Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

amigo is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ɐˈmi.gu]. It means “friend.” Say "uh-MEE-goo", with the first and last vowels clipped short and the stress squarely on "mi".

Say "uh-MEE-goo", with the first and last vowels clipped short and the stress squarely on "mi".

amigo [ɐˈmi.gu]

Stress falls on the middle syllable "mi"; both surrounding vowels are unstressed and reduced, especially the final "o".

Listen: amigo

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Sound it out

a Unstressed initial a reduces to a quick "uh", like the a in English "about".

mi The stressed syllable, a clean, short "mee", carrying nearly all the word's emphasis and length.

go Unstressed final o is pronounced "oo", not "oh" — European Portuguese always closes unstressed final o to "oo".

Hear it in a sentence

O meu amigo mora perto daqui.

My friend lives near here.

Listen: O meu amigo mora perto daqui.

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"O meu amigo mora perto daqui" uses "mora" (from "morar", to live/reside) rather than "vive", which is the more common everyday verb for where someone lives. "Daqui" fuses "de" + "aqui" (from here) into one word, a very typical Portuguese contraction. The possessive "o meu amigo" keeps the definite article before the possessive, which is standard and required in Portuguese, unlike English "my friend".

Where English speakers slip

Learners tend to pronounce the final "o" as a full, open "oh" as in English "go", when European Portuguese always tucks it up into a short "oo". This reduction is present in both Brazilian and European Portuguese, but European speech is generally faster and clips it more aggressively, so "amigo" ends up sounding closer to "ah-MEE-goo" said briskly rather than the more drawn-out Brazilian "a-MEE-goo".