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I can never get over the way my Brazilian wife pronounces the currency.

Singular - hey-ow

Plural - hey-I.

They're spelled real and reals respectively.

The correct spelling for the plural form is 'reais' (the 'l' from the singular form 'real' becomes an 'i').

I think I've never heard anybody pronounce 'reais' without the sound of s at the end, are you sure she doesn't say it? It's probably something like hey-eyes (hey-eye-shh for cariocas)

A small historical note: there are/were two different Brazilian currencies called Real. The current one has "reais" as the plural, but the old one had "réis" as its plural form.

real and reais, not reals.

hey-I on the plural doesn't make a lot of sense to me, you are probably not hearing something she is saying.

You're right there is a very subtle s as the end that I wasn't noticing, especially at the speed of normal conversation.

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