Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

entrar is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ẽˈtɾah/. It means “to enter / to come in.” eng-TRAH. Nasal first syllable, tapped r in the cluster, and the final r evaporates.

eng-TRAH. Nasal first syllable, tapped r in the cluster, and the final r evaporates.

entrar /ẽˈtɾah/

The final syllable carries the stress, as r-final words always do, and takes no accent. It's worth noticing how compact this word is: only two syllables, with the first purely nasal and the second doing all the phonetic heavy lifting — Portuguese often loads its stressed syllables with clusters like this.

Listen: entrar

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Sound it out

en A nasalized closed e with no separate n consonant. The nasality begins with the vowel and continues until the t arrives.

trar Both Portuguese r-types live inside this single syllable: a tap right after the t, and a puff of air after the vowel. Practising it on its own teaches the whole distinction.

Hear it in a sentence

Pode entrar, a porta está aberta.

Come in, the door is open.

Listen: Pode entrar, a porta está aberta.

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"Pode entrar, a porta está aberta" links "pode" into "entrar" so the palatalized "POH-djee" runs straight into the nasal. "Porta" contains a syllable-final r as breath, and "aberta" does the same, so the sentence contains four r's and only one of them — the tap inside "entrar" — involves the tongue at all.

Where English speakers slip

Pronouncing a full n in the first syllable gives "en-TRAR" with an English-sounding front end. Nasalize the vowel instead. The r's are the second hurdle, since English speakers apply the same sound to both. And there's a phrasing note: "pode entrar" is the standard way to say "come in," not an imperative form of the verb, which trips up learners looking for a command.