Português para Estrangeiros: Os diferentes sons da consoante -C- / Portuguese for foreigner: The different sounds of consonant -C-

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In the portuguese language some consonat’s has more than one sound wich makes much more harder for a foreign student to understand portuguese.

Let’s see the fonetic case of -C-.

-C- has two sounds: : [s] and [k].

It has sound [s] when its next to the vowels -e- & -i-. Example:

 C + e = [se] —–» cebola [sebola]   – Onion                       

 C + i = [si] —–» cinzento [sinzento] – Grey

It has sound [k] when its next to the vowels -a-, -o- & -u-. Example:

C + a = [ka] —–» casa [kasa] – House / Home

C + o = [ko] —–» colar [kolar] – Necklace

C + u = [koo] —–» cultura [kooltoora] – Culture

To obtain the natural sound of -C- with the group of vowels -a-,-o-,-u- i tis necessary to add the cedilha, a graphic sign, under the consonant: Ç

[Ç] = [S]

Ç + a = [sa] —–» Açafrão [asafrão] – Saffron

Ç + o = [so] —–» Açores [asores] – Azores

Ç + u = [soo] —–» Açucar [asoocar] – Sugar