If the nasal vowels are the soul of Portuguese, the nasal diphthong ão is its signature. It is the sound in pão (bread), não (no), coração (heart), and the endless family of words ending in -ção. This page covers the three nasal diphthongs — ão, ãe, õe — and then delivers the insight that pays off enormously: the verb ending -am is pronounced exactly like ão, which means mastering this one nasal glide unlocks both a huge class of nouns and the entire third-person-plural verb system.
What a nasal diphthong is
A diphthong is two vowel sounds glided together in one syllable (English "how," "boy"). A nasal diphthong is the same thing with the air also flowing through the nose, so both the main vowel and the glide are nasalized. Portuguese has three:
| Spelling | IPA | Glide | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ão | [ɐ̃w̃] | nasal a → nasal w | pão (bread) |
| ãe | [ɐ̃j̃] | nasal a → nasal y | mãe (mother) |
| õe | [õj̃] | nasal o → nasal y | põe (puts) |
The little tilde over the [w̃] and [j̃] in the IPA matters: the glide itself is nasal, not just the first vowel. Your nose keeps buzzing all the way through.
ão [ɐ̃w̃] — the iconic one
This is the sound to drill first because it is everywhere. It starts as a nasal a [ɐ̃] and glides toward a nasal w [w̃] — roughly like saying "ow" (as in "cow") but with your nose engaged the whole time and your lips never quite closing.
pão [pɐ̃w̃]
bread
não [nɐ̃w̃]
no / not
mão [mɐ̃w̃]
hand
coração [koɾaˈsɐ̃w̃]
heart
The suffix -ção [sɐ̃w̃] is the Portuguese equivalent of English "-tion," and it is one of the most productive endings in the language: informação, educação, situação, nação. Every one of those English "-tion" words has a Portuguese cousin ending in this exact nasal glide. Recognizing that -tion → -ção [sɐ̃w̃] gives you hundreds of words instantly.
informação [ĩfoʁmaˈsɐ̃w̃]
information
não tenho mão para cozinhar
I have no knack for cooking (lit. 'no hand')
ãe [ɐ̃j̃] and õe [õj̃] — the y-glide pair
The other two nasal diphthongs glide toward a nasal y instead of a nasal w.
ãe [ɐ̃j̃] starts as nasal a and glides toward nasal y — like a nasalized "eye" pulled toward "ay":
mãe [mɐ̃j̃]
mother
pães [pɐ̃j̃s]
loaves of bread (plural of pão)
alemães [aleˈmɐ̃j̃s]
Germans (plural of alemão)
õe [õj̃] starts as nasal o and glides toward nasal y. You meet it mostly in the -ões plural and in forms of the verb pôr (to put) and its relatives:
põe [põj̃]
he/she puts (verb pôr)
lições [liˈsõj̃s]
lessons (plural of lição)
ele põe açúcar no café
he puts sugar in his coffee
The payoff: -am is pronounced [ɐ̃w̃], exactly like ão
Now the insight that makes this page worth the effort. The verb ending -am — the third-person-plural ending for -ar verbs and many others (eles falam, elas chegam, eles moram) — is pronounced [ɐ̃w̃], identical to ão. The spelling differs (one is a noun ending, the other a verb ending), but to the ear they are the same nasal glide.
falam [ˈfalɐ̃w̃]
they speak — ends in the same sound as 'pão'
moram [ˈmɔɾɐ̃w̃]
they live (reside)
eles compraram pão [ˈeles kõˈpɾaɾɐ̃w̃ pɐ̃w̃]
they bought bread — note 'compraram' and 'pão' share the nasal glide
This is why pão (the noun) and falam (the verb) rhyme perfectly. The difference is purely stress and spelling: in pão the glide is stressed (it's the whole word); in falam it is the unstressed final syllable. But the vowel-plus-glide quality is the same [ɐ̃w̃] in both. So the work you put into the nasal glide for nouns pays off across every third-person-plural verb form ending in -am — and that is a vast number of verbs in every tense that uses it.
Note the contrast with the future / stressed -ão verb ending: in eles falarão (they will speak), the -ão is stressed and spelled with the tilde, while in eles falam (they speak) the -am is unstressed and spelled with m. Same nasal glide, different stress and spelling — and a meaning difference (future vs present) that you hear mainly through where the stress lands.
