Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o passaporte is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u pa.saˈpoɦ.tʃi/. It means “passport.” oo pah-sah-POH-tchee. A rasped r and a "tchee" ending.

oo pah-sah-POH-tchee. A rasped r and a "tchee" ending.

o passaporte /u pa.saˈpoɦ.tʃi/

Loud on the third of four syllables, by the -e default. The word is a compound of "passa" and "porte" and behaves like a single unit rhythmically, with the second element keeping the stress — the same behaviour as "guarda-chuva," though this one lost its hyphen.

Listen: o passaporte

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Sound it out

ssa The doubled s keeps the sound unvoiced between vowels, and the open "ah" behind it is unstressed. Nothing is lengthened — Portuguese has no long consonants.

por A crisp, breathless p, then the word's one loud vowel — a closed, rounded "oh" — with the r behind it reduced to a scrape of air.

te The last e climbs to "i" and takes the t with it, producing "tch." Even at the end of a four-syllable compound the rule fires exactly as it would in a two-syllable word.

Hear it in a sentence

Não esqueça o passaporte.

Don't forget your passport.

Listen: Não esqueça o passaporte.

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"Não esqueça o passaporte" uses a formal negative imperative, and "esqueça" has both a raised initial e and a cedilla forcing an s before an a. "Não" opens the sentence with its nasal diphthong, so the whole thing runs from a hum to a palatal.

Where English speakers slip

Finishing with a hard t gives "pah-sah-POR-tay," and adding an English r in the middle compounds it. It's a rasp and a "tchee." Learners also lengthen the double s. Spanish speakers have "pasaporte" with a single s, so the Portuguese doubling looks like an error to them and isn't.