Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o momento is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u moˈmẽ.tu/. It means “moment.” oo moh-MEN-too. The middle vowel is nasal and the final one comes out as "oo."

oo moh-MEN-too. The middle vowel is nasal and the final one comes out as "oo."

o momento /u moˈmẽ.tu/

The nasal syllable carries the accent, by the -o default. The word is a clean side-by-side test of the nasalization rule: two identical m's, one opening a syllable and nasalizing nothing, one preceded by a vowel that gets nasalized by the following n instead. Position is everything.

Listen: o momento

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Sound it out

mo A lip-closing m opening the word — nasalizing nothing — and a closed "oh," unstressed. The vowel stays "oh" rather than raising, since raising affects only a word-final unstressed o.

men A second m, this time followed by an e that the n behind it turns nasal. So the word contains two m's and only the second syllable hums, which is decided entirely by what closes it.

to A hard dental t out of the nasal resonance, ending on "oo."

Hear it in a sentence

Só um momento, por favor.

Just a moment, please.

Listen: Só um momento, por favor.

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"Só um momento, por favor" opens with "só," whose acute marks a wide-open o, and "um" adds a nasal before the noun's own. "Por favor" then closes on two breathy r's — so the phrase is nasal in the middle and soft at both ends.

Where English speakers slip

Articulating the n fully gives "moh-MEN-toh" with a stop where Portuguese has a hum, plus an unraised ending. Learners also raise the first o by association with the last, when only the word-final one lifts. Spanish speakers have "momento" spelled identically with a real n and no raising.