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

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

importante is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ĩpuɾ'tɐ̃tɨ]. It means “important.” Say "eem-poor-TAHNG-tuh," with nasal vowels on both "im" and "-tan-," and a final e that trails off almost silently.

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

Say "eem-poor-TAHNG-tuh," with nasal vowels on both "im" and "-tan-," and a final e that trails off almost silently.

importante [ĩpuɾ'tɐ̃tɨ]

Stress falls on TAN; both "im" and the "an" in "-tante" are nasal vowels pronounced through the nose, and the unstressed o in "por" reduces toward "oo."

Listen: importante

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Sound it out

im A nasal "ee" sound, air pushed through the nose — closer to a nasalized English "eem" than a full "im" with a hard m at the end.

por The o reduces toward "oo," and the r is a light tap — unstressed, so it moves by quickly.

tan A true dental t, then a nasal "ah" vowel — again, air through the nose, similar to French "an" in "dans" — this carries the main stress.

te Dental t plus a final e that reduces almost to nothing, more a breath than a full "teh."

Hear it in a sentence

Isto é muito importante para mim.

This is very important to me.

Listen: Isto é muito importante para mim.

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"Isto é muito importante para mim" (This is very important to me) uses "mim" as the stressed object form of "eu" (I) after the preposition "para" — a common point of confusion, since English just uses "me" everywhere, while Portuguese has different pronoun forms depending on grammatical role. "Ser" fits here because importance is being asserted as a general, standing judgment rather than a fleeting state.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers usually pronounce both "im" and "an" as plain oral vowels with a hard following consonant, saying something like "im-por-TAN-teh" with clear m's and n's. In European Portuguese both are nasal vowels — the m and n are not fully pronounced as consonants, they just mark that the vowel before them should resonate through the nose. Also watch the final -te: it should be clipped and light, not given the fuller "teh" or "tchee" sound Brazilian Portuguese would use before that vowel.