Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

um is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ũ]. It means “one.” Say an English "oo" (as in "boot") but push the whole sound out through your nose — it comes out short, like a clipped "oom" where the lips never fully close.

Say an English "oo" (as in "boot") but push the whole sound out through your nose — it comes out short, like a clipped "oom" where the lips never fully close.

um [ũ]

Only one syllable, so there's no stress choice to make — the entire word is a single nasal vowel, not a vowel plus a separate "m" sound.

Listen: um

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Sound it out

u Like the "oo" in English "boot," but nasalized the whole way through, as if you were about to say "oo" and hum at the same time.

m Doesn't close into a full English "m" — it just marks that the vowel before it is nasal, similar to how French "un" ends.

Hear it in a sentence

Tenho um irmão.

I have one brother.

Listen: Tenho um irmão.

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"Tenho um irmão" means "I have a brother." Here "um" works as the masculine indefinite article ("a/an"), matching the masculine noun "irmão." Listen for how the nasal "um" flows almost seamlessly into the nasal "ir-" that follows, since EU Portuguese tends to link vowel sounds smoothly between words.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers often say this like the hesitation sound "um," with an open vowel and a firmly closed final "m" — in EU Portuguese it should be tighter and shorter, a pure nasal vowel closer to French "un." This is one case where Brazilian and European pronunciation are fairly close, but EP keeps the vowel noticeably shorter and less drawn out than many Brazilian speakers do.