How to Pronounce 'Fim De Semana': Portuguese (Portugal) Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce fim de semana in Portuguese (Portugal)?

fim de semana is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /fĩ dɨ sɨˈmɐnɐ/. It means “weekend.” Say "feeng duh suh-MUH-nuh" — a quick nasal "feeng", a barely-there "duh", then "semana" with its usual reduced outer syllables and stressed middle.

How do you pronounce "fim de semana" in Portuguese (Portugal)?

Say "feeng duh suh-MUH-nuh" — a quick nasal "feeng", a barely-there "duh", then "semana" with its usual reduced outer syllables and stressed middle.

fim de semana /fĩ dɨ sɨˈmɐnɐ/

The overall phrase carries its main stress on "MA" in "semana"; "fim" is nasal and "de" reduces almost to nothing, both typical of unstressed European Portuguese function words.

Listen: fim de semana

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

Sound it out

fim A nasal "feeng" sound, air through the nose, similar to the "im" in French "fin", not the oral English "fim".

de Reduces to a quick, almost swallowed "duh" — the "e" barely registers as a vowel in fast speech.

semana Follows its own pattern: reduced "suh", stressed open "MAH", reduced "nuh" — see the entry for "semana" alone.

Hear it in a sentence

O que fazes no fim de semana?

What are you doing on the weekend?

Listen: O que fazes no fim de semana?

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

"O que fazes no fim de semana?" means "What are you doing on the weekend?", with "fim de semana" (literally "end of week") as the standard Portuguese way to say "weekend" — there's no single-word equivalent. The preposition "no" (a contraction of "em" + "o") is used before "fim de semana" to mean "on/during" the weekend, paralleling how English uses "on the weekend".

Where English speakers slip

Because this is a three-word phrase, learners often give each word too much individual weight and pause between them, when native speakers run it together smoothly with "fim" and "de" both heavily reduced and unstressed, saving the vocal energy for "semana"'s stressed middle syllable. Treating the whole phrase as one rhythmic unit, rather than three separate words, is key to sounding natural.