Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

camisa is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kɐˈmizɐ/. It means “shirt.” Say "kuh-MEE-zuh" — the stress lands hard on the middle syllable, and both a's are swallowed to a quick "uh".

Say "kuh-MEE-zuh" — the stress lands hard on the middle syllable, and both a's are swallowed to a quick "uh".

camisa /kɐˈmizɐ/

Stress falls on the second syllable, "mi"; the first and last "a" are unstressed and reduce almost to a schwa, never a full open "ah" as in Spanish.

Listen: camisa

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Sound it out

ca Unstressed "a" here is a fast, faint "uh", nothing like the clear "ah" you'd expect from Spanish or Italian.

mi The stressed syllable — a clean, short English "ee" as in "meet", with normal stress energy.

sa The "s" between two vowels is voiced, like the "z" in English "zoo"; the final "a" is again a weak "uh".

Hear it in a sentence

Comprei uma camisa nova.

I bought a new shirt.

Listen: Comprei uma camisa nova.

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"Comprei uma camisa nova" ("I bought a new shirt") uses the everyday past tense "comprei", from "comprar", and places the adjective "nova" after the noun, which is the normal word order for descriptive adjectives in Portuguese. "Camisa" specifically means a button-style shirt, distinct from a T-shirt ("t-shirt" or "camisola", which in European Portuguese actually means "sweater").

Where English speakers slip

English speakers tend to give the first and last "a" their full vowel value, saying something like "kah-MEE-sah". In Lisbon speech those unstressed vowels collapse to a quick, almost swallowed "uh" — think "kuh-MEE-zuh" — which is very different from the fuller vowels used in Brazilian Portuguese, where unstressed final "a" stays more open.