Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

trabalho is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [tɾɐˈba.ʎu]. It means “work, job.” Say "truh-BAH-lyoo", stressing the middle syllable, with a palatal "ly" sound before a closed final "oo".

Say "truh-BAH-lyoo", stressing the middle syllable, with a palatal "ly" sound before a closed final "oo".

trabalho [tɾɐˈba.ʎu]

Stress falls on the second syllable "ba"; the final "-lho" combines the palatal "lh" consonant with a reduced closed "oo" vowel.

Listen: trabalho

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Sound it out

tra Unstressed, said quickly with a light tapped r, reducing toward "truh".

ba Stressed, an open "bah".

lho The "lh" is the same palatal lateral as in "filho" and "mulher" — like "lli" in "million" — followed by a closed, short "oo", not "oh".

Hear it in a sentence

Gosto do meu trabalho.

I like my job.

Listen: Gosto do meu trabalho.

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"Gosto do meu trabalho" uses "gostar de" (to like), a verb that always requires the preposition "de" before its object, here contracted with the article into "do" (de + o). This is a very common structure that trips up learners used to English "like" taking a direct object with no preposition. "Trabalho" itself can mean both "work" as an activity and "job" as a position, disambiguated by context.

Where English speakers slip

Learners frequently forget the "lh" palatalization and also forget the required "de" after "gostar", saying something closer to "gosto meu trabalho" instead of "gosto do meu trabalho" — the preposition is not optional in Portuguese even though "like" takes no preposition in English. On pronunciation specifically, keep the palatal "lh" distinct from a plain l, and close that final o to "oo" rather than the fuller vowel a Brazilian speaker might use.