Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

coração is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [kuɾɐˈsɐ̃w̃]. It means “heart.” Say "koo-ruh-SOW" (last syllable rhymes with English "how") pushed through the nose.

Say "koo-ruh-SOW" (last syllable rhymes with English "how") pushed through the nose.

coração [kuɾɐˈsɐ̃w̃]

Stress is on the final syllable "ção", which carries a nasal diphthong; the first two syllables are both unstressed and reduce heavily.

Listen: coração

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Sound it out

co Unstressed "o" is pronounced like a short "oo" (as in "book"), not "oh".

ra Unstressed "a" reduces to a quick, light "uh", with a light tapped "r" before it.

ção "ç" is a plain "s" sound, followed by the nasal diphthong "ão" — the vowel in English "how" said through the nose — and this whole syllable is loud and stressed.

Hear it in a sentence

O meu coração bate depressa.

My heart is beating fast.

Listen: O meu coração bate depressa.

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"O meu coração bate depressa" means "My heart beats fast." "Depressa" (fast, quickly) is an adverb that modifies the verb "bate" (beats); note it's a single word in Portuguese, unlike the two-word English phrase, and it should not be confused with the false friend "depressão" (depression).

Where English speakers slip

Learners tend to give equal stress to all three syllables and skip the nasalization on the final one, producing something like "ko-ra-SAO" with a plain oral vowel. The whole word should lean hard onto that final nasal "ção", with the first two syllables clipped and light by comparison — a rhythm pattern typical of European Portuguese's strong reduction of unstressed vowels.