Portuguese arrives with real advantages: it already keeps s, z, sh and zh apart, four sounds that trip up half the world. What English adds is the th pair, and a vowel system that makes more distinctions in the short range than Portuguese needs to.
The items below are the places where English draws a line Portuguese doesn't — each links to a head-to-head page with audio for both sides.
Portuguese has no θ, so think leans toward sink. Tongue tip between the teeth, air flowing, no voice.
Hear the pair side by side →The voiced th of this is not the d of dia — the tongue slides between the teeth instead of tapping behind them.
Hear the pair side by side →Portuguese i is one vowel; English ship and sheep insist on two. The short 'ih' is quicker and more relaxed than anything Portuguese asks of i.
Hear the pair side by side →Apple's vowel opens wider than Portuguese é — jaw down, tongue forward and low.
Hear the pair side by side →Book takes a short, loose u that Portuguese doesn't keep as a separate vowel; moon takes the long one you already have.
Hear the pair side by side →Portuguese nasalises vowels; English instead ends sing with a consonant made at the back of the mouth — no g released after it, and no plain n.
Hear the pair side by side →The vowel of bird exists nowhere in Portuguese: long, central, lips relaxed, and no r-flap after it in the British style — in American English the r colours the whole vowel.
Hear the pair side by side →Which of these are actually yours? That is the part no list can know.
Nunzio records you reading a sentence and scores every sound in it on your phone — nothing is uploaded — then names the one worth your next ten minutes. No list, no guessing: your recording. Nunzio — Accent Coach is coming to the App Store and Google Play.