Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

sentir is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [sẽˈtiɾ]. It means “to feel.” Say "seh(n)-TEER" — the first vowel is nasalized, and crucially the final ti stays a true, hard 't' sound, never softening to 'chee'.

Say "seh(n)-TEER" — the first vowel is nasalized, and crucially the final ti stays a true, hard 't' sound, never softening to 'chee'.

sentir [sẽˈtiɾ]

Stress falls on the final -tir; sen- is a nasal vowel, and the t in -tir remains a genuine dental t even though it precedes i — this is one of the clearest European-versus-Brazilian markers in the whole word set.

Listen: sentir

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Sound it out

sen- A nasal vowel, a nasalized 'eh', with air passing through the nose rather than a hard n consonant as in English "sent".

-tir Stressed: the t stays a crisp, true dental t (tongue at the teeth) — in European Portuguese this never becomes the 'ch' sound of English "cheese" — followed by a tight 'ee' vowel and a soft final r.

Hear it in a sentence

Sinto-me cansado hoje.

I feel tired today.

Listen: Sinto-me cansado hoje.

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"Sinto-me cansado hoje" ("I feel tired today") uses the reflexive sentir-se, meaning "to feel [some way]", with the pronoun -me attached to the conjugated verb sinto by a hyphen. Cansado agrees in gender with the (presumably male or default) speaker — a female speaker would say cansada — a basic but essential adjective-agreement rule.

Where English speakers slip

This is the single biggest European-versus-Brazilian pronunciation trap in the whole set: Brazilian Portuguese palatalizes ti to a 'chee' sound (sen-CHEER), which many learners absorb from Brazilian music, film, and courses, but European Portuguese keeps ti as a true, hard dental 't' (sen-TEER) — using the Brazilian palatalized version is an instant giveaway of the wrong accent in Lisbon.