Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

grande is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈgɾɐ̃.dʒi/. It means “big.” GRAHN-djee. Nasal first vowel, and the ending is "djee" like the start of "jeep."

GRAHN-djee. Nasal first vowel, and the ending is "djee" like the start of "jeep."

grande /ˈgɾɐ̃.dʒi/

Ending in -e, the word takes second-to-last-syllable stress by default and needs no accent. This adjective doesn't change for gender — "um carro grande" and "uma casa grande" — which is unusual and worth remembering, since most Portuguese adjectives do agree. Its placement changes meaning too: "um grande homem" is a great man, "um homem grande" a large one.

Listen: grande

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Sound it out

gr A hard g followed by a single tapped r. Keep them tight — English speakers tend to let a tiny vowel slip in between, and Spanish speakers over-roll the r.

an The n nasalizes the a, and a nasal a in Portuguese is raised and centralized rather than wide open — closer to the vowel in "sun" hummed through the nose.

de The e at the end is heard as "i," pulling the d into "dj." So the word finishes on the sound that opens English "gee," not on a hard "deh."

Hear it in a sentence

Meu cachorro é grande.

My dog is big.

Listen: Meu cachorro é grande.

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"Meu cachorro é grande" ends on the palatalized "djee," and "cachorro" earlier contains a double rr pronounced as a throaty h. So the sentence has a growly h in the middle and a soft palatal at the end, with the nasal of "grande" bridging them.

Where English speakers slip

The ending is the reliable error: "GRAN-day" with a hard d and a full "ay" is what English speakers produce, and Brazilians say "djee." The nasal vowel is the second issue, since giving the n full consonant value flattens it. Spanish speakers additionally keep an oral a and a hard d, since Spanish "grande" has neither Portuguese feature.