Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "com fome" in Portuguese (Portugal)?

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

com fome is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written kõ ˈfɔ.mɨ. It means “hungry.” Say "kong FAW-muh" — "com" is nasal, and "fome" has an open "aw"-like o with an almost-silent final e.

Say "kong FAW-muh" — "com" is nasal, and "fome" has an open "aw"-like o with an almost-silent final e.

com fome kõ ˈfɔ.mɨ

As a two-word phrase, the main stress falls on "FO" in "fome"; "com" is a short, nasal, unstressed function word.

Listen: com fome

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Sound it out

com A nasal "o", like the nasal vowel heard in "contente" — not pronounced with a hard final m.

fo The stressed vowel here is open, closer to the "aw" in English "law" than to a closed "oh".

me A nearly-silent final syllable, reduced to a light "muh".

Hear it in a sentence

Estás com fome?

Are you hungry?

Listen: Estás com fome?

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Portuguese expresses "to be hungry" idiomatically as "estar com fome" (literally "to be with hunger"), using the noun "fome" rather than an adjective. "Estás com fome?" is the informal "tu" question form, natural among friends and family in Portugal. This noun-based construction, not a direct adjective, is why "fome" behaves grammatically like "hunger" rather than "hungry".

Where English speakers slip

Because English uses the adjective "hungry", learners often try to translate word-for-word with an adjective and miss that Portuguese requires the "estar com + noun" construction. On pronunciation, the stressed "o" in "fome" is open (like "aw"), and many English speakers default to a closed "oh" instead — listen for the more open quality, distinct from the closed o in "como".