How to Pronounce 'Obrigado': Portuguese (Portugal) Pronunciation Guide

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

obrigado is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ubɾiˈɣaðu]. It means “thank you.” oo-bree-GAH-doo — stress punches the third syllable 'GA'; the initial 'o' is barely there (often almost swallowed in fast speech), and the final 'o' is a light 'oo', not a full 'oh'.

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

oo-bree-GAH-doo — stress punches the third syllable 'GA'; the initial 'o' is barely there (often almost swallowed in fast speech), and the final 'o' is a light 'oo', not a full 'oh'.

obrigado [ubɾiˈɣaðu]

Stress falls on '-ga-'; both the initial and final 'o' are unstressed and reduce toward 'oo' — in casual speech the first 'o' is so weak it's often dropped entirely, sounding close to 'brigado'.

Listen: obrigado

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Sound it out

o Unstressed initial vowel, reduced to a very faint 'oo' — in fast casual speech many speakers drop it almost entirely, saying something close to just 'brigado'.

bri 'br' as in English 'bring', followed by a short 'ee' — unstressed, said quickly.

ga The stressed syllable: a hard 'g' (as in 'go', never soft) plus an open 'ah' vowel — this is where the emphasis lands.

do Unstressed final syllable: 'd' stays a true, crisp 'd' sound (not softened), followed by a light 'oo', clipped short — never a full 'oh'.

Hear it in a sentence

Obrigado pela ajuda.

Thank you for the help.

Listen: Obrigado pela ajuda.

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"Obrigado" literally means "obliged" and agrees grammatically with the speaker's own gender: a man says "obrigado," a woman says "obrigada," regardless of who is being thanked. "Obrigado pela ajuda" uses "pela" (a contraction of "por" + "a") to specify what's being thanked for.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers often give equal, full weight to every vowel ("oh-bree-GAH-doh"); in European Portuguese the unstressed o's reduce almost to nothing, especially the first one, which is frequently dropped in casual speech. This vowel-swallowing is also one of the clearest tells versus Brazilian Portuguese, which keeps the vowels much fuller and rounder throughout the word.