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Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

Say "kwahl-KEHR", with a dark "l" in the first syllable and the stress landing hard on the second.

qualquer /kwaɫˈkɛɾ/

Stress falls on the final syllable "quer"; the first syllable "qual" has a dark, velarized "l" typical of European Portuguese before a consonant or at a syllable boundary.

Listen: qualquer

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Sound it out

qual "Qu" is a hard "k" plus "w" glide, and the "l" that follows is dark and back-of-the-mouth, like the "l" in English "call".
quer Another hard "k" plus "w", followed by an open "eh" vowel and a light, tapped final "r" — not the strong English "r" of "her".

Hear it in a sentence

Podes escolher qualquer livro.

You can choose any book.

Listen: Podes escolher qualquer livro.

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"Podes escolher qualquer livro" means "You can choose any book", with "qualquer" functioning as an indefinite determiner meaning "any (one), whichever". Unlike "cada", "qualquer" does not change for gender but does have a plural form ("quaisquer"), which is rare in everyday speech but exists for formal or written contexts. "Podes" is again the informal second-person form, matching the casual register of the whole sentence.

Where English speakers slip

Learners frequently give "qual" a light, English-style "l" as in "quality", when European Portuguese wants a much darker, throatier "l" produced further back in the mouth. They also sometimes reduce or drop the final "r", but in "quer" that final "r" should still be lightly tapped or flapped, not silent as it can be in some casual Brazilian speech.