Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

quarto is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ˈkwaɾ.tu]. It means “room.” Say 'KWAR-too', with qu sounding like English 'kw' and the final o as a short 'oo'.

Say 'KWAR-too', with qu sounding like English 'kw' and the final o as a short 'oo'.

quarto [ˈkwaɾ.tu]

Stress is on the first syllable; qu before a is always pronounced 'kw', and the unstressed final o reduces to a short 'oo' rather than 'oh'.

Listen: quarto

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Sound it out

qu Pronounced 'kw', exactly like the qu in English 'quart' — the u is always sounded here, unlike in words such as 'que' where it's silent.

ar An open 'ah' vowel followed by a light tapped r.

to Unstressed final syllable, with the o shrinking to a short 'oo'.

Hear it in a sentence

O meu quarto tem uma janela grande.

My room has a big window.

Listen: O meu quarto tem uma janela grande.

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O meu quarto tem uma janela grande uses ter (to have) in its tem form for possession — 'my room has a window' — and places the adjective grande after the noun it modifies, janela, which is standard Portuguese word order even though English would say 'big window' with the adjective first.

Where English speakers slip

Confusingly, quarto looks like it should rhyme with English 'quart', but the final o must still reduce to the standard European 'oo' sound rather than staying open. Learners who over-anglicize the qu, or who give that final o a full, open 'oh' as they might in Italian, end up sounding noticeably foreign.