Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

diferente is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /dʒi.feˈɾẽ.tʃi/. It means “different.” djee-feh-REN-tchee. A "dj" at the front, a tapped r in the middle, and a "tchee" at the end.

djee-feh-REN-tchee. A "dj" at the front, a tapped r in the middle, and a "tchee" at the end.

diferente /dʒi.feˈɾẽ.tʃi/

Four syllables, and the third is the loud one. This adjective doesn't inflect for gender — "um caso diferente," "uma ideia diferente" — which puts it in the same invariable club as grande, forte and triste.

Listen: diferente

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Sound it out

di Palatalized to "dj" by the i behind it — the sound that opens English "jeans." This happens in an unstressed syllable just as readily as a stressed one.

fe An f and a closed e, unstressed. Portuguese keeps this vowel clear rather than letting it slump into a schwa the way English would.

ren One quick tap of the tongue tip between vowels, and then an e that the n turns nasal. This syllable is the resonant heart of the word.

te The closing e comes out as "i," turning the t into "tch." So the word opens on a "dj" and shuts on a "tch," bookended by the two Brazilian affricates.

Hear it in a sentence

Hoje foi um dia diferente.

Today was a different day.

Listen: Hoje foi um dia diferente.

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"Hoje foi um dia diferente" gives you "dia" and "diferente" back to back, both starting with the same palatalized "djee." It's an unusually clean piece of ear training: two adjacent words, one sound, and if you can produce both without a hard d you have the rule.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers keep hard consonants at both ends and produce "dif-uh-RENT-ay," which misses the two palatalizations that define the word in Brazil. The middle r is the third issue, since it should be one tap rather than a curl or a roll. And the nasal in "-ren-" needs the nose, not the tongue.