Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

muito is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ˈmũj.tu]. It means “a lot.” Say "MOOY-too" but push the vowel through your nose on the "ui" part — it's not a plain "mwee-toh".

Say "MOOY-too" but push the vowel through your nose on the "ui" part — it's not a plain "mwee-toh".

muito [ˈmũj.tu]

Stress falls on the first syllable; the "ui" is a single nasalized glide, not two clear vowels.

Listen: muito

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Sound it out

m Just like English "m".

ui A nasal glide from "oo" toward "ee", said through the nose — closer to the vowel in French "un" than to English "we".

to Unstressed, so the "o" shrinks to a short "oo" sound, almost "too" with a clipped vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

Como muito ao fim de semana.

I eat a lot on the weekend.

Listen: Como muito ao fim de semana.

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"Como muito ao fim de semana" uses "muito" as an adverb modifying the verb "como" (I eat), meaning "I eat a lot" — this adverbial use (right after the verb) is different from using "muito/muita" as an adjective agreeing with a noun (e.g. "muita comida"). Note "ao fim de semana" is the standard EU Portuguese way to say "on the weekend", where Brazilian Portuguese would more often say "no fim de semana".

Where English speakers slip

English speakers often say a clean, oral "moo-ee-toh", but in EU Portuguese the "ui" is nasalized and glides quickly, and native speakers frequently clip it to something closer to "mũj" + a barely-there final vowel. Brazilian speakers tend to pronounce the final "o" more fully as "-too"; in Lisbon speech it's much more reduced, almost swallowed.