How to Pronounce 'Amarelo': Portuguese (Brazil) Pronunciation Guide

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

amarelo is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a.maˈɾɛ.lu/. It means “yellow.” ah-mah-REH-loo. Four syllables, stress on the third, and the r in the middle is a single tap.

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

ah-mah-REH-loo. Four syllables, stress on the third, and the r in the middle is a single tap.

amarelo /a.maˈɾɛ.lu/

The default handles it: "-re-" takes the weight. That gives the word a nice shape: two quick light syllables, one loud one, then a quiet fall — a rhythm shared by many four-syllable Portuguese adjectives.

Listen: amarelo

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Sound it out

a-ma Two light open "ah" syllables to start. Both are unstressed but both stay fully pronounced — resist the English urge to crush unstressed vowels into a schwa, which would give you "uh-muh."

r A single r between two vowels is a quick tap, the tongue flicking the ridge behind the teeth once. This is not the harsh throat-h that a word-initial r or a double rr would get — position determines everything.

e An open e, the vowel of "bet," and the stressed one. Nothing in the spelling tells you it's open rather than closed; that's a piece of vocabulary you simply carry.

lo A real l, because it opens a syllable rather than closing one. The o after it is pronounced "oo," so the word fades out on "loo."

Hear it in a sentence

O táxi é amarelo.

The taxi is yellow.

Listen: O táxi é amarelo.

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"O táxi é amarelo" links "é" directly into the initial vowel of "amarelo," so the two run together as one long "eh-ah." "Táxi" is a small lesson of its own: the x here is a "ks" sound, which is only one of the four values that letter can take in Portuguese.

Where English speakers slip

The single most common problem is the r. Spanish speakers roll it, English speakers bunch it, and both change the word's texture. It's one light tap. English speakers additionally reduce the unstressed vowels — "uh-muh-REH-luh" — when Brazilian Portuguese keeps them clear and full; only the final o shifts, and it shifts up to "oo" rather than down to a mumble.