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Over eighteen months after learning this phoneme - /õj̃ʃ/ - and its corresponding grapheme - ões - I still get a click of satisfaction when I see it, recognise it, decode it and hear the sound in my head.

It has a tingle of the exotic for me: the nasalisation makes it un-English. And the tilde on the ‘o’ really crowns it. But -ões is also an everyday sight: it’s just the plural form for words, like leão and ação, whose singular form is -ão.

Like fizzy pop poured over Mentos, my foreigner’s understanding washes over mundane forms, destabilising them. For me, the letters -ões flip between odd and ordinary. How long does this effect continue? At some point this group of three letters will cease to jump out at me; they will acquire a settled inevitability, and I’ll get my kicks somewhere else.

Mais de dezoito meses após aprender este fonema - /õj̃ʃ/ - e o grafema correspondente - ões - ainda recebo satisfação quando vejo-o, reconheço-o, e ouço o som na minha cabeça.

Tem um formigueiro exótico para mim: a nasalização não é nada inglês. E o tilde no 'o’ coroa esta palavra. Mas -ões é também uma coisa do dia-a-dia: é apenas a forma plural das palavras, como leão e ação, cuja forma singular é -ão.

Como limonada derramado sobre Mentos, o meu entendimento estrangeiro desestabiliza as palavras normais. Para mim, as letras -ões alternam entre o estranho e o ordinário. Por quanto tempo é que este efeito se continua? A dada altura, este grupo de três letras deixará de me parecer incomum, adquirirão uma inevitabilidade resolvida. Mas nao sei quando.

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Phatic rhythm

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