Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

pensar is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [pẽˈsaɾ]. It means “to think.” Say "peh(n)-SAR" with the first syllable pushed through the nose — think of a nasal twang on the 'en', not a clear English 'n' sound.

Say "peh(n)-SAR" with the first syllable pushed through the nose — think of a nasal twang on the 'en', not a clear English 'n' sound.

pensar [pẽˈsaɾ]

Stress falls on the final -sar; the pen- syllable is a true nasal vowel, meaning the air passes through the nose during the vowel itself rather than the n being a separate consonant sound.

Listen: pensar

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Sound it out

pen- This is a nasal vowel: say 'eh' while letting air escape through your nose, the way you might hum through a stuffy nose — the n is not pronounced as a separate hard consonant the way it is in English "pen".

-sar Stressed: a clean, non-nasal 'ah' sound followed by a soft final r, with a plain s (not 'z', since it isn't between two vowels).

Hear it in a sentence

O que pensas disto?

What do you think about this?

Listen: O que pensas disto?

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"O que pensas disto?" ("What do you think of this?") uses pensas, the informal tu form, matching the everyday register of the earlier ajudar example — European Portuguese speakers commonly use tu with friends, family, and peers, unlike the more formal você-based norm common in much of Brazil. Disto is a contraction of de + isto ("of this").

Where English speakers slip

English speakers often pronounce the pen- syllable as a plain oral vowel followed by a hard 'n', exactly as in English "pen", instead of letting the vowel itself go nasal; the giveaway of correct European Portuguese pronunciation is that the airflow shifts to the nose during the vowel, with no crisp n consonant closing off the syllable.