Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

carro is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ˈka.ʁu]. It means “car.” Say 'KA-hoo', where the double r is a rough, throat-clearing sound like the French/German r, not an English or Spanish rolled r.

Say 'KA-hoo', where the double r is a rough, throat-clearing sound like the French/German r, not an English or Spanish rolled r.

carro [ˈka.ʁu]

Stress is on the first syllable; the double r (rr) is always pronounced as a strong guttural sound in the throat, and the final o is a short 'oo', not 'oh'.

Listen: carro

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Sound it out

ca A clear, stressed 'ka' as in English 'car'.

rr A uvular fricative made in the back of the throat, similar to a French r or the 'ch' in Scottish 'loch' — much harsher than any English r sound.

o Unstressed final o always sounds like a short 'oo', as in 'book', never like 'oh'.

Hear it in a sentence

O meu carro é azul.

My car is blue.

Listen: O meu carro é azul.

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O meu carro é azul places the possessive meu before the noun, agreeing with the masculine carro, exactly the reverse order of how possession sometimes gets emphasized in English. Once again é (from ser) is used for an inherent, defining property — the car's color — rather than estar, since color here is treated as a lasting characteristic.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers routinely under-power the double r, turning carro into something close to the single light tap used in a word like fruta. In real European Portuguese rr must be a strong, back-of-the-throat rasp — skipping that distinction can even create confusion with other words, since single r and double r are genuinely different sounds, not just a matter of emphasis.