Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

a cadeira is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a kaˈdej.ɾɐ/. It means “chair.” ah kah-DAY-rah. A hard d, an "ei" diphthong carrying the stress, and a tapped r.

ah kah-DAY-rah. A hard d, an "ei" diphthong carrying the stress, and a tapped r.

a cadeira /a kaˈdej.ɾɐ/

The weight sits on the diphthong, which the -a default delivers since "ei" counts as one syllable. Learners often expect the d to palatalize because they see an i two letters away, but Brazilian palatalization is triggered only by an i-sound immediately after the consonant, and here the e comes first.

Listen: a cadeira

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Sound it out

ca A hard k before the a, unaspirated, with an open "ah" behind it. Unstressed and quick.

dei The d stays hard, since the vowel behind it is an e rather than an i — a useful counter-example to the palatalization rule. Then "ei," a closed e gliding to a y, carrying the stress in a single beat.

ra One light touch of the tongue tip between vowels, then a final a settling toward "uh." Not the throat-h an initial r would give — position decides.

Hear it in a sentence

Essa cadeira está quebrada.

This chair is broken.

Listen: Essa cadeira está quebrada.

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"Essa cadeira está quebrada" would clip "está" to "tá" in speech. "Quebrada" has a silent u after the q plus a tapped r in its cluster — so the sentence contains two taps and one silent u, and the adjective agrees with the feminine noun.

Where English speakers slip

Palatalizing the d to "djay" over-applies the rule. The trigger is an i directly after the consonant, and this is an e. Breaking the diphthong into "kah-deh-EE-rah" is the second error, giving four syllables where there are three. And the r attracts the usual roll or curl when it should be one tap.