LingoDrop
Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "governo" in Portuguese (Portugal)?
Say "goo-VEHR-noo", stressing the middle syllable, with a light tapped r and both o's closed to "oo".
Stress falls on the second syllable "ver"; both surrounding o's are unstressed and close to "oo", a common pattern for unstressed o in Portuguese.
Listen: governo
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
O governo anunciou novas leis.
The government announced new laws.
Listen: O governo anunciou novas leis.
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
"O governo anunciou novas leis" uses "anunciou", the simple past (pretérito perfeito) of "anunciar" (to announce), describing a single completed action. "Novas leis" places the adjective before the noun here (rather than the more typical noun-then-adjective order), which is common with certain everyday adjectives like "novo" that can appear either before or after the noun with a subtle emphasis difference. Plural agreement runs through "novas" and "leis", both feminine plural.
Where English speakers slip
The two unstressed o's are the main trap: English speakers often pronounce them as full "oh" sounds ("go-VEHR-noh") instead of closing them to "oo" ("goo-VEHR-noo") as European Portuguese requires. This unstressed-o-to-"oo" reduction is shared with Brazilian Portuguese in principle, but European speech applies it more consistently and clips the vowels more sharply overall, making the word feel faster and tighter than a Brazilian pronunciation would.