Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

a chave is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a ˈʃa.vi/. It means “key.” ah SHAH-vee. The ch is a "sh" and the final e comes out as "ee."

ah SHAH-vee. The ch is a "sh" and the final e comes out as "ee."

a chave /a ˈʃa.vi/

Say it SHAH-vee, with the punch at the front. The word is a good minimal test of two separate Brazilian habits at once — the ch and the raised final e — with nothing else in the way, which makes it a useful early diagnostic.

Listen: a chave

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Sound it out

cha The ch is "sh," as in every native Portuguese word, and the a behind it is wide open and stressed. This syllable carries almost the whole word.

ve A proper v with teeth on lip, and the unstressed final e heard as "ee." A v isn't altered by a following i-sound, so the ending is simply "vee."

Hear it in a sentence

Perdi minhas chaves.

I lost my keys.

Listen: Perdi minhas chaves.

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"Perdi minhas chaves" puts everything in the plural and gives you an nh in "minhas" right before the "sh" of "chaves." Two palatal-family sounds in adjacent words, and "perdi" opens with a breathy syllable-final r on top of that.

Where English speakers slip

English ch gives "CHAH-vay," wrong at both ends. It's "sh" and "ee." Spanish speakers have "llave," whose ll would be an lh in Portuguese — a different consonant entirely — so the two words are less related in sound than their meanings suggest.