Portuguese has two “O” sounds that can be tricky for English speakers: the closed /ô/ and the open /ó/. These sounds are very important because they can change the meaning of a word.

Don't hold yourself back from going to the bakery and ordering pão de queijo. If you’ve ever said “pão de queijo” like “pow de kay-djoo”, you’re not alone, but you definitely got into nasal trouble. Here’s the problem: when you say pau de queijo  instead of pão de queijo , it completely changes the meaning. Pão  means bread, but pau  means stick — and one of its other meanings is not exactly appropriate. You can Google it later. So you might be asking for something very diffe