Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

nove is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈnɔ.vi/. It means “nine.” NAW-vee, with an open o like the vowel in "thought" and a final e that comes out as "ee."

NAW-vee, with an open o like the vowel in "thought" and a final e that comes out as "ee."

nove /ˈnɔ.vi/

Ending in -e puts the stress on the second-to-last syllable by default, so "no-" carries it with no accent needed. The open quality of that stressed o is not indicated by the spelling at all — Portuguese only writes ó or ô when an accent is required for other reasons, so open and closed o are frequently left for the learner to memorize.

Listen: nove

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Sound it out

no The o here is open — jaw down, lips loosely rounded, closer to the vowel of "law" than the vowel of "low." Getting this open quality right is what makes the word sound Brazilian rather than textbook.

ve A genuine v with the teeth on the lip, then the final unstressed e raised to "ee." Unlike t and d, a v doesn't change its own quality before an i-sound, so the ending is simply "vee."

Hear it in a sentence

São nove da manhã.

It's nine in the morning.

Listen: São nove da manhã.

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"São nove da manhã" ends on one of the harder words in the language: "manhã" combines the palatal nh with a stressed nasal ã, and the tilde tells you to release the final vowel entirely through the nose. Against that, "nove" is straightforward — but the contrast between its open o and the closed nasal at the end of the sentence is worth listening for.

Where English speakers slip

The instinct from English is to say "NO-vay," with a closed "oh" and a full "ay" ending. Both halves need fixing: the o opens toward "aw," and the final e lifts to "ee." Spanish speakers bring "nueve," whose diphthong tempts them to insert a w-glide that Portuguese doesn't have here.