Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

a montanha is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a mõˈtɐ̃.ɲɐ/. It means “mountain.” ah mohn-TAHN-yah. Two nasal vowels and an nh, all in three syllables.

ah mohn-TAHN-yah. Two nasal vowels and an nh, all in three syllables.

a montanha /a mõˈtɐ̃.ɲɐ/

The weight sits on the middle syllable, by the -a default. What makes the word demanding is that its nasality comes from two different sources: an n closing the first syllable, and an nh opening the third and spreading backward into the second. Portuguese nasalization travels leftward, which is why the stressed vowel hums.

Listen: a montanha

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Sound it out

mon A plain m opening the word and a closed o that the n turns nasal. Lips rounded, air through the nose, and no separate n consonant is produced.

ta A dental t and a stressed a — which is also nasal, this time because of the nh that follows. So both of the word's first two vowels hum, for two different reasons.

nha One palatal consonant, the middle of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, then a closing a that softens toward "uh." It nasalizes the vowel before it and is not itself two sounds.

Hear it in a sentence

Adoro caminhar na montanha.

I love walking in the mountains.

Listen: Adoro caminhar na montanha.

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"Adoro caminhar na montanha" gives you "caminhar," which contains the same backward-spreading nh — so its middle vowel is nasal too. Two nh's in one sentence is unusually dense, and hearing them back to back is the fastest way to get the sound settled.

Where English speakers slip

Splitting the nh gives "mon-TAN-hah," and articulating the first n fully gives a clattery opening. Both should be resonance rather than closure. Spanish speakers have "montaña," whose ñ transfers well — but Spanish doesn't nasalize the preceding vowel, and Portuguese does.