Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

lento is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written ˈlẽ.tu. It means “slow.” Say "LENG-too", with a nasal "e" and a short, tight final "oo".

Say "LENG-too", with a nasal "e" and a short, tight final "oo".

lento ˈlẽ.tu

Stress falls on the first syllable "len"; the nasal vowel there is essential to the word's sound.

Listen: lento

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Sound it out

len A nasal "e", pushed through the nose, similar to the nasal vowel in French "lent" (the same word's French cognate).

to The t stays a crisp dental "t", and the final o shortens to "oo".

Hear it in a sentence

O comboio está lento hoje.

The train is slow today.

Listen: O comboio está lento hoje.

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"O comboio está lento hoje" uses "estar" because the train's slowness today is a temporary, situational state, not an inherent trait. "Comboio" is the European Portuguese word for "train" — Brazilian Portuguese uses "trem" instead, a useful EP-specific vocabulary marker. "Hoje" (today) again appears at the end, the typical position for time adverbs.

Where English speakers slip

Learners sometimes pronounce the final "to" with a soft "tch" sound picked up from Brazilian Portuguese, but European Portuguese keeps a hard, dental "t" throughout — "LENG-too", not "LENG-choo". Also don't skip the nasalization on "en"; a plain oral "e" instead makes the word harder for native listeners to parse.