Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o avião is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u a.viˈɐ̃w̃/. It means “airplane.” oo ah-vee-OWNG. Four syllables counting the article, ending in the -ão nasal diphthong.

oo ah-vee-OWNG. Four syllables counting the article, ending in the -ão nasal diphthong.

o avião /u a.viˈɐ̃w̃/

End-stressed, as any word finishing in -ão is by rule, with the tilde marking nasality rather than placement. The plural is "aviões," which swaps the whole diphthong for a different nasal one — the -ão family has three unrelated plural patterns and this word takes the -ões branch, as do coração and estação.

Listen: o avião

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Sound it out

a An unstressed open "ah" opening the noun, running straight out of the article's "oo" with no break.

vi A real v with teeth on lip and a short high "ee" standing as its own syllable. It doesn't glide into what follows — the vowels stay separate.

ão The nasal diphthong: a nasalized central a gliding into a nasalized w, all in one beat, both halves nasal throughout. Nothing closes it, so the word ends mid-resonance.

Hear it in a sentence

O avião sai em uma hora.

The plane leaves in an hour.

Listen: O avião sai em uma hora.

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"O avião sai em uma hora" strings vowel-initial words together so the whole sentence flows without breaks. "Sai" is two syllables — sa-i, with the stressed i standing alone — and "em uma" would compress to "numa" in speech.

Where English speakers slip

Letting a hard g close the -ão is the standard error, and squashing "vi-ão" into one syllable is the other. Give each vowel its beat and let the nasal simply stop. The plural is the third hurdle, since "aviãos" feels natural and "aviões" is what Portuguese uses.