Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

laranja is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [lɐˈɾɐ̃ʒɐ]. It means “orange.” Roughly "luh-RUHN-zhuh" — the leading "a" shrinks to "uh," the middle syllable is nasalized, and "j" sounds like the "s" in English "pleasure."

Roughly "luh-RUHN-zhuh" — the leading "a" shrinks to "uh," the middle syllable is nasalized, and "j" sounds like the "s" in English "pleasure."

laranja [lɐˈɾɐ̃ʒɐ]

Stress falls on the second syllable, which is a nasal vowel; both the first and last "a"s are unstressed and reduce to a neutral "uh" rather than a full "ah."

Listen: laranja

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Sound it out

la This unstressed "a" reduces to a quick "uh," like the "a" in English "about."

ran A nasalized vowel, air flowing through the nose, not a vowel followed by a separate "n" consonant.

j Pronounced like the "s" in English "pleasure" or "j" in French "jour" — never like the English "j" in "jump."

a This final unstressed "a" also reduces to a short, neutral "uh" sound.

Hear it in a sentence

Comprei uma T-shirt laranja.

I bought an orange T-shirt.

Listen: Comprei uma T-shirt laranja.

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"Comprei uma T-shirt laranja" means "I bought an orange T-shirt." Like several color words used as adjectives from nouns (here, the fruit "orange"), "laranja" is invariable and doesn't change for gender or number the way "vermelho" or "branco" do — it stays "laranja" whether describing one item or several, masculine or feminine.

Where English speakers slip

Learners often keep both "a" vowels fully open, saying something like "lah-RAHN-zhah," and may pronounce "j" like the English "j" sound. In European Portuguese those unstressed edge vowels compress noticeably more than they would in Brazilian Portuguese, and the "j" must stay soft and fricative (the "zh" sound), never hardening into an English-style "j."