Is am pronounced in the same way as ão in regular present tense verbs conjugations of elles, ellas such as falam, precisam, ajudam, ficam?
Does the pronunciation of am ending differ in the simple past? (e.g. Eles/ Elas falaram, Eles, Elas Ajudaram, Elles, Ellas Ficaram, Elles Ellas precisaram etc.
@kareemdjerdjouri, yes, -ão and -am represent the same sound. But the -ão spelling applies to stressed syllables, while -am is seen in unstressed syllables. So the syllable itself will sound the same, but not the overall word. This is how we distinguish between cantaram (simple past) and cantarão (future).