How to Pronounce 'Errado': Portuguese (Brazil) Pronunciation Guide

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

errado is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /eˈha.du/. It means “wrong.” eh-HAH-doo. That double r in the middle is a harsh h, nothing like a Spanish rolled rr.

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

eh-HAH-doo. That double r in the middle is a harsh h, nothing like a Spanish rolled rr.

errado /eˈha.du/

The default puts the weight on the second-to-last syllable because the word ends in -o, and no accent is needed. Worth noting that the stressed syllable begins with that throaty rr — Brazilians tend to lean into it, so the harshest sound in the word is also the loudest, which makes "errado" quite emphatic in use.

Listen: errado

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Sound it out

e A closed e opening the word, unstressed and short. No consonant precedes it, and Portuguese doesn't insert the glottal catch English uses before an initial vowel.

rr This is the sound that most surprises learners: a doubled r in Brazil is a throaty h, pushed harder than the h in English "house," made at the back of the mouth. It is emphatically not the trill that the same spelling produces in Spanish or Italian.

do A hard d and a final "oo." After the friction of the rr, this syllable should feel soft and quick by comparison.

Hear it in a sentence

Peguei o ônibus errado.

I took the wrong bus.

Listen: Peguei o ônibus errado.

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"Peguei o ônibus errado" gives you a written accent doing rare work: "ônibus" is stressed three syllables from the end, and Portuguese always writes an accent that far back because no default rule covers it. The adjective then follows the noun, as Portuguese adjectives normally do.

Where English speakers slip

The rolled rr is the transfer error to kill, and it comes almost entirely from Spanish. Brazilians make it a throat-h: "eh-HAH-doo," as though clearing your throat gently. English speakers meanwhile produce a doubled American r, which is even further off. The unraised final o is the smaller, quieter mistake sitting underneath both.