How to Pronounce 'O Fim De Semana': Portuguese (Brazil) Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce o fim de semana in Portuguese (Brazil)?

o fim de semana is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ˈfĩ dʒi seˈmɐ.nɐ/. It means “weekend.” oo feeng-djee-seh-MAH-nah. Three words that Brazilians run together as one.

How do you pronounce "o fim de semana" in Portuguese (Brazil)?

oo feeng-djee-seh-MAH-nah. Three words that Brazilians run together as one.

o fim de semana /u ˈfĩ dʒi seˈmɐ.nɐ/

The main weight sits on the "ma" of "semana," with "fim" carrying a lighter secondary stress and "de" carrying none at all. Portuguese phrases like this behave rhythmically as single words, which is why the "de" gets so reduced — and why writing it out in full makes the phrase look longer than it sounds.

Listen: o fim de semana

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Sound it out

fim A nasal "eeng" with the lips staying apart. It links straight into the next word with no pause, so the nasal resonance colours the start of "de."

de The unstressed e raises to i, which converts the d into "dj." Squeezed between two content words, this syllable is very quick indeed.

se A hissed s and a closed e, quick and unstressed. Squeezed between the palatalized "de" and the loud syllable ahead, it's easy to lose altogether.

ma-na Two syllables built on nasal consonants that nasalize nothing, since each opens its own syllable. The stress falls on the "ma," whose wide-open a is the loudest sound in the phrase.

Hear it in a sentence

Bom fim de semana!

Have a good weekend!

Listen: Bom fim de semana!

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"Bom fim de semana!" is the standard Friday farewell, and "bom" adds a nasal right before "fim" does — two hums in a row before the phrase opens out into the clear vowels of "semana." Nothing in the whole expression closes with a hard consonant.

Where English speakers slip

Pronouncing all four words with equal weight makes the phrase sound recited rather than spoken. Compress the "de" to a quick "djee" and let "semana" carry the melody. Learners also close their lips on "fim," and they sometimes hyphenate it in writing — the standard spelling is three separate words.