Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o cozinheiro is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ko.zĩˈɲej.ɾu/. It means “cook.” oo koh-zeen-YAY-roo. A buzzing z, a nasal vowel, an nh, and an "ei" diphthong.

oo koh-zeen-YAY-roo. A buzzing z, a nasal vowel, an nh, and an "ei" diphthong.

o cozinheiro /u ko.zĩˈɲej.ɾu/

The "nhei" is the loud beat, with the diphthong counting as one syllable. The word is built from "cozinha" plus the agent suffix -eiro, and that suffix always takes the stress wherever it lands — the same pattern as padeiro, engenheiro and brasileiro.

Listen: o cozinheiro

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Sound it out

co The c is hard before the o and a closed "oh," unstressed. It stays "oh" rather than raising, since only a word-final unstressed o lifts.

zi A genuinely voiced z with the cords vibrating, then an i nasalized by the nh that follows. Nasality spreads backward across the syllable boundary.

nhei The nh is one palatal consonant and "ei" is a closed e gliding to a y. So this single syllable holds a fused palatal and a diphthong, and it takes the stress.

ro A single flick of the tongue tip between vowels, and that last o is pronounced "oo."

Hear it in a sentence

O cozinheiro prepara o jantar.

The cook prepares dinner.

Listen: O cozinheiro prepara o jantar.

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"O cozinheiro prepara o jantar" contains "prepara" with a tap in its cluster and another between vowels, then "jantar" with a soft "zh," a nasal and a vanishing r. So the sentence gives you three taps, a guttural-free r at the end, and two nasals.

Where English speakers slip

Splitting the nh gives "ko-zeen-HAY-roo," the standard error, and devoicing the z gives "ko-seen-YAY-roo." Both are common and both are audible. Learners also miss the backward nasalization of the i, producing a flat vowel where Brazilians hum.