Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

Say 'EESH-too', with a soft 'sh' in the middle before the 't', and a short 'oo' at the end.

isto [ˈiʃ.tu]

Stress on the first syllable; the 's' before the consonant 't' becomes 'sh' [ʃ], and the final 'o' reduces to a short [u].

Listen: isto

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Sound it out

is Stressed syllable where the 's' before 't' softens to 'sh' [ʃ] — sounds like English 'eesh', not 'iss'.

to A true dental 't' followed by a reduced 'oo' [u] vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

O que é isto?

What is this?

Listen: O que é isto?

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'O que é isto?' uses the neuter demonstrative 'isto' for an unspecified or unidentified object, unlike 'este/esta' which require knowing the noun's gender. This makes 'isto' especially handy early on, when you don't yet know the gender of whatever you're pointing at.

Where English speakers slip

As with 'este', the key mistake is treating the internal 's' as a plain English 's' rather than softening it to 'sh' before the 't'. Learners exposed mainly to Brazilian Portuguese may also expect the following dental 't' sound to be unaffected — which is correct here, since 't' before 'o' never palatalizes in either dialect, unlike 't' before 'i/e'.