Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

casa is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ˈka.zɐ]. It means “house, home.” Say "KAH-zuh", with the s in the middle sounding like an English "z", not an "s".

Say "KAH-zuh", with the s in the middle sounding like an English "z", not an "s".

casa [ˈka.zɐ]

Stress falls on the first syllable; the intervocalic s is voiced to a "z" sound, and the final unstressed a reduces to "uh".

Listen: casa

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Sound it out

ca Stressed, a clear open "kah".

s Between two vowels, s is pronounced like English "z", not like an English "s" — this is a consistent Portuguese spelling rule, not an exception.

a Unstressed final a reduces to a light "uh", not a full "ah".

Hear it in a sentence

Vou para casa agora.

I'm going home now.

Listen: Vou para casa agora.

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"Vou para casa agora" uses "vou" (I go, from "ir") with "para casa" as a fixed idiomatic expression meaning "home" — notably, "casa" here takes no article, unlike most nouns, because "ir para casa" (to go home) is a set phrase, much like English "go home" needs no article either. "Agora" (now) closes the sentence as a time adverb.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers often pronounce the middle s as a hissing English "s" ("KAH-sah") instead of voicing it to "z" ("KAH-zuh") — this voicing rule for intervocalic s applies throughout Portuguese and is identical in both European and Brazilian varieties, so it's a general Portuguese pronunciation rule rather than a regional marker; the more distinctly European trait is clipping that final "a" down to a light "uh" rather than the fuller vowel Brazilian speech tends to keep.