Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

Say "mysh" — like the English word "my" followed by a soft "sh", not "mice".

mais [majʃ]

This is a single-syllable word; the final "s" is the telltale EU Portuguese "sh" sound, never a hard "s" or "z".

Listen: mais

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

m Like English "m".

ai A diphthong like the "y" in English "my" or "eye".

s At the end of a word, European Portuguese "s" softens to "sh" as in "shoe", not a hissing "s" or buzzing "z".

Hear it in a sentence

Quero mais café, por favor.

I want more coffee, please.

Listen: Quero mais café, por favor.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Quero mais café, por favor" (I want more coffee, please) shows "mais" used as a simple quantity adverb before a noun, one of the most frequent structures for ordering or requesting things. "Por favor" is the standard polite tag for requests, used constantly in everyday EU Portuguese.

Where English speakers slip

Learners with Brazilian exposure often pronounce the final "s" as a clear "s" or "z" sound, since many Brazilian accents don't shift word-final "s" to "sh". In Lisbon speech, that final "s" always softens to "sh", so "mais" should sound like "mysh", not "mice" or "mize".