Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

aprender is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a.pɾẽˈdeh/. It means “to learn.” ah-preng-DEH. A tapped r in the cluster, a nasal middle syllable, and a final r that's just breath.

ah-preng-DEH. A tapped r in the cluster, a nasal middle syllable, and a final r that's just breath.

aprender /a.pɾẽˈdeh/

A nasal vowel in the middle, an oral one at the end, both written with the letter e — and the stress falls on the oral one. Portuguese distributes nasality and stress independently, and this word sets both possibilities side by side for comparison.

Listen: aprender

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Sound it out

a An unstressed open "ah" with no consonant before it, short and quick. It routinely merges with a preceding word's vowel in fluent speech.

pren A p made with no puff of air, a single tapped r, and then an e nasalized by the following n. The nasality begins with the vowel — no separate n consonant is produced.

der Hard d, closed e, stress — and this is the word's only fully oral vowel, arriving after two nasal syllables. The r behind it is a breath.

Hear it in a sentence

Estou aprendendo português.

I'm learning Portuguese.

Listen: Estou aprendendo português.

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"Estou aprendendo português" uses the Brazilian present continuous with a gerund, and "aprendendo" doubles the nasal — "ah-preng-DENG-doo." Brazilians would very often reduce "estou" to "tô" here, giving "tô aprendendo português," which is the version you'll actually hear on the street.

Where English speakers slip

The cluster and the nasal are the two sticking points: English speakers insert a vowel to get "ah-puh-ren-DER" and give the n full consonant value. Keep pr tight and let the nose carry the n. Spanish speakers have a near-cognate in "aprender," which helps with the spelling and hurts with the r's, since Spanish taps its final r audibly.