Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

assustado is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ɐsuʃˈtaðu]. It means “afraid.” Say "uh-soosh-TA-doo," with the stress punching on "TA" and that middle "s" turning into a "sh."

Say "uh-soosh-TA-doo," with the stress punching on "TA" and that middle "s" turning into a "sh."

assustado [ɐsuʃˈtaðu]

Stress falls on the third syllable "ta"; the double ss is just a spelling convention for a single [s] sound, but the s that closes the second syllable (before the following consonant-like break) shifts to [ʃ].

Listen: assustado

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Sound it out

as- Opens with a quick, reduced "uh," not a full English "ass" — the a is short and unstressed.

-sus- The double s is one plain [s] as in "soon," but the syllable-final s at the end of this chunk sounds like "sh," giving "soosh."

-ta-do "TA" is the loud, clear stressed syllable; the final "do" softens to "doo" with the d staying a true dental d, and the o shrinking toward "oo."

Hear it in a sentence

Estou assustado com a tempestade.

I'm afraid of the storm.

Listen: Estou assustado com a tempestade.

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"Estou assustado com a tempestade" pairs estar with a past participle used adjectivally, a very common EU Portuguese pattern for describing an emotional reaction. The preposition com ("with/by") is required after assustado to introduce the cause of the fright, much like "scared of/by" in English.

Where English speakers slip

Learners tend to pronounce every letter distinctly, including a hard double s and a full "oh" at the end; in real European speech the word compresses to something closer to "ush-toosh-TA-doo," with unstressed vowels thinning out. Brazilian Portuguese would keep the final o rounder and fuller, so the clipped, swallowed European ending is the key marker to imitate.