Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

a comida is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a koˈmi.dɐ/. It means “food.” ah koh-MEE-dah. Hard consonants throughout, with the stress in the middle.

ah koh-MEE-dah. Hard consonants throughout, with the stress in the middle.

a comida /a koˈmi.dɐ/

The "mi" is the loud one. The word derives from "comer" and shows the usual pattern of Portuguese deverbal nouns: the verb is end-stressed and the noun is not, because the noun's -a ending brings the default rule back into play.

Listen: a comida

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

co A hard, dry k before the o and a closed "oh," unstressed. Note the o stays "oh" — the raising rule applies to a word-final unstressed o, not to every one.

mi A straightforward m opening a syllable, so nothing nasalizes, and the stressed high "ee." This is the loud centre of the word.

da A hard dental d, since an a follows rather than an i, then a closing a drifting toward "uh." No palatalization, despite the i sitting right before the d on the page.

Hear it in a sentence

A comida brasileira é deliciosa.

Brazilian food is delicious.

Listen: A comida brasileira é deliciosa.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"A comida brasileira é deliciosa" ends with two long adjectives, and "deliciosa" contains an intervocalic s voiced to a z. "Brasileira" has a tapped r in its opening cluster and a stressed "ei" diphthong, so the sentence is a good workout for both r-types and vowel glides.

Where English speakers slip

Palatalizing the d — "koh-MEE-djah" — over-applies a rule that needs an i after the consonant, not before it. Keep it hard. Learners also raise the first o by association with the ending, when only word-final unstressed o lifts. Spanish speakers reach for "comida" spelled identically, which is convenient except for the final vowel quality.