Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

a janela is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a ʒaˈnɛ.lɐ/. It means “window.” ah zhah-NEH-lah. Soft "zh" at the front and a wide-open stressed e.

ah zhah-NEH-lah. Soft "zh" at the front and a wide-open stressed e.

a janela /a ʒaˈnɛ.lɐ/

Second-to-last syllable, courtesy of the -a default. The open quality of that stressed e isn't marked anywhere and simply has to be carried with the word — Portuguese writes é or ê only when some independent rule forces an accent, so most open-closed contrasts go unrecorded.

Listen: a janela

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Sound it out

j The soft "zh" of "measure," never the hard English j of "jam" and never the harsh Spanish j. Portuguese j is voiced and smooth, made with the tongue close to the palate.

a An open "ah," unstressed but fully pronounced. Portuguese doesn't reduce this vowel the way English would.

ne An n opening its own syllable, so nothing nasalizes, and then an open e — jaw dropped, like "bet." This is the loud syllable.

la The l holds full tongue-tip contact since it opens the syllable, and the final a lightens toward "uh" without disappearing.

Hear it in a sentence

A janela do quarto é grande.

The bedroom window is big.

Listen: A janela do quarto é grande.

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"A janela do quarto é grande" uses "do," the fused de-plus-article. "Quarto" has a fully pronounced u after the q plus a breathy r, and "grande" ends on a nasal and the palatalized "djee" — so the sentence moves through a palatal fricative, a glide, a rasp and a palatal affricate.

Where English speakers slip

An English j is the standard error, giving "jah-NELL-ah." Make it "zh." Closing the stressed e is the second issue, and reducing the unstressed a's is the third. Spanish speakers have "ventana," an entirely different word, so nothing transfers except the concept.