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Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "abrir" in Portuguese (Portugal)?
Sounds like "uh-VREER" — the first letter shrinks to "uh", and the b softens into a light "v"-like sound before the r.
Stress falls on the final -brir; the unstressed initial a reduces to a quick central [ɐ], and the b between vowels softens into a fricative.
Listen: abrir
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Hear it in a sentence
Podes abrir a janela?
Can you open the window?
Listen: Podes abrir a janela?
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"Podes abrir a janela?" ("Can you open the window?") is a polite, informal request using podes + infinitive, the standard way to phrase requests without sounding like a blunt command. A janela is feminine and needs its article here since it refers to a specific window (the one nearby), unlike the general, article-free nouns seen in some earlier examples. This construction is used constantly in everyday polite speech.
Where English speakers slip
Learners tend to pronounce the b in abrir as a hard, fully stopped consonant; in EP, between vowels it softens considerably, almost blending into the following r. It's also worth noting the stress trap: some learners default to stressing the first syllable out of habit with English words, but Portuguese infinitives ending in -ir are always stressed on that final syllable.