Appendix:Portuguese pronunciation

This page is a guide for reading and adding Portuguese IPA pronunciations. Unless noted otherwise, the information here refers only to Standard European Portuguese and Standard Brazilian Portuguese.

Contents

Phonemes

The transcriptions in the second column are non-canonical and should be replaced by those in the first one.

canonical transcription	other broad transcriptions	orthographical representation	narrow transcriptions	notes
/a/		a, á, à	[a], [ä]
/ɐ/	/ə/, /ɜ/, /ʌ/	a, â	[ə], [ɜ], [ɐ]
/ɐ̃/	/ə̃/, /ɜ̃/	ã, â, am, an, âm, ân	[ə̃], [ɜ̃], [ɐ̃] [ə̃ⁿ], [ɜ̃ⁿ], [ɐ̃ⁿ] [əə̯̃], [ɜə̯̃], [ɐə̯̃] [əə̯̃ⁿ], [ɜə̯̃ⁿ], [ɐə̯̃ⁿ]
/ɛ/		e, é	[ɛ]
/e/		e, ê	[e]
/ẽ/		em, en, ên, êm, ém	[ẽ], [ẽⁿ], [eə̯̃], [eə̯̃ⁿ]	the /j̃/ that follows /ẽ/ in some cases needs to be transcribed separately
/ɨ/	/ɯ/, /ə/	e, i	[ɯ̽]	European Portuguese
/i/	/ɪ/	i, e	[i], [ɪ]
/ɔ/		o, ó	[ɔ]
/o/		o, ô	[o]
/õ/		õ, om, on, ôm, ôn	[õ], [õⁿ], [oə̯̃] [oə̯̃ⁿ], [õʊ̯̃], [õw̃]
/u/	/ʊ/	o, u, ú	[u], [ʊ]	should not be used for /w/
/ũ/		um, un, úm, úm	[ũ], [ũⁿ], [uw̃]
/m/		m	[m]
/n/		n	[n̪]
/ɲ/	/j̃/	nh	[ɲ], [j̃], [ɲ̟]
/p/		p	[p]
/b/		b	[b], [β]	[β] allophone appears only in European Portuguese
/t/		t	[t̪]
/d/		d	[d̪], [ð]	[ð] allophone appears only in European Portuguese
/k/		c, qu, k	[k]
/ɡ/	/g/	g, gu	[g] , [ɣ]	[ɣ] allophone appears only in European Portuguese
/t͡ʃ/	/tʃ/	t, tch	[t͡ʃʷ], [t͡ɕʷ]	Brazilian Portuguese; usually considered an allophone of /t/
/d͡ʒ/	/dʒ/	d, dj	[d͡ʒʷ], [d͡ʑʷ]	Brazilian Portuguese; usually considered an allophone of /d/
/f/		f	[f]
/v/		v	[v]
/s/		s, ss, ç, z, x	[s]
/z/		s, z, x	[z]
/ʃ/		x, ch, s	[ʃʷ], [ɕʷ]
/ʒ/		j, g, s	[ʒʷ], [ʑʷ]
/ʁ/	/r/, /h/, /x/, /χ/, /ř/	r, rr	[ʁ], [ʀ], [r], [h] [ɹ], [ɻ], [ɾ], [χ]
/ɾ/	/r/	r	[ɾ]
/l/		l	[l], [ɫ]
/ʎ/		lh	[ʎ], [ʎ̟]
/w/	/u/, /ʊ/, /u̯/, /ʊ̯/, /ʷ/	u, l, o, ü	[w], [u̯], [ʊ̯]
/w̃/	/w/, /u/, /ʊ/, /u̯/, /ʊ̯/ /ũ/, /ʊ̃/, /ũ̯/, /ʊ̯̃/	o	[w̃], [ũ̯], [ʊ̯̃]	usually considered an allophone of /w/ following a nasal vowel
/j/	/i/, /i̯/, /ɪ̯/, /ɪ/, /ʲ/	i	[j], [i̯], [ɪ̯]
/j̃/	/j/, /i/, /i̯/, /ɪ̯/, /ɪ/ /ĩ/, /ĩ̯/, /ɪ̯̃/, /ɪ̃/	e, i, ∅	[j̃], [ĩ̯], [ɪ̯̃]	usually considered an allophone of /j/ following a nasal vowel

