Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o professor is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u pɾo.feˈsoh/. It means “teacher.” oo proh-feh-SOH. The double s is one plain hiss, and the final r fades to breath.

oo proh-feh-SOH. The double s is one plain hiss, and the final r fades to breath.

o professor /u pɾo.feˈsoh/

End-stressed, as r-final words are by rule, unmarked. The feminine is "professora," which adds a syllable and brings the -a default into play — so the accent shifts back onto the same vowel but is now second-to-last rather than final, and the r between vowels becomes a proper tap.

Listen: o professor

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Sound it out

pro A clean p with a tap flicked immediately after it, then a closed "oh." Keep the cluster tight, and note the vowel doesn't raise — only a word-final unstressed o does.

fe An f and a closed e, unstressed and quick, bridging the cluster and the stressed syllable.

ssor Doubled s to keep the sound unvoiced between vowels, a closed "oh" carrying the stress, and an r closing the word as a faint scrape of breath.

Hear it in a sentence

O professor explica bem.

The teacher explains things well.

Listen: O professor explica bem.

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"O professor explica bem" contains "explica," where the x is pronounced "s" — yet another of that letter's four values. "Bem" then ends the sentence on a nasal diphthong with nothing closing it.

Where English speakers slip

Lengthening the double s and adding an English r at the end are the two phonetic errors. Front-stressing it is the third. Note also that Portuguese drops the article before professions after "ser": "ele é professor," with no "um," which English speakers reliably get wrong.