Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

vir is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ˈviɾ]. It means “to come.” Sounds like "veer" said short, with the final r a light tongue-tap rather than an English r glide.

Sounds like "veer" said short, with the final r a light tongue-tap rather than an English r glide.

vir [ˈviɾ]

One syllable, fully stressed; distinguished from ir only by the initial v, so listen carefully — the two verbs are easy to mix up by ear.

Listen: vir

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Sound it out

v A voiced "v" as in English "van", always fricative, never softened.

i Close, tense "ee" as in "see", but short.

r A single light tongue-tap.

Hear it in a sentence

Vens comigo?

Are you coming with me?

Listen: Vens comigo?

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"Vens comigo?" asks "Are you coming with me?" using vens, the informal tu form of vir. Comigo is a special fused form meaning "with me" (not com + mim), one of several irregular prepositional pronoun contractions in Portuguese. The question relies purely on rising intonation rather than an inverted word order, since Portuguese doesn't invert subject and verb to form questions.

Where English speakers slip

Learners frequently confuse vir (to come) with ver (to see) or ir (to go) because all three are short, irregular, and phonetically close; paying attention to the initial consonant is essential. English speakers also tend to pronounce comigo with stress on the wrong syllable — it's co-MI-go, stressed on the middle syllable, not on the first as English intuition about compound-looking words might suggest.