Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

esquecer is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ɨʃkɨˈseɾ]. It means “to forget.” Say "ush-kuh-SEHR" — the opening es- hisses like 'sh', and stress lands on the final, open -cer.

Say "ush-kuh-SEHR" — the opening es- hisses like 'sh', and stress lands on the final, open -cer.

esquecer [ɨʃkɨˈseɾ]

Stress falls on the last syllable -cer; the two earlier syllables both reduce heavily, with the initial s hissing to 'sh' before a consonant and the following e nearly disappearing.

Listen: esquecer

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Sound it out

es- The e reduces to a faint 'uh', and because the s sits before another consonant, it hisses like 'sh' — together, roughly "ush".

que- Qu before e is pronounced like a plain 'k' (the u is silent here), and the following e reduces to almost nothing — close to just "kuh".

-cer Stressed: c before e is a soft 's' sound, giving a clear 'seh' followed by a soft final r.

Hear it in a sentence

Não te esqueças da chave.

Don't forget the key.

Listen: Não te esqueças da chave.

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"Não te esqueças da chave" ("Don't forget the key") uses the negative imperative with não + present subjunctive (esqueças), the standard way to give a negative command in Portuguese rather than a direct imperative form. Da is a contraction of de + a, and chave ("key") is feminine, which is why the article takes the feminine a form.

Where English speakers slip

Learners often pronounce the qu in que- as "kw" (as in English "quick"), saying something like "esh-KWEH-ser", when Portuguese qu before e or i is simply a plain 'k' with a silent u; this spelling pattern (qu + e/i = k) applies throughout Portuguese and is worth memorizing as a rule rather than sounding out letter by letter.