Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

a flor is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a ˈfloh/. It means “flower.” ah FLOH. One syllable, a true l, and a final r that fades to breath.

ah FLOH. One syllable, a true l, and a final r that fades to breath.

a flor /a ˈfloh/

A monosyllable ending in r, stressed by default and unwritten. The plural "flores" adds a syllable and brings the default rule into play, so the weight moves onto the new second-to-last position — and the r, now between vowels, becomes a proper tap.

Listen: a flor

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Sound it out

fl An f with a real l right behind it. The l opens the syllable, so it keeps full tongue contact and does not vocalize to w — quite unlike the l in "legal" or "sol."

o A closed "oh" with rounded lips, carrying the whole word. Hold it, since there's nothing else to hold.

r Barely produced at the end of a word: a faint scrape at the back of the throat, often silent altogether. It voices into a tap only when a vowel follows in the next word.

Hear it in a sentence

Essa flor tem um cheiro bom.

That flower smells good.

Listen: Essa flor tem um cheiro bom.

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"Essa flor tem um cheiro bom" links "tem um" into a single nasal run and ends on "bom," another nasal. "Cheiro" opens with a "sh" and has a tapped r plus a stressed "ei" diphthong — so the sentence contains three different r-realizations if you count "flor."

Where English speakers slip

Vocalizing the l gives "FOW," which over-applies the rule to a position where it doesn't hold — the l opens the syllable here. The English curled r is the second error. And the plural shift catches people out, since "flores" sounds meaningfully different from the singular rather than being it plus an s.