Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o peixe is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ˈpej.ʃi/. It means “fish.” oo PAY-shee. The x here is a "sh," and the final e comes out as "ee."

oo PAY-shee. The x here is a "sh," and the final e comes out as "ee."

o peixe /u ˈpej.ʃi/

The diphthong is loud and counts as a single syllable. The word is invariable in the plural apart from adding an s — "os peixes" — and that added syllable doesn't move the accent, which stays on the diphthong.

Listen: o peixe

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Sound it out

pei A tight p and "ei," a closed e gliding to a y — the vowel of "weigh." One beat, and the stressed one.

xe The letter x is a "sh" here, which is only one of its four possible values in Portuguese — it can also be "ks" as in táxi, "z" as in exame, and "s" as in próximo. No rule predicts which; you learn each word.

Hear it in a sentence

O peixe nada no mar.

The fish swims in the sea.

Listen: O peixe nada no mar.

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"O peixe nada no mar" uses "nada" as a verb here rather than the pronoun meaning nothing — same spelling, same sound, and only the syntax separates them. "Mar" then ends on a vanishing r, so the sentence closes on almost nothing at all.

Where English speakers slip

Reading x as "ks" gives "PAKE-see," which is the instinctive English approach and wrong here. It's "sh." Breaking the diphthong is the second error, and leaving the final e as "shay" is the third. Spanish speakers have "pez" and "pescado," neither of which helps.