LingoDrop
Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "sair" in Portuguese (Portugal)?
Sounds like "suh-EER" — the first syllable shrinks to a quick "suh", with stress and a clear "ee" on the second syllable.
Stress falls on the final -ir; the unstressed sa- reduces to a quick central [ɐ], and the two vowels a-i are pronounced as separate syllables, not blended into one sound.
Listen: sair
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Hear it in a sentence
Vou sair de casa às oito.
I'm going to leave home at eight.
Listen: Vou sair de casa às oito.
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"Vou sair de casa às oito" ("I'm going to leave home at eight") uses vou + infinitive again for near-future plans, with de casa ("from home") and às oito, the contraction of a + as ("at") plus oito ("eight"), used for clock times. Às takes the plural feminine article because horas ("o'clock/hours") is implied but omitted, a very standard way to state time in Portuguese. De casa here parallels para casa seen earlier, showing the same noun used with different prepositions for different directions.
Where English speakers slip
Learners often try to blend sa-ir into a single diphthong-like sound, but the a and i belong to separate syllables with the stress clearly on the second one, so it should sound like "suh-EER", not a fused "sire"-like sound. The às contraction is also frequently missed or mispronounced — it should sound like "ash" (with s becoming "sh"), not a full "ass" or "az" sound.