Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "o aluno" in Portuguese (Brazil)?

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

o aluno is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u aˈlu.nu/. It means “student.” oo ah-LOO-noo. Article and noun glide together, and both o-spellings come out as "oo."

oo ah-LOO-noo. Article and noun glide together, and both o-spellings come out as "oo."

o aluno /u aˈlu.nu/

Stress goes to the middle syllable of the noun, by the -o default. The feminine is "aluna," and the plural "alunos" covers mixed groups — Portuguese defaults to the masculine plural for any group containing at least one man, which is worth knowing before you address a classroom.

Listen: o aluno

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Sound it out

o The article, raised to "oo." Because the noun begins with a vowel, the two words run together without the glottal catch English would insert between them.

a An unstressed open "ah" opening the noun, short and quick and easily blurred into the article before it.

lu The l holds full tongue-tip contact since it opens the syllable, and the rounded "oo" behind it carries the stress.

no An n opening its own syllable, nasalizing nothing, then "oo" to finish. So the phrase has three rounded vowels and one open one.

Hear it in a sentence

O aluno chegou atrasado.

The student arrived late.

Listen: O aluno chegou atrasado.

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"O aluno chegou atrasado" links "chegou atrasado" so the flattened "oh" of the verb runs into the adjective's opening "ah." "Chegou" opens with a "sh" and "atrasado" has a tapped r inside its cluster.

Where English speakers slip

Inserting a glottal stop between the article and the noun chops the phrase into two pieces; Brazilians glide through. Leaving the final o unraised is the second habit. And "aluno" is a school pupil, while a university student is more often "estudante" — the two aren't fully interchangeable.