Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

branco is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ˈbɾɐ̃ku]. It means “white.” Say "BRUHN-koo," nasalizing the first vowel through your nose rather than pronouncing a clear "an" like in English.

Say "BRUHN-koo," nasalizing the first vowel through your nose rather than pronouncing a clear "an" like in English.

branco [ˈbɾɐ̃ku]

Stress is on the first syllable, which is a nasal vowel (not vowel-plus-"n"); the final unstressed "o" reduces to "oo."

Listen: branco

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Sound it out

br A true dental-adjacent "b" followed by a light tongue-tap "r," not an English "r."

an A single nasalized vowel, air flowing through the nose, rather than a vowel followed by a distinct "n" consonant.

co A hard "k" sound, with the final unstressed "o" shrinking toward "oo."

Hear it in a sentence

O vestido é branco.

The dress is white.

Listen: O vestido é branco.

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"O vestido é branco" means "The dress is white." Again "é" appears because the dress's color is presented as an inherent characteristic; note that "branco" agrees in gender and number with the noun it describes, becoming "branca," "brancos," or "brancas" as needed elsewhere.

Where English speakers slip

The recurring trap with nasal vowels is treating "an" as a full vowel plus a pronounced "n," the way English "ban" works. European Portuguese folds the nasality entirely into the vowel, with no real consonant contact — a distinction that matters just as much here as it does in "cinco" and "onze," and one that both English and, to a lesser degree, Brazilian-accented learners tend to under-nasalize.