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Pronouncing Portuguese

Portuguese is much easier to read than to speak. However, the pronunciation guide used in this book gives as accurate a guide as possible to the sounds of the language. The syllable to be stressed is printed in bold. Note that in conversation words tend to run together.

Vowels (a, e, i, o, u)

vowel	example	pronunciation	sounds like
a	saco	sah-koo	as in father
fama	fumuh	hum
fica	feekuh	about
e	terra	terr-uh	terror
enorme	eh-norm	ehenquire
especial	eesh-pessyahl	happy
de	duh	about
i	fica	feekuh	police
médico	medeekoo	happy
o	cobra	koh-bruh	all
homem	omayñ	au pair
vaso	vah-zoo	boot
u	luvas	loovush	boot

Notes:

The article a sounds like uh (as in the), unless stressed, i.e. à (ah).

e can sound like ay, e.g. fecho (fayshoo), but tends to be silent at the end of words, e.g. pode (pod) unless stressed, e.g. bebé (be-be). The word e (meaning and) always sounds like ee.

The article o and the letter o at the end of words always sound like oo.

Vowel combinations

ai	mais	mysh
ei	peixe	paysh
oi	coisa	koy-zuh
ou	outro	oh-troo

Nasal vowels

Vowels with a tilde ~ or followed by m or n in the same syllable should be pronounced nasally (letting air out through the nose as well as the mouth), as in French. We have represented this sound in the pronunciation by ñ, e.g.

tem = tayñ	com = koñ	um = ooñ
pão = powñ	manhã = mun-yañ	põe = poyñ

Other letters

	example	pronunciation	sounds like
ç	serviço	serveesoo
ch	chá	shah
g	gelo	zhay-loo	as in measure
h			always silent
j	loja	lozhuh	as in measure
Ih	mulher	mool-yehr
nh	tenho	ten-yoo
r/rr		always rolled; ‘r’ at beginning of word and double ‘rr’ are forceful and guttural (similar to French ‘r’)
s	(between vowels) coisa	koy-zuh
(after vowel and at end of word) está lápis	shtalah-peesh
x	caixa	ky-shuh
z	(at end of word) faz	fash