Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

seguro is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [sɨ'guɾu]. It means “safe.” Say "suh-GOO-roo," with the first e reduced to a weak "uh" and a light tapped r before the final vowel.

Say "suh-GOO-roo," with the first e reduced to a weak "uh" and a light tapped r before the final vowel.

seguro [sɨ'guɾu]

Stress falls on GU; the initial unstressed e reduces to a near-schwa, and both o's move toward a clipped "oo" quality, though the stressed one stays fuller.

Listen: seguro

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Sound it out

se A quick, weak "suh" — the e is unstressed and reduced almost to a schwa.

gu A hard g (as in "go," never soft here since u follows) plus a clear "oo" — this is the stressed syllable, so it should stand out.

ro A light tapped r followed by the reduced final "oo" vowel, not a full "oh."

Hear it in a sentence

Este bairro é seguro.

This neighborhood is safe.

Listen: Este bairro é seguro.

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"Este bairro é seguro" (This neighborhood is safe) directly mirrors the "perigoso" example, making the two sentences a natural pair for practicing opposites. Note that "seguro" is a false friend risk for English speakers: it looks like "secure," which is accurate for this meaning, but the same word also means "insurance" as a noun ("o seguro"), so context matters.

Where English speakers slip

Because "seguro" resembles the English word "secure," learners sometimes stress the wrong syllable, putting emphasis on the first syllable ("SEH-goo-roo") the way English "secure" or the related word "security" might tempt them to. The correct stress is firmly on the second syllable, GU: se-GU-ro, not SE-gu-ro — mis-stressing it is one of the more common English-interference errors with this particular word.