Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

emprego is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ẽˈpɾegu]. It means “job, employment.” Say "eng-PREH-goo" — the em is nasal, almost like "eng," and the stress lands on "PRE."

Say "eng-PREH-goo" — the em is nasal, almost like "eng," and the stress lands on "PRE."

emprego [ẽˈpɾegu]

Stress falls on the second syllable "pre"; the initial em is a nasal vowel, pronounced through the nose rather than as a vowel followed by a separate m sound.

Listen: emprego

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Sound it out

em- Nasalized, similar to the "eng" in English "length" said through the nose, with no real lip closure for the m.

-PRE- The stressed syllable, a clear "preh" as in "prayer" without the glide.

-go Hard g as in "go," with the final o closing toward a short "oo."

Hear it in a sentence

Encontrei um emprego novo.

I found a new job.

Listen: Encontrei um emprego novo.

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"Encontrei um emprego novo" uses encontrei, the preterite of encontrar ("to find"), and places the adjective novo after the noun, which is the default word order for most descriptive adjectives in Portuguese. Um here is the indefinite article "a," agreeing with the masculine noun emprego.

Where English speakers slip

Learners often pronounce em as "em" with a closed-lip m, the way it looks; European Portuguese instead nasalizes the vowel itself and barely touches the lips, so it sounds closer to "eng" than "em." This nasal quality, combined with the crisp final "-go" (never softened to "dj" or "ch" sounds the way some consonant clusters can be in Brazilian dialects), is central to sounding authentically European.