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Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "avó" in Portuguese (Portugal)?
Say "uh-VAW", stressing the last syllable with an open "aw" vowel, like the o in English "raw".
Stress falls on the final syllable, marked by the acute accent; the o is open ("aw"), which is what the accent mark signals as opposed to a closed o.
Listen: avó
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
A minha avó mora no Porto.
My grandmother lives in Porto.
Listen: A minha avó mora no Porto.
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"A minha avó mora no Porto" places the city name "Porto" after "no" (em + o, in the), and Porto is treated as needing the definite article in this common expression, unlike most place names in Portuguese. "Mora" again comes from "morar" (to live/reside), the standard verb for residence. This is a simple declarative sentence with straightforward subject-verb-location order.
Where English speakers slip
The critical distinction for English speakers is the open vowel here versus the closed vowel in "avô" (grandfather) — mixing these up is a genuinely common and confusing error since the words differ by accent mark alone. Practice contrasting "avó" (open, like "aw") against "avô" (closed, like "oh") side by side; this vowel-openness distinction is preserved identically in both European and Brazilian Portuguese, so it's not a regional issue, just a precision issue.