Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

como is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈko.mu/. It means “how / like.” KOH-moo. Both o's are rounded, but only the first one is a real "oh" — the second raises to "oo."

KOH-moo. Both o's are rounded, but only the first one is a real "oh" — the second raises to "oo."

como /ˈko.mu/

Ending in -o means the second-to-last syllable is stressed by default, so "co-" takes the weight with no accent mark. This word doubles as a question word and a comparison word, and unlike Spanish it takes no accent in either role — Portuguese doesn't use accents to distinguish interrogatives the way Spanish does with "cómo."

Listen: como

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Sound it out

co A hard k without the English puff of air, then a closed "oh" with the lips rounded. This is the stressed syllable and the longest sound in the word.

mo Just an m and a vowel — but that vowel is "oo," while the identically-spelled one in the stressed syllable is "oh." Stress is the only difference between them.

Hear it in a sentence

Como foi seu dia?

How was your day?

Listen: Como foi seu dia?

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"Como foi seu dia?" is a stock greeting, and the intonation is what makes it a question — no auxiliary verb, no word order change, just a rising melody. "Dia" gives you the palatalized d again, "DJEE-ah," and "foi" is a single-syllable diphthong that links backward into "seu" without any pause.

Where English speakers slip

The two o's tempt learners into pronouncing them identically, usually as "KOH-moh," and that unraised ending is one of the most persistent Anglophone markers. Only the stressed one is "oh." Spanish speakers bring "cómo" with its written accent and sometimes transfer the accent into their Portuguese writing, where it doesn't belong.