Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

baixo is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written ['bajʃu]. It means “short.” Say "BYE-shoo" — the "ai" is one gliding diphthong like English "eye," and the x is a soft "sh" sound, not a "ks" or "z."

Say "BYE-shoo" — the "ai" is one gliding diphthong like English "eye," and the x is a soft "sh" sound, not a "ks" or "z."

baixo ['bajʃu]

Stress falls on the first syllable, which contains the diphthong "ai"; the letter x here is pronounced [ʃ] ("sh"), a spelling quirk that has nothing to do with the English letter x.

Listen: baixo

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Sound it out

bai Like the "bye" in English "goodbye" — b plus a smooth ah-to-ee glide, all in one syllable.

x Pronounced "sh" as in English "shoe," not "ks" as in "box" or "z" as in "xylophone" — Portuguese x very often means "sh."

o The final o reduces to a short, clipped "oo" sound rather than a full "oh."

Hear it in a sentence

Ele é baixo.

He is short.

Listen: Ele é baixo.

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"Ele é baixo" (He is short) is a simple subject-verb-adjective sentence using "ser" for an inherent physical trait — height is considered a lasting characteristic, so "ser" is correct here rather than "estar." This is a good template sentence for practicing basic descriptions of people.

Where English speakers slip

The biggest trap is reading "x" the way English does, producing something like "BYE-ksoh" or "BYE-zoh." In this word x is a pure "sh" sound, so it should sound like "BYE-shoo." This is the same x-as-sh pattern seen in words like "caixa" and "peixe," and it holds in both European and Brazilian Portuguese, so at least this part doesn't change between dialects.