Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

perder is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [pɨɾˈdeɾ]. It means “to lose.” Say "puhr-DEHR" — the first syllable reduces to a weak 'uh', and stress falls on the final, more open -der.

Say "puhr-DEHR" — the first syllable reduces to a weak 'uh', and stress falls on the final, more open -der.

perder [pɨɾˈdeɾ]

Stress falls on the last syllable -der; the initial per- is unstressed, with its e flattening to a neutral 'uh' sound rather than the clear e of the spelling.

Listen: perder

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Sound it out

per- Unstressed: the e reduces to a weak 'uh', and the r is a light tongue-tap — overall closer to "puhr" than to English "per".

-der Stressed and open: a true, dental d (tongue at the teeth) plus a clear 'eh' vowel and a soft final r, not the hard r of English "deer".

Hear it in a sentence

Não quero perder o comboio.

I don't want to miss the train.

Listen: Não quero perder o comboio.

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"Não quero perder o comboio" ("I don't want to miss the train") shows perder covering both "to lose" (an object, a game) and "to miss" (a train, a bus, a deadline) — a broader range than the single English verb "to lose" usually implies. Comboio is the standard European Portuguese word for "train"; Brazilian Portuguese instead uses trem, so this word alone is a useful marker of which variety you're hearing.

Where English speakers slip

Because both syllables end in -er, English speakers sometimes stress the first syllable out of habit, saying "PER-der"; the correct European Portuguese pattern always stresses the final syllable of regular -er verbs, so it must land on "-DER" with the first syllable reduced and unstressed.