How to Pronounce 'Guerra': Portuguese (Portugal) Pronunciation Guide

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

guerra is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ˈɡɛ.ʁɐ]. It means “war.” Say "GEH-rruh", with a hard English "g", an open "eh", and a rough, throaty "rr" like a French or German "r".

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

Say "GEH-rruh", with a hard English "g", an open "eh", and a rough, throaty "rr" like a French or German "r".

guerra [ˈɡɛ.ʁɐ]

Stress is on the first syllable "guer"; "gue" is a hard "g" plus open "e" (the "u" is silent, just there to keep the "g" hard), and double "rr" is pronounced as a strong guttural sound, not a light tap.

Listen: guerra

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Sound it out

gue A hard English "g" as in "get" (the silent "u" just keeps the g from softening), followed by an open "e" as in "bed".

rr A strong, throaty sound made at the back of the throat, similar to a French or German "r", or a hard English "h" — quite different from the light single-tap "r" found in words like mar or amor.

a Unstressed final "a" reduces to a light, quick central "uh".

Hear it in a sentence

A guerra trouxe muito sofrimento.

The war brought a lot of suffering.

Listen: A guerra trouxe muito sofrimento.

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"A guerra trouxe muito sofrimento" means "The war brought a lot of suffering." "Trouxe" is the irregular preterite (simple past) of trazer (to bring), a verb whose past tense forms are worth memorizing early since they don't follow a regular pattern; "muito sofrimento" shows "muito" used as an adjective-like intensifier before an uncountable noun.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers usually try a light, tapped "r" for the double "rr", the same sound they might use for a single r in mar. In European Portuguese, double "rr" (and word-initial "r") is a strong, guttural sound produced in the back of the throat, closer to a French "r" or English "h" than to any tapped consonant — this contrasts sharply with the light r-sound elsewhere in the language and is a common source of under-articulation by learners.