Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "a bolsa" in Portuguese (Brazil)?

Q: How do you pronounce a bolsa in Portuguese (Brazil)?

a bolsa is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a ˈbow.sɐ/. It means “bag / purse.” ah BOW-sah. The l turns into a w, so the first syllable rhymes with "cow."

ah BOW-sah. The l turns into a w, so the first syllable rhymes with "cow."

a bolsa /a ˈbow.sɐ/

The accent, unwritten, sits on the first syllable, with the vocalized l inside it. That's a useful reminder that the l change isn't a weakening confined to quiet positions: Brazilian l vocalizes wherever it closes a syllable, and here it does so under full stress.

Listen: a bolsa

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Sound it out

bol A b made with the lips closing, a closed "oh," and then an l that closes the syllable and therefore vocalizes fully to a w. The tongue tip never touches anything, giving "bow."

sa A hissed s — unvoiced, because it follows a glide rather than sitting between two vowels — and a closing a drifting toward "uh."

Hear it in a sentence

Minha bolsa é preta.

My bag is black.

Listen: Minha bolsa é preta.

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"Minha bolsa é preta" links the noun's final "uh" into the open vowel of "é." "Preta" then has a tapped r in its cluster and a closed stressed e, and it agrees with the feminine noun — so the sentence ends on two clean, unremarkable syllables after the glide.

Where English speakers slip

Pronouncing a real l gives "BOL-sah," which is what both English and Spanish suggest. It's "BOW-sah." The s is a second point: learners sometimes voice it to a z by over-applying the intervocalic rule, but a vowel has to sit on both sides, and here a glide comes first.