Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

tu is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [tu]. It means “you (informal).” Sounds like English 'too', but with a true dental 't' — tongue against the upper teeth, not the gum ridge.

Sounds like English 'too', but with a true dental 't' — tongue against the upper teeth, not the gum ridge.

tu [tu]

Single syllable, stressed; the key feature is the dental 't', not any vowel quirk — the 'u' is a plain, full 'oo'.

Listen: tu

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Sound it out

t A true dental 't', tongue tip against the back of the upper front teeth — crisper and further forward than the English 't'.

u A full, clear 'oo' as in English 'too' — this vowel is stressed so it doesn't reduce.

Hear it in a sentence

Tu és muito simpático.

You are very nice.

Listen: Tu és muito simpático.

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'Tu és muito simpático' uses the informal second-person pronoun 'tu', which is standard for addressing friends, family, and peers in European Portuguese. This contrasts with Brazilian Portuguese, where 'você' has largely replaced 'tu' in most regions — in Portugal, 'tu' remains the everyday informal default.

Where English speakers slip

Because 't' before 'u' doesn't palatalize in either dialect, the main pitfall here is grammatical rather than phonetic: learners who studied Brazilian Portuguese often default to 'você' out of habit and undercount how central 'tu' (with its own verb conjugation, 'és' not 'é') is in everyday European Portuguese speech.