Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "abrir" in Portuguese (Brazil)?

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

abrir is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /aˈbɾih/. It means “to open.” ah-BREE. Tapped r in the cluster, stress on the second syllable, and the final r vanishes.

ah-BREE. Tapped r in the cluster, stress on the second syllable, and the final r vanishes.

abrir /aˈbɾih/

An -ir verb whose past participle, "aberto," doubles as the everyday adjective for open, so learning one form gets you a common word free. The same bargain applies to fechar and fechado. Stress here lands on "-brir."

Listen: abrir

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Sound it out

a An unstressed open "ah" with no consonant in front. Short and light, and it often merges with the final vowel of the word before it in connected speech.

bri A b immediately followed by a single tapped r, then the stressed high "ee." The b and the tap should be simultaneous enough that no vowel sneaks between them.

r Same letter as the tap one syllable back, and now barely a sound at all. Portuguese decides an r's identity by where it sits in the syllable, never by the word it belongs to.

Hear it in a sentence

Pode abrir a janela?

Can you open the window?

Listen: Pode abrir a janela?

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"Pode abrir a janela?" links "pode" — "POH-djee" — into the initial vowel of "abrir," and then "abrir a" links again, this time strengthening the infinitive's final r into a tap. "Janela" begins with the soft "zh" of j and has an open stressed e, giving "zhah-NEH-lah."

Where English speakers slip

The cluster is where English speakers slip, inserting a vowel to give "ah-buh-REER," and then adding a curled r at the end. Keep br tight and let the final r go. Spanish speakers bring "abrir" spelled identically, which is convenient, except that Spanish gives the final r a real tap and Brazilian Portuguese does not.