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

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

a manhã is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a maˈɲɐ̃/. It means “morning.” ah mah-NYAH(ng). An nh in the middle and a stressed nasal at the end that just stops.

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

ah mah-NYAH(ng). An nh in the middle and a stressed nasal at the end that just stops.

a manhã /a maˈɲɐ̃/

Words ending in a nasal vowel are end-stressed by rule, so the weight lands on the "ã" and the tilde is marking nasality rather than placement. That's the recurring lesson with tildes: unlike an acute or circumflex, they say nothing at all about which syllable is loud.

Listen: a manhã

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Sound it out

a An open "ah" pressed right up against the noun's identical opening vowel, so the two blur into a single sound.

ma An ordinary m opening a syllable, so the a after it stays fully oral. Unstressed and quick — the nasality comes later, not here.

nh One palatal consonant made with the middle of the tongue flat against the roof of the mouth, identical to Spanish ñ. It is not an n followed by an h, and treating it as two sounds is the classic failure.

ã The tilde marks a nasal a, and this one carries the stress. Say the vowel while air escapes through the nose, then stop — nothing closes it, so the word ends mid-resonance.

Hear it in a sentence

A manhã passou rápido.

The morning went by fast.

Listen: A manhã passou rápido.

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"A manhã passou rápido" ends with "rápido," whose word-initial r is a throaty h and whose accent marks third-from-last stress. "Passou" flattens its ou to a plain "oh." So the sentence pairs a palatal nasal with a guttural h a few syllables apart.

Where English speakers slip

Three things go wrong at once: the nh splits into "n-h," the final nasal acquires a closing consonant, and the stress drifts forward. Aim for one fused palatal and a nasal vowel that simply stops. Note also the near-collision with "amanhã": one extra syllable at the front turns morning into tomorrow.