Portuguese Pronunciation: Nasal Vowels, LH, NH and the R Sounds

Portuguese spelling is mostly consistent, but several sounds don't exist in English. This guide covers the main ones, using Brazilian pronunciation as the default.

Vowels

Letter	Approximate sound	Example
a	ah	casa (house)
e	eh, or ee at word ends in Brazil	pele, leite
i	ee	vida (life)
o	oh, or oo at word ends in Brazil	amigo (friend)
u	oo	luz (light)

In Brazilian Portuguese, unstressed final e sounds like ee, and final unstressed o like oo. So leite (milk) sounds like LAY-chee and amigo like ah-MEE-goo.

Nasal vowels

Portuguese has nasal vowels, produced with air through the nose. They are written with a tilde or with m or n after the vowel:

Spelling	Example	Meaning
ã	irmã	sister
ão	pão, coração	bread, heart
õe	limões	lemons
-am, -em, -im, -om, -um	falam, bem, sim, bom, um	they speak, well, yes, good, one

Don't pronounce the n or m as a separate consonant. It just nasalises the vowel.

Special consonants

Letters	Sound	Example
lh	like lli in "million"	filho (son)
nh	like ny in "canyon"	manhã (morning)
ç	s	coração (heart)
ch	sh	chave (key)
x	sh, or z, s or ks in some words	peixe, exame, próximo, táxi
g before e, i	like s in "measure"	gente (people)
j	like s in "measure"	janela (window)
qu, gu	k, g before e or i	queijo, guerra

The R sounds

• Initial r and rr: a throaty sound, like a strong h in Brazil (rato, carro).
• Single r between vowels: a quick tap (caro, mãe).
• Final r: varies by region.

Stress

Most words are stressed on the second-to-last syllable. When stress falls elsewhere, an accent mark shows it: café, você, médico.

Practice words

• obrigado — oh-bree-GAH-doo
• saudade — sow-DAH-jee
• pão de queijo — pow jee KAY-zhoo

Tips

1. Listen to native speakers for nasal vowels.
2. Practise lh and nh separately.
3. Use the dictionary to check spellings and accents.

Look up any word with English Portuguese Dictionary →