Issues

Alternative pronunciations

context	standard treatment	example
in European Portuguese, /ɐj/ alternates with /ej/	each case is listed individually	queijo → /ˈkɐj.ʒu/, /ˈkej.ʒu/
unstressed /i/, /u/ sometimes become /j/, /w/ when followed by another vowel, especially in relaxed, less formal pronunciation	each case is listed individually	águia → /ˈa.ɡi.ɐ/, /ˈa.ɡjɐ/
in extra-careful Brazilian pronunciation, word-final vowel reduction is sometimes undone; usually /ɐ/ becomes /a/, more rarely /u/ becomes /o/ and /i/ becomes /e/	not indicated	casa → /ˈka.zɐ/, not /ˈka.za/
/lj/, /nj/ become /ʎ/, /ɲ/ in careless pronunciation	only indicated when it is relatively common	família → /fa.ˈmi.li.ɐ/, /fa.ˈmi.ljɐ/, /fa.ˈmi.ʎɐ/
mid-word /o/ and /e/ sometimes become /u/ and /i/ in Brazilian Portuguese, often due to vowel harmony	each case is listed individually	dormir → /doʁ.ˈmi(ʁ)/, /duʁ.ˈmi(ʁ)/
for some Brazilian speakers, a vowel becomes slightly nasalised preceding a nasal consonant	not indicated	dono → /ˈdo.nu/, not /ˈdõ.nu/
semivowels between vowels are geminated	not indicated	caia → /ˈkaj.ɐ/, not /ˈkaj.jɐ/
/k/ and /ɡ/ followed by /w/ may be pronounced as a rounded consonant	not indicated	quando → /ˈkwɐ̃.du/, not /ˈkʷɐ̃.du/
/e/, /i/ is sometimes dropped from words with the sequence esc-	each case is listed individually	escudo → /iʃ.ˈku.du/, not /ˈʃku.du/

Dropped and intrusive phonemes

context	standard treatment	example
in less formal Brazilian pronunciations, /j/ is dropped from /ej/ before certain consonants	parentheses	manteiga → /mɐ̃.ˈte(j).ɡɐ/
in less formal pronunciations, /j/ is dropped before /ʃ/ and /ʒ/	parentheses	caixa → /ˈka(j).ʃɐ/
in European Portuguese, /j/ is added before /ʃ/ and /ʒ/	parentheses	seja → /ˈsɐ(j).ʒɐ/
in less formal Brazilian pronunciations, final /ʁ/ is dropped from certain verb forms	parentheses	fazer → /fa.ˈze(ʁ)/
in less formal Brazilian pronunciations, /j/ is added before stressed, word-final /s/ that is not a desinence	parentheses	francês → /fɾɐ̃.ˈse(j)s/
in careless pronunciation, /j/ after a palatal is dropped	not indicated	régio → /ˈʁɛ.ʒi.u/, /ˈʁɛ.ʒju/
/w/ may or may not be maintained in the diphthong /ow/	parentheses	sou → /ˈso(w)/

Stress

• Monosyllabic words should include a stress mark if they are stressed in sentences (si → /ˈsi/ but se → /si/).
• Secondary stress marks are optional, but recommended.

Sandhi

Sandhi should not be noted in pronunciations of individual words, as it is entirely predictable.

Notes

• Due to the recentness of this page’s creation, not every entry conforms to its guidelines. Users are encouraged to correct nonstandard IPA transcriptions, tag them with {{attention|pt|nonstandard pronunciation}}, or inform another user about them.
• Some symbols are used in broad transcriptions even though they are usually considered allophones of another phoneme. The reasons for this are: they are traditionally used in broad transcriptions by other resources; preventing users from sounding foreign when not using that allophone sounds incorrect; in exceptional instances they are a distinct phoneme.