Currently in alpha testing - watch this space!
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Watching! Can you give us any indication of a release date? Even just a vague one - this month, next month, Summer?
Tomorrow, maybe 
(Or by the end of the week at the latest)
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As promised, itâs out by the end of the week 
Portuguese is live!
I have a tiny update coming soon which will remove a couple wonky phrases we missed on the first pass, but I wouldnât worry about them too much - thereâs bound to be something else we missed anyway 
As always, let us know how it goes, as well as if you notice any wonky audio.
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A couple of things straight away, Iâm afraid. The first is a simple glitch, but a bit off-putting when itâs the first thing you hear: the male voice says that the Portuguese for âI wantâ is quero, and pronounces it /keru/, as expected; but the female voice says /kero::/, with a super-long âoooâ.
The second is a bit of an overall impression: the male voice sounds fairly Portuguese, albeit I think European Portuguese speakers would pronounce rather fewer unstressed vowels than he does; but the female voice sounds more like sheâs speaking Brazilian with an Irish accent. I think itâs mostly the quality of word-final -r thatâs bothering me: hers sounds like an Irish English approximant rather than a trill or a tap. I donât know if thereâs an explanation for this, or if it sounds that way to other listeners - but I do know Iâd hesitate to play it to my bilingual-in-Brazilian partner because I think sheâd find it very dodgy.
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Thanks, Iâll add the clips to the list for regeneration!
There is an explanation for the voices, and itâs that the current version is a hybrid course - the male voice is a clone of a European Portuguese speaker and the female voice is a clone of a Brazilian Portuguese speaker. I believe the text is Brazilian-leaning, but itâs tried to be neutral wherever possible.
We will separate them out at a later date - the main constraint was that there werenât very many good voices available, but more get added all the time.
However, this just gave me the idea to add an explanation to the welcome!
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Iâve just tried it on my partner and, interestingly, she smirked the moment she heard the female voice - but not because it sounded unrealistic to her (so I retract almost all of what I said!). She did say that it sounded Brazilian, but like the sort of rural/working class accent from SĂŁo Paulo (state, not city) that might be the butt of other peopleâs humour - as if it were, say, a West Midlands accent in English.
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Thatâs so cool! Iâm almost tempted to do the course just to learn that accent ha ha.
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@Kai Snagging: âthe Portuguese for Iâm isâ - male voice is OK, female voice adds a weird schwa sound on the end - estou-w@. (I know words in isolation are harder; I imagine the connected phrases will be fine.
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âNot to practiseâ - female voice says another whole phrase before adding NĂŁo praticar. Male voice OK.
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Me too! Being Irish it might the natural accent for me! Lol
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Snagging - thereâs been a few glitches that Iâve skipped over hands-free & not remembered, but thereâs one after the bit with Janeâs bag (her bag, a bolsa dela) where the female voice says several phrases before ending on the target one. (Also sometimes pronounces Jane as two syllables.)
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Followed by bad glitch on onde estĂĄ a bolsa dela, female voice.
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Portuguese for âwithâ is - male ânaâ, female âcomâ. (Na = in the.)
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âItâs time to go away nowâ - male voice fine, female voice - Ă hora de ir embora agor⊠⊠âŠagora.
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One of the variants on âwhat do you think?â has a slip on the female voice only - I think itâs âwhat do you think now?â that gets a word repeated o que (que) vocĂȘ acha agora?
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Thinking further, it might be worth checking if itâs really an audio glitch or a variant in the translation - I think âWhat do you think now?â can be either - O que vocĂȘ acha agora? or O que Ă© que vocĂȘ acha agora? (like French - âwhat is it thatâ rather than âwhatâ).
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Every time I get the phrase âNo, thank you very much, I can manage on my ownâ (NĂŁo, muito obrigado, eu posso me virar sozinho) the male voice fails to generate any audio. If at that point I pause, and then play, the female voice cuts in & everything proceeds as normal; if Iâm up to my elbows kneading dough and canât press pause, all audio (both voices + Robo-Aran) is silent until the next âthe Portuguese for Xâ prompt. This has happened repeatedly, every time I get that phrase.
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VocĂȘ entende o que (que) agora
Same problem as before with the female voice repeating que - itâs happened in a few places that I havenât had opportunity to note, but itâs always been plausibly o que Ă© que. Iâm pretty much 100% certain that that doesnât work here (âYou understand what nowâ), and it doesnât match the male voice or the transcript.
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