Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

responder is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ɾɨʃpõˈdeɾ]. It means “to answer.” Say "ruhsh-po(n)-DEHR" — the opening res- hisses toward 'sh', the middle syllable is nasalized, and stress falls on the final -der.

Say "ruhsh-po(n)-DEHR" — the opening res- hisses toward 'sh', the middle syllable is nasalized, and stress falls on the final -der.

responder [ɾɨʃpõˈdeɾ]

Stress falls on the last syllable -der; the initial res- has its e reduce to 'uh' while the syllable-final s, sitting before a consonant, hisses like 'sh', and pon- is a nasal vowel rather than a vowel-plus-n sequence.

Listen: responder

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Sound it out

res- The e reduces to a weak 'uh', and the s before another consonant hisses like 'sh' — together close to "rush" with a soft initial r.

pon- A nasal vowel, a nasalized 'oh' sound, with no separate hard n consonant closing the syllable the way English "pond" would have.

-der Stressed: a true dental d, a clear open 'eh', and a soft final r.

Hear it in a sentence

Vais responder-me?

Are you going to answer me?

Listen: Vais responder-me?

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"Vais responder-me?" ("Are you going to answer me?") uses vais, the informal tu form of ir ("to go"), plus an infinitive to form the near future — a construction that mirrors English "going to" and is extremely common in spoken European Portuguese, often preferred over the synthetic future tense (responderás).

Where English speakers slip

Learners frequently soften or drop the initial 'sh' quality of res- entirely, pronouncing it closer to a plain 'reh' as they might in Brazilian Portuguese, where the syllable-final s before certain consonants can sound more like a plain 's'; in Lisbon Portuguese that opening hiss toward 'sh' is a defining, unmissable feature of the accent and should not be flattened.