Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

nada is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈna.dɐ/. It means “nothing.” NAH-dah. Two dental consonants, a wide-open stressed vowel, and a light final "uh."

NAH-dah. Two dental consonants, a wide-open stressed vowel, and a light final "uh."

nada /ˈna.dɐ/

Loud on "na-," with the second beat much lighter. The word is a participant in Portuguese double negation, which is required rather than optional: "não tem nada" uses two negatives that reinforce each other, and removing either one produces something ungrammatical rather than merely emphatic.

Listen: nada

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Sound it out

na A real n consonant, tongue on the ridge, and then a wide-open stressed a. The n opens the syllable rather than closing one, so nothing nasalizes.

da A hard d with the tongue against the back of the upper teeth — Portuguese d is more dental than the English one — and a final a that lightens toward "uh" without disappearing.

Hear it in a sentence

Não tem nada na geladeira.

There's nothing in the fridge.

Listen: Não tem nada na geladeira.

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"Não tem nada na geladeira" strings a nasal diphthong, a nasal monosyllable and then "nada" together, so three of the first four words involve an n. "Geladeira" then opens with a soft "zh" and carries a stressed "ei" diphthong in the middle.

Where English speakers slip

The English d, made further back on the ridge, is the main phonetic slip — Portuguese puts the tongue right against the teeth for a softer contact. The final a also gets flattened into a schwa by English speakers, when Brazilians keep it audible. And the double-negative rule catches everyone: "tem nada" without "não" is colloquial at best and wrong in writing.