How to Pronounce 'Dinheiro': Portuguese (Portugal) Pronunciation Guide

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

dinheiro is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [diˈɲej.ɾu]. It means “money.” Say "dee-NYAY-roo", with a true dental d, a palatal "ny" sound in the middle, and a light tapped r near the end.

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

Say "dee-NYAY-roo", with a true dental d, a palatal "ny" sound in the middle, and a light tapped r near the end.

dinheiro [diˈɲej.ɾu]

Stress falls on the second syllable "nhei"; the "nh" is a palatal nasal and "ei" is a diphthong gliding from "eh" toward "ee".

Listen: dinheiro

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

di Unstressed, but crucially the d stays a true dental "d" (tongue behind the upper teeth, like English "d") even before "i" — it never becomes an affricate "j"/"dj" sound the way it commonly does in Brazilian Portuguese.

nhei Stressed: "nh" is the palatal nasal [ɲ], like "ny" in "canyon", followed by the "ei" diphthong gliding from "eh" to "ee", like the ay in English "day" but a bit shorter.

ro Unstressed final syllable with a light tapped r and a reduced, closed "oo" vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

Não tenho muito dinheiro.

I don't have much money.

Listen: Não tenho muito dinheiro.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Não tenho muito dinheiro" is a simple negative statement using "não" before the verb (Portuguese negates by placing "não" directly before the conjugated verb, with no auxiliary "do" needed as in English). "Muito" functions adverbially again, modifying the amount of money implied. "Dinheiro" is uncountable/mass-noun in this context, just like English "money".

Where English speakers slip

The most important European-specific pitfall is the initial "di": European Portuguese keeps it a pure dental "d" plus "ee" sound, while Brazilian Portuguese would turn that same sequence into a "dj" affricate, making "dinheiro" sound almost like "jee-NYAY-ro" in Brazil versus a crisp "dee-NYAY-ro" in Lisbon. Since this word starts with exactly the sound pattern that most sharply divides the two accents, it's an excellent one to drill for the European-specific dental articulation.