Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o número is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ˈnu.me.ɾu/. It means “number.” oo NOO-meh-roo. Accent on the first syllable and a tap in the last.

oo NOO-meh-roo. Accent on the first syllable and a tap in the last.

o número /u ˈnu.me.ɾu/

Stressed three syllables from the end, which Portuguese always writes an accent for since no default rule reaches back that far. It sits alongside "último," "médico" and "música" in that category — and the accent is not optional, since without it a reader would default to nu-ME-ro.

Listen: o número

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Sound it out

nú An n opening the word and an accented rounded "oo." The acute marks the stress, and everything after it should be lighter and faster.

me An unremarkable m opening its own syllable — nasalizing nothing — and a short unstressed closed e. Easy to swallow, but Brazilians keep it audible.

ro A single flick of the tongue tip between vowels, and the o climbing to "oo" as it always does at the end of a word. The word finishes on the same rounded sound it started with.

Hear it in a sentence

Não sei o número do quarto.

I don't know the room number.

Listen: Não sei o número do quarto.

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"Não sei o número do quarto" uses "do," the fused contraction, and "quarto" has a fully pronounced u after the q plus a breathy r. "Sei" is a one-syllable diphthong, so the sentence moves from a nasal through a glide into two proparoxytone-free words.

Where English speakers slip

Ignoring the accent and stressing the middle syllable gives "noo-MEH-roo," which is the English rhythm. The mark is doing real work. The r attracts a roll from Spanish speakers, when it should be one tap, and the final o goes unraised by nearly everyone at first.