Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

a voz is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a ˈvɔs/. It means “voice.” ah VAWSS. A wide-open o, and the final z is pronounced as an s.

ah VAWSS. A wide-open o, and the final z is pronounced as an s.

a voz /a ˈvɔs/

A monosyllable ending in z, stressed by default and unaccented. The plural is "vozes," where the z is now between vowels and buzzes properly again, and the added syllable pushes the stress onto the second-to-last position by the ordinary rule — so the plural sounds meaningfully different from the singular.

Listen: a voz

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Sound it out

v A firm v with the upper teeth on the lower lip. Portuguese never softens v toward b the way Spanish does, so this stays a crisp fricative.

o Wide open, jaw down, lips loosely rounded — closer to "law" than "low." It carries the whole word.

z Devoiced to a plain s at the end of a word. It comes back to a real z only when a vowel follows, so "a voz é" runs as "ah-VAW-zeh."

Hear it in a sentence

Sua voz está diferente.

Your voice sounds different.

Listen: Sua voz está diferente.

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"Sua voz está diferente" would clip "está" to "tá." Because that verb begins with a vowel sound, the z of "voz" voices into a real z: "ah-VAW-zish-TAH." "Diferente" then bookends the sentence with a "dj" and a "tch."

Where English speakers slip

Voicing the final z in isolation gives "VOZZ" with a buzz, which is the reading error. Devoice it unless a vowel follows. Closing the vowel is the second problem. And the plural catches people out, since "vozes" is a genuinely different shape rather than just the singular plus an s.