I wondered why my spoken words were being rejected, notably "dever" and got help from my daughter in law (nora, not her name, her name is Sandra) and our Portuguese moderator, Explorer (thank you).
But i was pronouncing "comer" and "dever" as comir and "devir" without being aware if it. Amazing but a habit Im having to concentrate on and break. Having learnt guitar and scripts for plays, I know full well about "not practicing your mistakes". That is, to keep repeating mistakes so often they become habit.
I blame duo for being too tolerant from the start. But now, at least, I know.
Funny you should say, John Little. I've only just realised that in Italian my very flat English *e as in *bend will sound more Italian with an *i as in *pick, depending on the sentence. It really helps to repeat our loud whenever possible.