Pronunciation of your own name

Portuguese Questions Pronunciation
#1

When introducing yourself in Portugal, should you try to say your name the way it is pronounced in Portugal or as it is pronounced at home? And do all names that start with R use the gutteral sound ( like Rui ) ?

#2

@kyrapup50, I’d say that’s up for each individual to decide. My personal opinion is that you should generally introduce yourself using the original pronunciation of your name, rather than trying to proactively adapt it to the local flavor (even if people fail to pronounce it correctly).

Some names are common in multiple languages, though. In those cases, people might find it more reasonable to change their pronunciation according to the language they’re using. My own name, Joseph, is an example. For me, it’s extremely natural to pronounce it the French way if I’m speaking French, or the English way if I’m speaking English, and so on. But the name doesn’t exist with this spelling in Portuguese, so when speaking in Portuguese, I usually retain the originally intended pronunciation (French). Most people will pronounce it incorrectly anyway, and I don’t usually mind it, but don’t see why I should propagate the errors myself :slight_smile:

All names that start with R are pronounced with a double R sound. Whether this is guttural or rolled depends on the regional pronunciation. In typical Lisbon pronunciation (the usual one taught in Portuguese courses), the R would be guttural.

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#3

So after five weeks in Lissabon I noticed that I changed the way I pronounced my name to make it people easy. A shame. A big shame! IT IS MY NAME! And it should be pronounced in a dutch way! :grin: The same as my lovely hometown: Amsterdam. I started saying: Emsterdem. Wtf! It is Amsterdam. What that typical dutch A. :raising_hand_man:t3: (I’m kidding but in the meantime deadly serious.)

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#4

I’ve wondered about this for my name, Jerry Ellis. Specifically how a native might pronounce it from a written source and if the sounds as they are pronounced in American English are easy or hard for a native Portuguese speaker.

#5

@jerry.ellis45, someone that doesn’t speak English well or has a strong accent might pronounce Jerry with a hard R, and Ellis with a “shh” sound. Many people have a decent level of English in the country, especially in the regions with more foreign tourism, so in general it shouldn’t be a struggle to pronounce your name reasonably well :slight_smile: