Portuguese and English share a common alphabet, for the most part, and many of the sounds associated with each consonant are quite similar. If you’re a native English speaker, the pronunciations to pay special attention to are those associated with the vowels, which we will cover in a separate learning note, as well as the following consonants / consonant digraphs: c, ç, ch, h, lh, m, n, nh, r, s, x, and z. This guide will serve as an overview of European Portuguese pronunciation for consonants, but you should also explore these links for more detailed explanations of some of the trickier sounds:
- Pronunciation Guide for European Portuguese Vowels
- Mystery of the Disappearing Sounds
- The Letters S and C
- The Letter X
European Portuguese Pronunciation: Consonant Sounds
| Letter |
Portuguese Example |
English Approximation |
Notes / Context | IPA Symbol |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Bb  Slow audio  Play audio Letter |
bocamouth | boat | b | |
| Cc Slow audio Play audio Letter |
cedoearly Slow audio Play audio Adverb |
less | Before e or i | s |
| casahouse Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Feminine |
can | Before a, o, or u | k | |
| Çç Slow audio Play audio Letter |
praçasquare, plaza | less | s | |
| Ch | chuvarain | shoe |
ʃ |
|
| Dd Slow audio Play audio Letter |
dedofinger nadanothing Slow audio Play audio Adverb, Singular |
dead | The Portuguese d is often pronounced with the tongue slightly more forward (touching the teeth more, approximating “th”) compared to the English d. | d, d̪ |
| Ff Slow audio Play audio Letter |
figofig | fig | f | |
| Gg Slow audio Play audio Letter |
o geloice | genre | Before e or i |
ʒ |
| gatocat Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine |
gate | Before a, o, or u |
g |
|
| Hh Slow audio Play audio Letter |
horahour | hour | Silent | |
| Jj Slow audio Play audio Letter |
João Slow audio Play audio Proper Noun, Singular |
genre |
ʒ |
|
| Kk Slow audio Play audio Letter |
Only appears in foreign loan words | k | ||
| Ll | luamoon | lose |
l |
|
| lh | bacalhaucodfish Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine |
paella (Spanish) | No close approximation |
ʎ |
| Mm Slow audio Play audio Letter |
mãemother Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Feminine |
mom | Beginning or middle of word | m |
| foramthey were homemman Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine simyes Slow audio Play audio Adverb |
town, thing | No close approximation. At the end of a word or syllable, the m and the preceding vowel are replaced by a nasal vowel or diphthong. |
am → ɐ̃w em → ɐ̃j im → ĩ om → õ um → ũ |
|
| Nn Slow audio Play audio Letter |
nadanothing Slow audio Play audio Adverb, Singular |
nod | Beginning or middle of word | n |
| contactocontact tantoso much Slow audio Play audio Quantifiers sintoI feel |
thing | No close approximation. Similar to m, at the end of a word or syllable, the n and the preceding vowel are replaced by a nasal vowel. |
an → ɐ̃ en → ẽ in → ĩ on → õ un → ũ |
|
| nh | linhaline | canyon baño (Spanish) |
No close approximation. The Portuguese sound is produced slightly further back in the mouth, using the body of the tongue instead of the tip of the tongue. | ɲ |
| Pp Slow audio Play audio Letter |
paifather Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine |
pie | p | |
| Qq Slow audio Play audio Letter |
queijocheese Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine |
key | Q is always followed by a U, just like in English. This U is generally mute if followed by the vowels E or I | k |
| quartoroom Slow audio Play audio Number |
queen | The U of “qu-” is pronounced if followed by the vowels A or O | kw | |
| Rr Slow audio Play audio Letter |
a ruastreet Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Feminine |
No close approximation. Beginning of word. Pronounced like a guttural r, somewhere between and r and a “thick” h. It is voiced with the tongue pulling back toward the uvula. Others pronounce it more rolled. (R varies quite a bit among dialects.) |
ʁ |
|
| correrrun Slow audio Play audio Verb |
Double r is pronounced the same as above. |
ʁ |
||
| caroexpensive Slow audio Play audio Adjective, Singular, Masculine ficarto stay Slow audio Play audio Verb Madeira Slow audio Play audio Proper Noun, Singular, Feminine Portugal Slow audio Play audio Proper Noun, Singular |
water (Amer. English) | Between vowels, end of syllable, or end of word: pronounced as a flap/alveolar r. No close approximations in British English. |
ɾ |
|
| Ss Slow audio Play audio Letter |
inglêsEnglish Slow audio Play audio Adjective, Singular, Masculine istothis Slow audio Play audio Demonstratives |
English | Before an unvoiced consonant (c,ç,ch,f,p,q,s,t) or at the end of a word | ʃ |
| casahouse Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Feminine os amigosthe friends Slow audio Play audio Noun, Plural, Masculine |
zoo | Between vowels (even if the vowel sound is in the next word) | z | |
| desligarturn off, disconnect Slow audio Play audio Verb |
genre | Before a voiced consonant (b,d,g,j,l,lh,m,n,nh,r,rr,v,z) | ʒ | |
| Tt Slow audio Play audio Letter |
tossecough | tea | t | |
| Vv Slow audio Play audio Letter |
vinhowine Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine |
van | v | |
| Ww Slow audio Play audio Letter |
Only appears in foreign loan words | |||
| Xx Slow audio Play audio Letter |
xaropesyrup Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine textotext Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine baixoshort Slow audio Play audio Adjective, Singular, Masculine |
shoe | Beginning of a word, before a consonant, after a diphthong, between vowels(and first one is not e), after me, after en | ʃ |
| o exameexam Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine |
zoo | Between e and a vowel (except after me) | z | |
| táxitaxi | taxi | There are some exceptions to the aforementioned x rules which do not follow a set pattern, such as the “ks” pronunciation in táxi. | ks | |
| Yy Slow audio Play audio Letter |
Only appears in foreign loan words. Some English words that start with y are spelled with io in Portuguese, such as iogayoga and o iogurteyogurt Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine |
|||
| Zz Slow audio Play audio Letter |
dezten Slow audio Play audio Number |
English | Before unvoiced consonant (c,ç,ch,f,p,q,s,t) or at the end of a word | ʃ |
| dez eurosten euros | zoo | End of word followed by a word beginning with a vowel sound | z | |
| felizmentefortunately | genre | Before a voiced consonant (b,d,g,j,l,lh,m,n,nh,r,rr,v,z) | ʒ | |
| zerozero Slow audio Play audio Number azulblue Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine |
zoo | Everywhere else | z |
excellent
Really helpful, now need to learn it!!
I am picking up the sound of a d at the end of the words ending in r – ficar(d), correr(d). I cannot relate to the sound of American English “water””. Help!
It does sound similar to the type of “d” sound that you hear when there is a d or t between vowels in English words. Instead of a hard “d”, this sound is pronounced faster and lighter, with the tongue barely touching the roof of the mouth (basically ‘flapping’ against it).
The Portuguese sound is represented by this IPA symbol [ɾ], which looks almost like an r, but is actually known as an “alveolar flap”. The sound that the t makes in the middle of “water” (in American English only) is the closest English sound we have to that. This video might help explain further (and will also give anyone from the UK examples of the American English “flap t” sound): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FDjhKY8HwM
Got it! Thanks Molly.
I found this video helpful for understanding how the r in caro should be said https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b-UIkuwOdU. They go through examples of words with the sound in American English.
Hi, it would be helpful if you added IPA symbols to your pronounciation lessons (and maybe even some other places, f.ex. for the conjugation endings in verbs sections). Thanks 🙂
Thanks for the feedback! I’ll add it to our suggestions. We thought about doing this, but thought that most people would not be familiar with the IPA symbols. I think in this context at least, it wouldn’t be too tricky to add a column for the IPA symbol, though. 🙂
Just wanted to let you know that the chart has been updated with the IPA symbols now
thanks, I’ve already seen them, and used them 😉 Great help for language nerds like myself 😉
I am struggling to pronounce “lh” correctly. I’ve looked at some Italian-language videos as the sound /ʎ/ occurs in many Italian words. The videos seem to guide me in the right direction and yet when I try it out on a native Portuguese speaker or some audio transcription software, I’m not saying it right. Do you have any tips on getting this sound to come out right? (My native language is English, which might be relevant.) I believe the tip of the tongue has to be down, but if you can give more specifics on what to do or don’t with my tongue position or breathing, it would be helpful. Thanks!
This is a tough one! The closest sound in English would be the /lj/ sound in million, which sounds almost like an L and a Y. With the Portuguese /ʎ/ sound, it’s similar to merging those sounds together into one.
Use the blade and body (rather than the very tip) of your tongue and raise it up toward your palate. More specifically, it’s alveolo-palatal — you can see a side view of where the tongue goes at that link. It’s basically raised in between your hard palate and the ridge just behind your teeth.
Your vocal cords will vibrate (it is a “voiced” sound) and the air will flow over the sides (rather than the middle) of the tongue.
Molly, thanks. I will work on this.
Wish I saw this months ago when I started learning. Perfect explanations.
I got a bit confused with the pronuntiation of the portuguese word ” exame”
X is a tricky letter because it can be pronounced so many different ways. Read/watch here for more help with X. 🙂
I have an INCREDIBLY hard time with pronouncing words that have tr in them (quatro, tres, treze, etc..). Any tips on which consonants I should review to help master those sounds?
In English when t comes before r, we often pronounce it more like “ch”, so that’s part of why it’s tricky! So the first step is to try to say some words pronouncing it as a “t” instead. Try saying “tree”, “try”, “train”, “truck”, without making the “ch” sound. Only use the very tip of your tongue, and place it lightly on your alveolar ridge, which is the part of your gums just behind your teeth. Notice how this sounds different than usual (“truck” is just the tip in the front of the mouth vs. “chruck” which uses more of the body of your tongue and is further back). If that’s still difficult, you could even start by trying to say it like this: “terruck”, “terree”, etc.
Once you can feel that difference, then you just need to speed it up and “trill it” a bit. Put your tongue lightly behind your teeth like you’re about to say the letter “t”, but then pull it back quickly as you “flap” the r against the alveolar ridge. We don’t have this type of r sound in English, so it’s hard to explain in words! It’s basically like a very quick tap. Listen to the words with “tr” over and over to try to imitate what you hear while looking in the mirror.
If it’s still not happening, try saying the word “edited” over and over, as fast as possible. This isn’t exactly how you say “tr”, but it can help you feel the general movement of your tongue in that part of your mouth.
I hope this helps a bit! It may take some time, though. 🙂 Anyone else have tips that have helped you pronounce “tr” in Portuguese?
Great material. One thing that seems a bit off to me is that the English examples for sounds t, p, k (hard c) use aspirated sounds. I believe, the closer sound to the ‘t’ in tosse is the ‘t’ in ‘step’ (non-aspirated) rather than the aspirated ‘t’ in ‘tea’. Same for p (p in ‘pai’ is more akin to the sound in ‘spite’ than to the sound in ‘pie’) and hard c.
I learnt elsewhere that ‘qu’ is usually pronounced as in ‘queen’ before hard vowels a o u and as in ‘king’ before soft vowels e i, with a few exceptions including cinquenta and Reguengos.
That’s correct 🙂 The U of ‘qu-‘ is pronounced when followed by A and O, and generally silent when followed by E and I. The exceptions used to be marked by umlauts up until the last century (e.g. freqüência, seqüestro), but umlauts have since been dropped from Portuguese spelling.
We’ll also add this to the Learning Note, as it’ll surely be helpful for others – thanks!
This is great. Nice IPA symbols. Very helpful. Once little comment. “Paella” is not pronounced “Paela”. It is more like in the Spanish word “Llamar” or to call.
I am hearing a ‘harder’ d before the o in ‘dedo’ but a softer d before the a in ‘nada’. It seems the same on your short video about ‘obrigado’/’obrigada’. Is there a rule for different vowels or am I mishearing this?
There are no actual rules for the pronunciation of the letter D. These two variations (harder D and softer D, or D/TH hybrid) are acknowledged, but one is not formally treated any differently than the other. Common usage patterns are also variable, but I can confirm that many people tend to use a harder D before the O or U vowels, simply due to ease of pronunciation.
Thank you, Joseph. A very clear answer. Really helpful. Appreciated.
Hi,
I was watching one of your videos about paying the bill and it sounds like the letter b is silent in the word contribuinte. Is this right?
Thanks for your help,
Brian
The letter “B” is not silent. However, its pronunciation can vary depending on its position within a word and the surrounding letters. When the letter “B” appears at the beginning of a word or syllable, it is clearly pronounced. For example, in words like “bola” (ball) or “bom” (good). When the letter “B” is placed between two vowels, like in “contribuinte” it may sound softer. It is important to note that even though it may sound less pronounced in some contexts, it is not silent!