Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

nem is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /nẽj̃/. It means “not even / nor.” NAYNG. A nasal diphthong in one beat, with the lips never closing on the m.

NAYNG. A nasal diphthong in one beat, with the lips never closing on the m.

nem /nẽj̃/

A monosyllable, stressed and unaccented. Its longer relatives are the instructive comparison: "também" and "ninguém" both end in the same nasal diphthong but need acute accents, because in a multi-syllable word the -em ending would otherwise be read as second-to-last stressed. A single syllable has no such ambiguity.

Listen: nem

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Sound it out

n A genuine n consonant opening the word, tongue on the ridge behind the teeth. Unlike the m at the other end, this one is really pronounced.

em The nasal diphthong: a closed e gliding toward a nasalized y, giving "ayng." It's the same ending as "bem," "quem" and "tem," so learning it once covers a lot of very frequent words.

Hear it in a sentence

Ele nem me olhou.

He didn't even look at me.

Listen: Ele nem me olhou.

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"Ele nem me olhou" places "nem" before the pronoun for emphasis. "Me" is a raised "mee," and "olhou" contains an lh plus an ou flattened to "oh," so the sentence ends on a palatal consonant and a plain rounded vowel where the spelling suggests something more complicated.

Where English speakers slip

Bringing the lips together gives an English-sounding "nem," which adds a consonant and flattens the glide. Portuguese has neither. The grammar is the subtler challenge: "nem" functions as not even, nor, and neither, and it participates in double negation — "não vi nem ouvi" keeps both negatives, which English grammar would forbid.