📍 A letra mais rara do alfabeto português - e a que mais confunde os estrangeiros quando tentam soletrar o seu nome ao telefone. 🎂 O Y tem uma história complicada em português. Veio do grego antigo - ípsilon significa literalmente "i simples" ou "i esguio." Durante séculos, o português usado o Y em palavras como syndicato e kiosque - mas a reforma ortográfica de 1940 expulsou-o oficialmente do alfabeto. Regressou apenas em 2009, com o Acordo Ortográfico, juntamente com o K e o W. Cinquenta e nove anos de exílio. Bem-vindo de volta, ípsilon. 💡 O Y quase não aparece em palavras portuguesas nativas. Encontra-se principalmente em nomes estrangeiros - YouTube, Yoko, Beyoncé — e em palavras técnicas de origem grega, como yoga. Mas o nome da letra - ípsilon - é onde a confusão começa. Para soletrar em português, precisa de saber os nomes de todas as letras. E alguns são completamente inesperados: o H chama-se agá. O J é jota. O R é erre. O X é xis. E o Y é ípsilon - três sílabas que apanham toda a gente de surpresa. A próxima vez que precisar de soletrar o seu nome num banco, numa clínica ou num aeroporto, esta lista vai salvar-lhe a vida. 🍽️ Pratique o alfabeto completo em voz alta - usa a mesma melodia do Twinkle Twinkle. Grave-se no WhatsApp e ouça. Os nomes das letras que mais confundem: agá (H), jota (J), erre (R), xis (X) e ípsilon (Y). Domine estes cinco e a vida em Portugal fica muito mais fácil. 🗣️ Vocabulário - o alfabeto completo em português: - a, bê, cê, dê, é, efe, gê - A B C D E F G - agá, i, jota, capa, ele, eme, ene - H I J K L M N - ó, pê, quê, erre, esse, tê - O P Q R S T - u, vê, dáblio, xis, ípsilon, zê - U V W X Y Z 💬 "Como se escreve o seu nome?" (Tente soletrar o seu nome em português usando os nomes das letras acima. É mais difícil do que parece!) ❓ Hora do quiz: O que significa ípsilon em grego antigo?

Bom domingo a todos 😁 What a week, @Robert Mike-Mayer has made a great impact as top cadet this week, showing up regularly and bringing the 'Speak Portuguese' conversation to this party! He's a great community member to follow and have a Portuguese chat with in one of his daily posts - like this Thanks, as ever, to top vizinho português @António Ferreira who brings so much value to us from the goodness of his heart 🙏 Nice work @Doug Stone, @Matthias Lanuschny and newbie @Charlotte Conley for showing up in the community timeline with interaction too this week, obrigado! Hoping things are going well for you @Lori Wong, we missed you this week, among the Á-teamers @Peter Haglund, @Brian Mathers, @Vivian Shuemake and @Bob Wenger, who have hung in there with the intentionalty that Bob spoke of, which really makes a difference. The big idea to come out of Friday's de-brief was 'buddy chat groups' (thanks to Brian & Peter), based on the classic Portuguese-speaking-ONLY dinner party format, which we could replicate on online calls within this platform - one or two of us foreigners, supported by a Portuguese person who will support and speak to us only in Portuguese; who's in? One technique came out of my own week, worth sharing I think, from the classic supermarket scenario: I stopped the lady on the till and asked her to repeat what she'd said. I repeated back what I THOUGHT she'd said. She corrected me, clearly and naturally - and I understood. "Muito obrigado, professora," I uttered as I left, which I think she liked 🤗 We now have 20+ mission modules in the CLASSROOM BTW - please get in there, get out there, and

***You'll be seeing some BIG changes with this community, and here's why*** The best time to learn Portuguese was twenty years ago. The next best time is now. If you think you’ve heard that formula before, it was originally about trees, but I’ve seconded it for my purposes today, as I wish I’d started learning this country’s language a couple of decades ago, when I was just about to visit for a recce, and ended up falling in love with the place. Back then, on my first 'deployment', I remember getting a briefing from my host, which had me learning “Olá!” and “Superbock”, as well as surprised (and warned about) the Spanish similarity, and preferring Sagres anyway in my Central Portuguese location. There, I managed to get by, having a haircut and wet shave based entirely on mime, trust and hope - a formula that has done me proud to this day. That fact-finding, curiosity-satisfying and bond-creating trip was a great success and come this September, I’ll have lived in Portugal for nine years. I'm staggered by how quickly that time has flown by, which is of course what happens, when you are having fun. But I’m also shocked by my poor grasp of the Portuguese language after all this time. I live side-by-side with the lovely people of Portugal, and on the kind of reflection that big anniversaries bring about, I poignantly note that I have made so little linguistic progress. It’s embarrassing, frankly. At this point, the excuses can begin. “It’s a difficult language, even the Portuguese themselves admit this,” say other awkward expats when asked the “how is your Portuguese question”. “I’m too old, and I’ve always been rubbish at languages,” replies another, when the subject comes up as it invariably and eventually does. And, worst of all, as if we were not embarrassed enough already, “everyone speaks English here anyway!”. If we live here, and haven’t in reasonable time at least grasped some of the basics (hello, how are you?, thank you and goodbye), we might and probably should feel a pang of shame or awkwardness. These basic courtesies are what people might learn for a city-break or two-week vacation, and certainly not overlooked if actually resident somewhere, anywhere. Knowing your name, ordering basics in a restaurant, counting, the days of the week, and asking for help, all for example, could also be seen as basics for anyone with longer-term intentions to remain.