PURPOSE: To verify, using inspiratory phonation, whether visual and auditory-perceptual parameters correlate with the diagnostic hypothesis of nodules and cysts. METHODS: Twenty one videolaryngostroboscopies of patients with suspected nodules (n=6) and cysts (n=15) were analyzed. Subjects were 18 women and three men, with mean age of 35 years (13-68 years). Visual and auditory data, obtained from expiratory and inspiratory phonation, were randomly presented, compared and registered in a specific protocol by a trained speech-language pathologist, to whom diagnostic hypotheses were omitted. RESULTS: In nodule cases, sustained vowel showed higher occurrence of vocal deviation (66.7%), when compared to speech (33.3%); sustained vowel had a breathy quality (100%) and speech was adapted (66.7%). In cyst cases, deviation was also more frequent during sustained vowel (46.7%) than during speech (40%); sustained vowel presented both roughness (40%) and breathiness (33.3%). All nodules were symmetric in location (100%), and most were also symmetric in size, in both types of phonation (66.7% and 75% respectively). Cysts tended to be symmetric in location (75%), but asymmetric in size (100%). The vocal ligament was more visible in cysts (53.3% and 80%) than in nodules (33.3% and 66.7%), in expiratory and inspiratory phonation respectively, and this structure was more evident during inspiratory phonation. When visible in nodules, the vocal ligament was bilateral (100%). CONCLUSION: Inspiratory phonation revealed differential characteristics for nodules and cysts diagnoses; the auditory-perceptual evaluation added information to characterize both lesions.