Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

ano is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈanu/. It means “year.” Say "AH-noo", with a clear open "AH" up front and the final "o" closing to "oo".

Say "AH-noo", with a clear open "AH" up front and the final "o" closing to "oo".

ano /ˈanu/

Stress is on the first syllable, kept as a full open "a"; the unstressed final "o" closes to "oo" as usual in European Portuguese.

Listen: ano

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

Sound it out

a A clear, stressed, open "ah" vowel, held with full value since it carries the word's stress.

no Unstressed final "o" closes to a short "oo", not the fuller "oh" an English or Brazilian Portuguese speaker might use.

Hear it in a sentence

Este ano vou a Lisboa.

This year I'm going to Lisbon.

Listen: Este ano vou a Lisboa.

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

"Este ano vou a Lisboa" means "This year I'm going to Lisbon", with "ano" taking the masculine demonstrative "este". The verb phrase "vou a" ("I'm going to") uses the preposition "a" for destinations, which is standard before city names, whereas some other destination types use "para" instead — a nuance worth flagging for learners building similar travel sentences.

Where English speakers slip

The main risk is over-opening the final "o", saying "AH-noh" instead of the correctly closed "AH-noo" — a subtle but telling difference from casual English pronunciation and from the somewhat fuller vowel Brazilian speakers often use. Also be careful not to confuse "ano" (year) with the near-homophone "ânus"/"anho" in casual fast speech; keeping the vowel quality and stress clean avoids ambiguity.