Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o começo is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u koˈme.su/. It means “beginning.” oo koh-MEH-soo. The ç is just an s, and the final o comes out as "oo."

oo koh-MEH-soo. The ç is just an s, and the final o comes out as "oo."

o começo /u koˈme.su/

The middle syllable is loud, by the -o default. The noun and its verb "começar" differ neatly: the verb is end-stressed because it finishes in r, and the noun is front-shifted because it finishes in o. Same cedilla, same consonants, different rhythms.

Listen: o começo

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Sound it out

co A hard, dry k before the o and a closed "oh," unstressed and short. The vowel doesn't raise, since raising touches only the word-final one.

me An m that opens a syllable, nasalizing nothing, and a closed e carrying the stress. Keep it tight rather than open.

ço The cedilla forces a soft s before the o, where a plain c would have been a k. The vowel behind it is heard as "oo," so the word ends on "soo."

Hear it in a sentence

No começo foi difícil.

At the beginning it was hard.

Listen: No começo foi difícil.

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"No começo foi difícil" uses "no," the contraction of em plus the masculine article. "Foi" is a one-syllable diphthong, and "difícil" delivers a palatalized "djee" and a vocalized l — so the sentence ends on a glide after two clean rounded syllables.

Where English speakers slip

Reading the ç as a k defeats its purpose, and leaving the final o unraised is the quieter error underneath. Learners also confuse "começo" the noun with "começo" the verb form meaning I begin — same spelling, same sound, and only the article and syntax separate them.