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Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "não" in Portuguese (Portugal)?
nowng — like the English word 'now' pushed through your nose, with a light nasal trail-off, not a crisp English 'ow' or a hard 'n' ending.
A single syllable; the tilde marks nasalization — the whole 'ão' diphthong is pronounced through the nose, which is the hardest part for English speakers to get right.
Listen: não
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Não, obrigado.
No, thank you.
Listen: Não, obrigado.
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"Não, obrigado" pairs the negative with thanks, a common polite refusal formula equivalent to English "no, thank you." "Não" is also the standard way to negate verbs generally, placed directly before the verb.
Where English speakers slip
The most common error is pronouncing "não" as a clean, oral "now" or "nah-oo" without nasalizing it; the nasal quality is essential to being understood in Portuguese — a purely oral vowel can sound unclear or like a different word entirely.