The phonetic alphabet (IPA) used on this site

Portuguese spelling is no faithful guide to pronunciation: the same letter stands for different sounds (gato “cat” and gelo “ice”), and the same sound is written in several ways (sapo, cedo, passo, cresço). To describe the sounds precisely, this site uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), in which each symbol stands for one sound and one only. This article gathers the inventory of symbols you will meet across the site and explains how to read them.

How to read the transcriptions

We enclose every transcription in square brackets [ ] — by convention a phonetic notation: the sound as it is actually realised, not merely the abstract phoneme. The reference accent is standard European Portuguese (the Lisbon–Coimbra norm); wherever Brazilian or another variety differs in a meaningful way, the contrast is flagged separately.

Two marks accompany almost every word of more than one syllable:

• ˈ before a syllable marks the main stress: cidade [siˈdadɨ] ;
• the tilde over a vowel, as in [ɐ̃], marks nasality: lã [ˈlɐ̃] “wool”.

The consonants

European Portuguese distinguishes nineteen consonants. The inventory is stable across varieties; what varies most is the realisation of some of them according to position in the syllable (see the articles on sibilants and rhotics).

Symbol	Example	Meaning
[p]	*pá*	spade
[b]	*bola*	ball
[t]	*tu*	you
[d]	*dar*	to give
[k]	*cá*	here
[g]	*gato*	cat
[f]	*fé*	faith
[v]	*vê*	sees
[s]	*selo*	stamp
[z]	*zelo*	zeal
[ʃ]	*chá*	tea
[ʒ]	*já*	already
[m]	*mar*	sea
[n]	*nó*	knot
[ɲ]	*unha*	fingernail
[l]	*lua*	moon
[ʎ]	*malha*	mesh
[ɾ]	*caro*	expensive
[ʁ]	*carro*	car

Note the pair of rhotics: the simple r, a tap [ɾ] (caro), is opposed to the strong r (carro), today realised in Lisbon speech chiefly as a uvular fricative [ʁ] . In syllable-final position s and z are realised as palato-alveolars — voiceless [ʃ] before a pause or a voiceless consonant, voiced [ʒ] before a voiced one.

The oral vowels

The vowel system is the richest — and the hardest — part of Portuguese phonology. In stressed syllables seven oral qualities contrast; in unstressed ones the central [ɐ] and the very characteristic [ɨ] also appear, the product of vowel reduction.

Symbol	Example	Meaning
[i]	*vi*	I saw
[e]	*vê*	sees
[ɛ]	*pé*	foot
[ɐ]	*cama*	bed
[a]	*pá*	spade
[ɔ]	*pó*	dust
[o]	*avô*	grandfather
[u]	*tu*	you
[ɨ]	*pegar*	to grab

The symbol [ɨ] stands for the unstressed vowel that so often weakens until it all but disappears: it is what gives European Portuguese its “consonantal” look to anyone who knows the word only in writing.

Nasal vowels and diphthongs

Five nasal vowels stand opposed to the oral ones and distinguish words (li “I read” vs. lim, mato vs. manto “cloak”). To these are added the nasal diphthongs, an audible signature of the language, and a set of oral diphthongs.

Symbol	Example	Meaning
[ɐ̃]	*lã*	wool
[ẽ]	*pente*	comb
[ĩ]	*fim*	end
[õ]	*bom*	good
[ũ]	*um*	one
[ɐ̃w̃]	*pão*	bread
[ɐ̃j̃]	*mãe*	mother
[õj̃]	*põe*	puts
[aj]	*pai*	father
[aw]	*pau*	stick
[ɛw]	*céu*	sky
[oj]	*boi*	ox

The two auxiliary symbols in the diphthongs are the semivowels (glides): [j] , like the i of pai, and [w] , like the u of pau. Under nasality they are written [j̃] and [w̃] .

Stress and other marks

Besides the ˈ of primary stress, longer words and connected speech may show the secondary-stress mark ˌ and the syllable-break dot .. Length is not distinctive in Portuguese, so we do not mark it.

Going further

This inventory is the key to everything else on the site. From here, work through the oral vowels and the nasal vowels, then the consonants, and finally stress and prominence, where the marks introduced here gain their context. For the correspondence between letters and sounds, see the Portuguese alphabet in the orthography section.