Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

a parte is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a ˈpaɦ.tʃi/. It means “part.” ah PAH-tchee. A rasped r in the middle and a "tchee" at the end.

ah PAH-tchee. A rasped r in the middle and a "tchee" at the end.

a parte /a ˈpaɦ.tʃi/

Two beats, and the first is the loud one. The word is worth setting against "parque" from the same chapter: identical first syllable, identical final vowel, and completely different endings — a t palatalizes before that raised i while a k does not. The consonant decides.

Listen: a parte

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Sound it out

par An unaspirated p, a wide-open stressed a, and an r rounding off the syllable as a light throat rasp. The vowel dominates and the r barely registers.

te The closing e is heard as "i," which drags the t into "tch." So the word ends on the sound that opens English "cheese," arriving straight out of a breath.

Hear it in a sentence

Ele faz parte do time.

He is part of the team.

Listen: Ele faz parte do time.

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"Ele faz parte do time" uses the fixed phrase "fazer parte de," which takes "do" as the fused contraction. "Time" is a borrowing from English "team" and ends in the raised "ee," so it comes out TCHEE-mee with its own palatalized opening.

Where English speakers slip

"PAR-tay" with an English r and a hard t misses both features. It's a rasp and a "tchee." Learners also mistake the idiom: "fazer parte de" is to be part of, while "a maior parte" is most of — the same noun in two constructions that don't overlap.