Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

a criança is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a kɾiˈɐ̃.sɐ/. It means “child.” ah kree-AHN-sah. Tapped r in the cluster, nasal stressed vowel, and the ç is just an s.

ah kree-AHN-sah. Tapped r in the cluster, nasal stressed vowel, and the ç is just an s.

a criança /a kɾiˈɐ̃.sɐ/

Second-to-last syllable, courtesy of the -a default, no accent. The word is grammatically feminine regardless of the child's gender, which means "a criança está cansada" is correct even for a boy — Portuguese agreement follows the noun's own gender, not the referent's.

Listen: a criança

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Sound it out

a Not optional here — "criança" takes an article in almost every ordinary sentence, and this open "ah" is it.

cri Hard k followed instantly by a tap, then a short high "ee." The cluster should be tight, with no vowel wedged in between.

an A stressed a with the nose open. Nasal a is raised and centralized compared with the wide oral one, which is why it doesn't sound like the a in "casa."

ça The cedilla forces a soft s before an a, where a plain c would have been a k. The final a then lightens toward "uh" without disappearing.

Hear it in a sentence

A criança está com fome.

The child is hungry.

Listen: A criança está com fome.

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"A criança está com fome" uses "estar com" for physical states, which is the Portuguese pattern: you are with hunger rather than hungry. "Fome" ends on a raised e giving FOH-mee, and "está" would clip to "tá" in speech.

Where English speakers slip

Reading the ç as a k undoes the whole point of the cedilla — it's there precisely to force an s before an a. Learners also break the cr cluster with an inserted vowel and give the n full consonant value. The gender rule is the grammatical trap, since agreeing with the child's actual sex rather than the noun is a natural but incorrect instinct.