When placed, however, before the letter h, it has a liquid sound, similar to the ni in the English word minion; and which those students who are acquainted with the sound of the gn Italian, as in the word ogni, with that of Spanish in the word niño, or the gn French in the word Espagne, will readily comprehend.

P. Ph.

These consonants are pronounced as in English.

Qu.

Qu before e and i is sounded like an English k thus quebrar, to break; quinta, a country-seat, are pronounced as if written ka-brár, kin-tah.

Qu before a has the sound that it would have in English: thus qual, which; quando, when, must be sounded kwahl, kwando.

R.

R and rr are pronounced as in English.

S.

S and ss have, for the most part, the same sound as in English.

Between two vowels the s becomes less sibilant, approaching to the sound of : thus, amoroso, loving; mesa, table, should be sounded as though written ah-mo-ró-zo, má-zah.

T.

T has the same sound as in English.

V.

V is pronounced as in English.

X.

The most frequent sound of x is that of sh English :

thus queixa, a complaint, should be sounded as if written ka-ée-shah.

After the vowel e it is sounded, with few exceptions, very nearly as in English, as in excellente, excellent; expresso, express.

Z.

Z has the soft sound which it possesses in English, except at the end of words, when it should be pronounced more like an s.

Diphthongs and Triphthongs.

The Portuguese diphthongs may be divided into three kinds; the first, which I will call the

stress of the voice is on the first vowel.

open, is where the Examples :

defendant.

my.
river.

pay,

The second kind of diphthong, which I will call close, is

where the second vowel is predominant. Examples :

The third kind of diphthong is nasal, and is usually

distinguished by this mark (), called til, placed for the most part over the first vowel. Examples:

The triphthongs are eia, éia, eão, and ião, which call for no particular remark.

*For other nasal sounds, the student is referred to the last paragraph under letter M.

CHAPTER II.

PUNCTUATION AND ACCENTUATION.

THE following are the names of the marks or stops used in Portuguese composition, and it may be remarked that the rules for their employment are the same as in English.

The accents are the agudo or acute ('), the circumflexo or grave, known in English as the circumflex (^), and the til (~), which, as previously mentioned, imparts a nasal sound to the vowel so distinguished, and may therefore be called the nasal accent. The two former are but little used.

PART THE SECOND.

ETYMOLOGY AND SYNTAX.

ETYMOLOGY is that part of Grammar which gives us the knowledge of the different sorts of words, their nature and variations.

Syntax teaches us the relations which words have towards each other in order to express a perfect sense.

In an elementary work of this kind it is convenient to club these divisions of grammar together, and whilst examining each of the parts of speech in turn, to lay down in as concise a manner as possible the rules which govern it in the sentence.