Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o carro is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ˈka.hu/. It means “car.” oo KAH-hoo. The double rr is a throaty h, not a rolled Spanish rr.

oo KAH-hoo. The double rr is a throaty h, not a rolled Spanish rr.

o carro /u ˈka.hu/

The default puts the weight on "ca-," as it does for any word ending in -o, and no accent is needed. The doubling of the r is a spelling device rather than a lengthening instruction: Portuguese uses rr between vowels to signal the throaty sound, because a single r there would be a light tap instead — which is exactly what separates "carro" from "caro."

Listen: o carro

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Sound it out

ca Hard k before the a and a wide-open stressed vowel. Hold back the puff of air English adds after k and it immediately sounds more Portuguese.

rr A doubled r between vowels is a throat-h in Brazil, made at the back of the mouth with real friction. This is the single biggest divergence from Spanish, where the identical spelling demands a full trill.

o The final unstressed vowel is heard as "oo," so the word closes on "hoo." Quick and quiet after the guttural.

Hear it in a sentence

Vou de carro para o trabalho.

I drive to work.

Listen: Vou de carro para o trabalho.

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"Vou de carro para o trabalho" uses "de" for means of transport, pronounced "djee." In speech "para o" would fuse into "pro," giving "vou de carro pro trabalho" — and "trabalho" ends on an lh, so the sentence pairs a guttural with a palatal.

Where English speakers slip

The rolled rr is the reflex for anyone with Spanish behind them, and it turns the word into something a Brazilian would find distinctly foreign. It's an h. The caro/carro pair is the practical stake: one tap means expensive, the throat-h means car, and the vowels are identical.