Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

a mãe is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a ˈmɐ̃j̃/. It means “mother.” ah MY(ng). One syllable — the vowel of "my" hummed entirely through the nose.

ah MY(ng). One syllable — the vowel of "my" hummed entirely through the nose.

a mãe /a ˈmɐ̃j̃/

A monosyllable, and the tilde is marking nasality rather than stress — there's nowhere else the weight could go. The plural is "mães," which simply adds an s to the same nasal diphthong without changing anything else, and it stays one syllable.

Listen: a mãe

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Sound it out

m An ordinary m with the lips together, a genuine consonant. It's the only real closure in the word, since nothing closes it at the other end.

ãe A nasal diphthong: a nasalized central a gliding toward a nasalized y, all in one beat. The tilde marks the nasality and the e is the glide target. Think of English "my" said with the soft palate lowered from start to finish.

Hear it in a sentence

Minha mãe mora em Brasília.

My mother lives in Brasília.

Listen: Minha mãe mora em Brasília.

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"Minha mãe mora em Brasília" puts three m-initial sounds close together, and "Brasília" carries an accent three syllables from the end with its final "ia" splitting into two beats — the same structure as "família." Its s is intervocalic and therefore buzzes as a z.

Where English speakers slip

Closing the sound with a consonant — "myng" with an audible g, or "mine" with an n — is the classic error. Nothing closes it; the resonance simply stops. Learners also break it into two syllables. Note too that "mãe" and "mão" differ by one letter and one glide direction, and confusing mother with hand is an easy and memorable mistake.