Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

cão is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [kɐ̃w̃]. It means “dog.” Say "kowng" but stop before finishing the "ng" — just let the vowel go nasal, like saying "cow" through your nose.

Say "kowng" but stop before finishing the "ng" — just let the vowel go nasal, like saying "cow" through your nose.

cão [kɐ̃w̃]

This is a single syllable carrying the full weight of the nasal diphthong ão; there is no separate stress to mark since there's only one syllable.

Listen: cão

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Sound it out

c A hard k sound, exactly like English "k" in "cow".

ão A nasal diphthong that glides from an open "ah" toward "oo/ow", with the entire sound pushed through the nose — similar to French "an" combined with a slight "ow" glide.

Hear it in a sentence

O meu cão gosta de correr.

My dog likes to run.

Listen: O meu cão gosta de correr.

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"O meu cão gosta de correr" uses gostar de (to like) followed by an infinitive, correr (to run), which is the standard structure for expressing likes about activities — always with de before the verb. O meu cão ("my dog") places the possessive meu after the article, agreeing in gender and number with cão (masculine singular).

Where English speakers slip

Non-native speakers often pronounce ão as a plain, non-nasal "ow" or even split it into two clear vowels; in true European Portuguese the whole diphthong must be nasalized in one continuous breath, and skipping the nasal quality is one of the fastest ways to sound foreign, since this exact vowel has no real English equivalent.