Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o coração is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ko.ɾaˈsɐ̃w̃/. It means “heart.” oo koh-rah-SOWNG. A tapped r in the middle and the -ão nasal diphthong at the end.

oo koh-rah-SOWNG. A tapped r in the middle and the -ão nasal diphthong at the end.

o coração /u ko.ɾaˈsɐ̃w̃/

End-stressed, as every -ão word is by rule, with the tilde marking nasality alone. The plural "corações" swaps the diphthong for -ões and moves the accent onto it, and that -ção to -ções pattern covers an enormous share of Portuguese abstract nouns: estação, nação, informação all behave identically.

Listen: o coração

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Sound it out

co A firm k before the o and a closed "oh," unstressed. The vowel stays "oh" — raising affects a word-final unstressed o, not every one.

ra One flick of the tongue tip between vowels, then an open "ah." This is a tap, not the throat-h a word-initial r would produce.

ção The cedilla forces an s before the a, and then the nasal diphthong takes the stress: a nasalized central a gliding to a nasalized w, one beat, nothing closing it.

Hear it in a sentence

Meu coração bate rápido.

My heart beats fast.

Listen: Meu coração bate rápido.

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"Meu coração bate rápido" ends with "rápido," whose initial r is a throaty h — so the sentence contains a tap and a guttural, the same letter twice with opposite realizations. "Bate" also gives you the palatalized "BAH-tchee."

Where English speakers slip

Closing the -ão with an audible g is the standard error, and rolling the middle r is the Spanish one. Neither belongs: one tap, and a nasal that simply stops. The plural is the third hurdle, since "coraçãos" feels natural and "corações" is what the language uses.