Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

alguém is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /awˈgẽj̃/. It means “someone.” ow-GAYNG. Vocalized l at the front, silent u in the middle, and an accented nasal at the end.

ow-GAYNG. Vocalized l at the front, silent u in the middle, and an accented nasal at the end.

alguém /awˈgẽj̃/

The acute is overriding the -em default, which would otherwise put the weight on the first syllable. It's the same correction at work in "ninguém" and "também," and the three words form a natural set to learn together — same ending, same accent, same reason for it.

Listen: alguém

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

al An open a plus an l vocalized to w, giving a first syllable that rhymes with "cow." Unstressed here, so it goes by quickly.

gu The u is silent, propping up the hard g before the e. Portuguese needs this because g before e or i would otherwise soften to "zh" — the same device you see in "ninguém" and "chegue."

ém The accented nasal diphthong: closed e gliding to a nasalized y, "ayng," and the weight falls here. Nothing closes it, so the word ends mid-resonance.

Hear it in a sentence

Tem alguém no telefone.

There's someone on the phone.

Listen: Tem alguém no telefone.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Tem alguém no telefone" links "tem alguém" across two nasal diphthongs in a row, with the vocalized l of "alguém" sandwiched between them. "Telefone" then ends on a raised "ee," and its opening te is palatalized to "tchee" — so the sentence has nasals at the front and palatals at the back.

Where English speakers slip

Three errors compound: a real l, a pronounced u, and a closed-lip m. Brazilians produce "ow-GAYNG" with none of them. Learners also drop the accent in writing, which shifts the stress and creates a word that doesn't exist. And note that "alguém" is invariable — there's no plural form.