Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

comprar is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kõˈpɾah/. It means “to buy.” kong-PRAH. Nasal first syllable, tapped r in the cluster, and the final r disappears.

kong-PRAH. Nasal first syllable, tapped r in the cluster, and the final r disappears.

comprar /kõˈpɾah/

The present forms pull the weight forward to COM-proo, and the nasal survives that shift completely unchanged — nasality belongs to the vowel itself and takes no interest in where the stress happens to fall.

Listen: comprar

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Sound it out

com A hard k and a nasalized closed "oh." Portuguese writes m rather than n before a p purely as a spelling convention — neither is pronounced as a consonant, and the vowel does all the nasal work.

prar Unaspirated p, a quick tap, the loud vowel, then air. Like "entrar," this syllable packs both r-sounds around a single vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

Quero comprar um presente.

I want to buy a gift.

Listen: Quero comprar um presente.

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"Quero comprar um presente" runs the final r of "comprar" into the nasal of "um," which is enough of a vowel to strengthen it into a tap. "Presente" then ends with the palatalized "tchee," and its own internal r is a tap inside the cluster — so the sentence contains three r's realized in three different ways.

Where English speakers slip

The n-versus-nasal issue bites here: saying "kom-PRAR" with the lips closing on an m adds a consonant that isn't there. The cluster is the second problem, with English speakers inserting a vowel to give "puh-RAR." And Spanish speakers bring "comprar" spelled identically but pronounced with a trilled or tapped final r, which in Brazil should be nearly silent.