Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

colocar is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ko.loˈkah/. It means “to put.” koh-loh-KAH. Three syllables, stress firmly on the last, and both c's are hard.

koh-loh-KAH. Three syllables, stress firmly on the last, and both c's are hard.

colocar /ko.loˈkah/

Both unstressed o's stay as "oh" rather than raising to "oo," and that's the detail worth catching: the raising rule applies to a word-final unstressed o, not to every unstressed o in sight. The weight itself goes to the last syllable, the standard outcome for an r-final word.

Listen: colocar

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Sound it out

co A hard k and a closed "oh." It's unstressed, so keep it short, but Brazilian Portuguese doesn't hollow the vowel out — it stays rounded and audible.

lo An l with the tongue tip genuinely touching the ridge, then another closed "oh." Two identical-sounding unstressed syllables in a row give the word a rolling start.

car Hard c before the a, then the stressed vowel — and the leap from two rounded "oh" sounds into this wide "ah" is what makes the stress unmistakable. What follows is only air.

Hear it in a sentence

Coloque as chaves na bolsa.

Put the keys in the bag.

Listen: Coloque as chaves na bolsa.

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"Coloque as chaves na bolsa" uses the imperative, where the stress moves to the middle syllable: "ko-LOH-kee." That final e raises to i, and since a k isn't affected by a following i-sound there's no palatalization. "Bolsa" then shows a syllable-final l vocalized to w, giving "BOW-sah."

Where English speakers slip

English speakers stress the second syllable out of habit and say "koh-LOH-kar," which is right for the imperative and wrong for the infinitive. The final r also draws the usual curled English r. In practice, Brazilians frequently use "botar" instead of "colocar" in casual speech, so learners who only know one of the two will miss half of what they hear.