Your accent is not what lowers the score
Speaking tests measure how easily a listener understands you, not how native you sound. A clear Portuguese accent is compatible with the top bands.
The extra vowel after word endings
Portuguese words rarely end on a hard consonant. When English does, a small i tends to appear after it to finish the syllable.
- hot → hot-chi
- big → big-ee
- club → clu-bee
- Facebook → Face-boo-kee
One syllable becomes two, and the word stops sounding like the word. This is the most common reason Portuguese speakers are asked to repeat themselves in English.
Ti and di becoming chi and ji
In most Brazilian Portuguese, t and d soften before an i sound — tia is said chia, dia is said jia. That habit follows into English, and it changes words.
- teacher → cheacher
- day is fine, but did → jid
- party → par-chy
- Tuesday → Chooseday
English keeps t as t and d as d in every position. Practise holding the hard stop: tea, team, ticket, did, dinner.
The sound contrasts worth fixing
| Sound | Why it's hard | What a listener may hear |
|---|---|---|
| /h/ | Portuguese h is silent, and Brazilian r is often a /h/ sound — so the two swap. | house → ouse, or red → hed |
| /θ/ and /ð/ (th) | Not in Portuguese; become /t/, /f/, /d/ or /s/. | think → tink / fink, they → dey |
| final /-ed/ | The ending gets a vowel, or is dropped. | worked → work-ed (two syllables) or work |
| /ɪ/ vs /i:/ | Portuguese i covers both. | ship / sheep, bit / beat |
| /æ/ | No close equivalent. | bad / bed, cat / cut |
| nasal vowels | Portuguese nasalises vowels before m/n; English does not. | sun, time pick up a nasal colour that blurs the vowel |
The -ed row is worth extra care. It has three English pronunciations — /t/ in worked, /d/ in played, and a full extra syllable only in wanted and needed. Adding a syllable everywhere, or dropping it entirely, is heard as a grammar mistake as well as a pronunciation one, so it lowers two scores.
Word stress and vowel reduction
English leans hard on one syllable per word and throws away the vowels in the others. Brazilian Portuguese keeps unstressed vowels much fuller, so English can come out evenly weighted, which makes the stressed syllable harder for a listener to find.
- comfortable is three beats in real speech, not four.
- Content words are stressed; a, the, of, to, is are said fast and quietly with a reduced vowel.
How to practise
- Record yourself. As you speak you hear what you meant to say, not what came out.
- Start with word endings. Read a paragraph aloud and stop dead on every final consonant — no vowel after it.
- Then the ti/di habit. Say teacher, Tuesday, did, dinner with a hard t and d.
- Practise in sentences. A sound you can produce alone but lose in a sentence is not learned yet.
Aflo scores your speech sound by sound and shows you which sounds were hardest to catch.
For the test, and for real life
For the exam: stop your words on the consonant, keep t and d hard, and get the -ed ending right. That is most of the score.
Outside the exam you may want to sound more American or more British, for work or for yourself. That is a reasonable goal and a separate one from scoring well. Clarity is what the test pays for; the accent can stay.
Frequently asked questions
Will my Portuguese accent lower my speaking score?
No. These tests score intelligibility rather than native-likeness, and Aflo's pronunciation scoring has a floor so that differences which are only accent stop affecting the score. What lowers a score is the extra vowel after word endings, and the few contrasts that change words.
Why do I say 'hot-chi' instead of 'hot'?
Portuguese words rarely end on a hard consonant, so a small i is added to finish the syllable. One syllable becomes two and the word stops sounding like itself. Practise closing your mouth on the final consonant with nothing after it — it will feel abrupt, which is correct.
How should I pronounce the -ed ending?
It has three forms and only one of them is an extra syllable. It is /t/ in worked, /d/ in played, and a full syllable only after t or d — wanted, needed. Adding a syllable everywhere, or dropping the ending, is heard as a grammar mistake as well, so it lowers two scores.
Is my 'teacher' sounding like 'cheacher' a real problem?
It can be. In most Brazilian Portuguese, t and d soften before an i sound, so teacher becomes cheacher and did becomes jid. English keeps t and d hard in every position, so the habit changes words and is worth fixing.