /iː/ — seat, sheep, leave, beat. Then reduce unstressed vowels to "uh": ə-BOUT, BA-na-nə.

Construct: Intelligibility. English rhythm leans on the short /ɪ/ and the weak schwa.

Your 10-minute daily drill

  1. Warm up (1 min): th-th-th / clean t-d (no "ch/j") / r-glide (no throat).
  2. Minimal pairs (3 min): think/tink and teen/cheen and Brazil/Braziw, 5× each, recorded.
  3. Your worst habit (3 min): usually the added "ee" on final consonants, or t/d → "ch/j".
  4. Sentences (2 min): real practice sentences — close every final consonant.
  5. Check (1 min): upload to My Speaking Score and watch Intelligibility rise.