How to Pronounce 'A Família': Portuguese (Brazil) Pronunciation Guide

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

a família is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a faˈmi.li.ɐ/. It means “family.” ah fah-MEE-lee-ah. Four syllables in the noun, with the accent on the second.

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

ah fah-MEE-lee-ah. Four syllables in the noun, with the accent on the second.

a família /a faˈmi.li.ɐ/

The accent sits three syllables from the end, and Portuguese marks every word in that position without exception. The reason the word is proparoxytone at all is that the final "ia" splits into two syllables rather than forming a diphthong — if it fused, the word would be ordinary and unaccented, like "história" would be without its accent.

Listen: a família

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Sound it out

fa An f and an open "ah," unstressed. Portuguese keeps this vowel full rather than letting it slump, so it should sound clearly like "fah" and not "fuh."

mí An m and an accented high "ee." The acute marks this as the loud syllable, and everything after it should tumble out quickly and quietly.

li An l with genuine tongue contact — no vocalizing, since it opens the syllable — and a short unstressed "ee." This syllable is easy to swallow, but Portuguese keeps it.

a A final a taking its own beat and lightening toward "uh." It does not merge with the i in front of it, which is precisely why the word needs an accent.

Hear it in a sentence

Minha família é grande.

My family is big.

Listen: Minha família é grande.

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"Minha família é grande" links the noun's final "uh" into the open vowel of "é" with no break. "Grande" then ends on a nasal plus the palatalized "djee," so the sentence closes with a hum and a palatal after four fairly plain syllables.

Where English speakers slip

Squashing the ending into three syllables — "fah-MEE-lyah" — is the standard error and it comes from Spanish, where "familia" genuinely has that shape. Portuguese keeps the i separate. Dropping the accent in writing is the other frequent slip, and it's a real spelling error rather than a stylistic one.