Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

limpo is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈlĩ.pu/. It means “clean.” LEEM-poo, but the m never closes — the first vowel just hums through the nose.

LEEM-poo, but the m never closes — the first vowel just hums through the nose.

limpo /ˈlĩ.pu/

The nasal is loud, and nothing needs writing. The word is worth comparing with "limpar," its verb, where the same nasal syllable becomes unstressed and the weight moves to the end — the nasality survives that shift completely unchanged.

Listen: limpo

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

lim The l is fully articulated, and the i behind it is nasalized by the m. Portuguese writes m before p as a convention; the lips stay apart and no consonant is produced.

po A tight p emerging straight from the nasal with no closure between, and a final vowel heard as "oo."

Hear it in a sentence

Meu quarto está limpo.

My room is clean.

Listen: Meu quarto está limpo.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Meu quarto está limpo" uses "quarto," where the qu before an a is fully pronounced as "kw" and the r closing the first syllable softens to a rasp. So the sentence has a silent u nowhere and an audible one here, which is the opposite of what "quente" or "quero" do.

Where English speakers slip

Letting the lips meet on the m produces "LIMP-oh," adding a consonant Portuguese doesn't have and leaving the final o unraised. Keep the lips apart. Spanish speakers have "limpio" with an extra i, and may add a glide that Portuguese lacks entirely.