Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

em is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ɐ̃j̃]. It means “in.” A nasal sound close to English 'eng' without the 'g' — say 'eh' while letting the air escape through your nose, ending with a light nasal 'y' glide.

A nasal sound close to English 'eng' without the 'g' — say 'eh' while letting the air escape through your nose, ending with a light nasal 'y' glide.

em [ɐ̃j̃]

Single syllable, inherently stressed when spoken alone; the final 'm' again isn't a true consonant but a nasalization marker, and this one carries a slight glide making it a nasal diphthong.

Listen: em

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

Sound it out

e An open-ish 'eh' vowel that gets nasalized — air flows through the nose the whole time you say it.

m Not pronounced as a closed-lip consonant; it just marks the nasal quality and adds a faint 'y'-like glide at the end.

Hear it in a sentence

Moro em Lisboa.

I live in Lisbon.

Listen: Moro em Lisboa.

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

'Moro em Lisboa' uses 'em' to mean 'in' with a city name, which is standard — Portuguese doesn't need an extra article here the way some languages do. 'Em' also covers 'at' and 'on' in many contexts, so its meaning is broader than English 'in'.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers tend to pronounce 'em' like the letter name 'M' or like English 'em' in 'them', with no nasalization. In EP the vowel must be pushed through the nose — skipping that nasal quality is one of the most immediately noticeable 'foreign accent' markers to native listeners.