Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

enquanto is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ẽˈkwɐ̃.tu/. It means “while.” eng-KWAHN-too. Two nasal vowels, and the qu here is a genuine "kw."

eng-KWAHN-too. Two nasal vowels, and the qu here is a genuine "kw."

enquanto /ẽˈkwɐ̃.tu/

Three syllables, and the middle one is loud. Both of the word's nasal vowels are worth noticing for their difference in prominence: one is unstressed and easy to miss, the other is stressed and unmistakable, and Portuguese sustains the resonance equally well in both positions.

Listen: enquanto

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Sound it out

en An unstressed e humming through the nose. Portuguese sustains nasality perfectly well without stress, which is why this syllable is so easy to miss.

quan Before an a, the u in qu is fully pronounced as a w — so this is "kwan," not "kan." The a is then nasalized by the n, and this is the stressed syllable.

to A hard t and a closing "oo," arriving directly out of the nasal. Unstressed and quick.

Hear it in a sentence

Ouço música enquanto trabalho.

I listen to music while I work.

Listen: Ouço música enquanto trabalho.

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"Ouço música enquanto trabalho" opens with "ouço," where ou flattens to "oh" and the ç is a plain s. "Música" carries an accent three syllables from the end, and "trabalho" closes on an lh — so the sentence packs a flattened diphthong, a proparoxytone and a palatal consonant around the two nasals of "enquanto."

Where English speakers slip

Silencing the u gives "eng-KAN-too," which applies the wrong half of the qu rule: the u is silent only before e and i, and this is an a. Learners also give both n's full consonant value, turning two hums into two stops. And note the meaning — "enquanto" is while in the temporal sense, not the contrastive "whereas."