Plurals of -ão words
A practical complication: nouns ending in -ão form their plurals in three different ways, and there is no fully reliable rule for which a given word takes. The three patterns:
| Singular | Plural | Pattern | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| lição | lições | -ão → -ões (most common) | lesson(s) |
| pão | pães | -ão → -ães | loaf / loaves |
| mão | mãos | -ão → -ãos | hand(s) |
uma lição / duas lições
one lesson / two lessons — the -ões plural (most words)
um pão / dois pães
one loaf / two loaves — the -ães plural
The -ões pattern is by far the most common, so it's the safe default guess, but pão → pães and mão → mãos are high-frequency exceptions you simply memorize. The full treatment, including which words take which plural, is in Plurals of Words Ending in -ão. The reason there's no clean rule is historical — these endings descend from three distinct Latin endings that all collapsed into -ão in the singular, but kept their separate plurals. There is no shortcut; it's a memorization task, and pretending otherwise would mislead you.
Regional note
The nasal diphthongs are stable across Brazilian accents — a carioca, a paulista, and a nordestino all produce pão as [pɐ̃w̃]. There's slight variation in how heavily the glide is nasalized and in the exact backness of the starting vowel, but nothing that changes the identity of the sound. This is one of the most uniform features of BR pronunciation, so you can trust it anywhere in the country.
Common Mistakes
❌ pão pronounced [pɐ̃w] with the n of English 'pawn'
Incorrect — there is no n; it's a nasal glide ending in nasal [w̃]
✅ pão [pɐ̃w̃]
bread — nasal a gliding to nasal w, no consonant
❌ não pronounced [naʊ] with no nasalization
Incorrect — dropping the nasality makes it sound like English 'now'
✅ não [nɐ̃w̃]
no — keep the nose buzzing through the whole glide
❌ falam pronounced [ˈfalam] with an audible m
Incorrect — -am is the nasal glide [ɐ̃w̃], not vowel + m
✅ falam [ˈfalɐ̃w̃]
they speak — sounds exactly like the ending of 'pão'
❌ mãe pronounced like ão [mɐ̃w̃]
Incorrect — ãe glides to nasal y [j̃], not nasal w
✅ mãe [mɐ̃j̃]
mother — nasal a gliding to nasal y
❌ lições pluralized as 'liçãos'
Incorrect — most -ão words take -ões in the plural
✅ lições [liˈsõj̃s]
lessons — -ão → -ões, the most common plural pattern
Key Takeaways
- BR has three nasal diphthongs: ão [ɐ̃w̃], ãe [ɐ̃j̃], õe [õj̃].
- ão is the iconic BR sound (pão, não, coração) and the productive suffix -ção (= English "-tion").
- The verb ending -am (eles falam) is pronounced identically to ão — one glide unlocks both nouns and the whole 3rd-person plural.
- Plurals of -ão nouns split three ways (-ões / -ães / -ãos); -ões is the default, but pão→pães and mão→mãos are memorized exceptions.
- The nasal diphthongs are uniform across Brazilian regions — trust them everywhere.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Nasal Vowels (ã, õ, ẽ, ĩ, ũ)A1 — Brazilian Portuguese's five nasal vowels — written with a tilde or as vowel + m/n — and why that m or n is usually not pronounced as a separate consonant.
- Oral Diphthongs (ai, ei, oi, ou, au, eu)A2 — How Brazilian Portuguese pronounces oral (non-nasal) diphthongs like ai, ei, oi, au, eu, ou — and why spoken BR often simplifies them.
- Plural of -ÃO Ending WordsA2 — The three plural patterns for nouns ending in -ão — the default -ões plus the memorized sets -ães and -ãos — and why -ões is the safe bet when you're unsure.
- BR Portuguese Pronunciation: OverviewA1 — A map of Brazilian Portuguese sounds — seven oral vowels, nasal vowels, the consonant inventory, and the signature features that make BR sound the way it does.
- BR Vowel SystemA1 — Brazilian Portuguese has seven oral vowels, not five — because e and o each split into an open and a closed version, a contrast English and Spanish lack.