Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o ano is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ˈɐ.nu/. It means “year.” oo AH-noo. No nasalization here — the n opens the second syllable rather than closing the first.

oo AH-noo. No nasalization here — the n opens the second syllable rather than closing the first.

o ano /u ˈɐ.nu/

The open a is loud, unmarked. The instructive point is structural rather than rhythmic: an n between two vowels opens a syllable and therefore nasalizes nothing, whereas the same letter closing a syllable would nasalize everything before it. Compare "ano" with "anho" or "anta" and the difference is immediate.

Listen: o ano

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Sound it out

o The masculine article raised to "oo," unstressed. It runs directly into the noun's opening vowel with nothing between them, so the two words fuse into one glide.

a An open a carrying the stress, and crucially fully oral. The n after it belongs to the next syllable, so nothing nasalizes — this is a good test of whether you've internalized that rule.

no A real n consonant opening its own syllable, followed by "oo." The word ends quietly after its one loud vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

Ano que vem vou viajar.

Next year I'm going to travel.

Listen: Ano que vem vou viajar.

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"Ano que vem vou viajar" uses the fixed phrase "ano que vem" for next year. "Vem" is a nasal diphthong, and "viajar" has a soft "zh" in the middle and a vanishing r at the end — so the sentence moves from oral vowels into a nasal and out through a palatal.

Where English speakers slip

Nasalizing the first vowel by association with "não" or "antes" gives "AHNG-noo," which adds resonance the word doesn't have. Keep it oral. Learners also confuse "ano" with "ânus" in nervous moments — the accent and the s make them different words, but the anxiety is real enough that it's worth naming.