Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o casaco is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u kaˈza.ku/. It means “coat / jacket.” oo kah-ZAH-koo. The s buzzes as a z, and the final o comes out as "oo."

oo kah-ZAH-koo. The s buzzes as a z, and the final o comes out as "oo."

o casaco /u kaˈza.ku/

The middle syllable is the loud beat, by the -o default. The word has a pleasing symmetry: identical hard-k syllables at both ends with the buzzing s in the middle, which makes it easy to hear whether that voicing is happening or not.

Listen: o casaco

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Sound it out

ca A hard, dry k before the a and an open "ah," unstressed. Two hard k's bracket this word, and the s in the middle is the only sound that voices.

sa A single s between two vowels, so it buzzes as a z, followed by the wide-open stressed a. This is the loud centre of the word.

co Hard k again — c before o always is — closing on an "oo" rather than the "oh" the spelling promises.

Hear it in a sentence

Leve um casaco, está frio.

Take a coat, it's cold.

Listen: Leve um casaco, está frio.

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"Leve um casaco, está frio" uses a formal imperative and would clip "está" to "tá." "Leve" ends in a raised e and "frio" is two syllables with a stressed i, so the sentence moves through three quite different vowel structures.

Where English speakers slip

Devoicing the s gives "kah-SAH-koo," the reading error, and leaving the final o unraised is the second. Learners also confuse "casaco" with "jaqueta": the first is a coat and the second is a jacket, and Brazilians keep them reasonably distinct.