Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "a" in Portuguese (Portugal)?

Q: How do you pronounce a in Portuguese (Portugal)?

a is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ɐ]. It means “the (feminine).” A quick, relaxed 'uh' sound (like the 'a' in English 'sofa'), not the open 'ah' you'd expect from the letter A.

A quick, relaxed 'uh' sound (like the 'a' in English 'sofa'), not the open 'ah' you'd expect from the letter A.

a [ɐ]

Unstressed definite article; always leans onto the following word and reduces toward a neutral central vowel rather than a full open 'ah'.

Listen: a

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

a Because it's unstressed, this shrinks to a schwa-like [ɐ], similar to the 'a' in English 'about' — much less open than a Spanish or Italian 'a'.

(whole word) A single reduced vowel with no consonant — it fuses onto the noun that follows rather than being said as its own clear beat.

Hear it in a sentence

A casa é grande.

The house is big.

Listen: A casa é grande.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

'A casa é grande' uses the feminine article 'a' with 'casa' (house), and the adjective 'grande' stays the same for both genders — a useful exception to the usual -o/-a pattern beginners rely on. Watch for adjectives like this that don't change form.

Where English speakers slip

Learners coming from Spanish or Italian tend to pronounce 'a' as a full, open 'ah', the way it's said in isolation in those languages. In connected European Portuguese speech, the article 'a' collapses to a much shorter, muddier [ɐ] — almost swallowed before the noun.