Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o médico is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ˈmɛ.dʒi.ku/. It means “doctor.” oo MEH-djee-koo. Accent on the first syllable, and the middle d becomes a "dj."

oo MEH-djee-koo. Accent on the first syllable, and the middle d becomes a "dj."

o médico /u ˈmɛ.dʒi.ku/

Stressed three syllables from the end, so Portuguese writes an accent — the rule holds without exception in that position. It sits alongside "último," "música" and "número" in the same category, and the accent also fixes the vowel as open rather than closed.

Listen: o médico

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

mé A lip-closing m opening the word and an accented open e — jaw dropped, like the vowel in "bet." The acute marks both the stress and the openness.

di The d meets an i and becomes "dj," even here in a quiet unstressed middle syllable. Palatalization is triggered by the following vowel and takes no interest in stress at all.

co A dry hard k before the o and the final vowel rounds up to "oo." The word tapers off after its accented opening.

Hear it in a sentence

Preciso ir ao médico.

I need to go to the doctor.

Listen: Preciso ir ao médico.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Preciso ir ao médico" uses "ir ao," the fused preposition and article, and "preciso" plus a bare infinitive with no "de" — because the object is a verb rather than a noun. "Preciso" also has an intervocalic s buzzing as a z.

Where English speakers slip

Keeping the d hard gives "MEH-dee-koo," which misses the most Brazilian thing in the word. Ignoring the accent to say "meh-DEE-koo" is the rhythmic error. Spanish speakers have "médico" spelled identically, accent and all, with neither the palatalization nor the raised final vowel.