Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o pássaro is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ˈpa.sa.ɾu/. It means “bird.” oo PAH-sah-roo. Accent on the first syllable, and the double s is one plain hiss.

oo PAH-sah-roo. Accent on the first syllable, and the double s is one plain hiss.

o pássaro /u ˈpa.sa.ɾu/

The accent is three from the end, a position Portuguese never leaves unmarked. The word also carries a doubled s, which is a separate spelling device entirely, and learners sometimes conflate the two marks as though both were about emphasis.

Listen: o pássaro

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Sound it out

pá A p with none of the English puff and an accented wide-open a. The acute marks the stress, and this syllable should be clearly longer than the two after it.

ss Doubled to keep the sound unvoiced between vowels — a single s there would buzz into a z. Portuguese has no long consonants, so nothing is held; the doubling is purely a spelling instruction.

ro One light touch of the tongue tip between vowels, then "oo" to finish. The word trails away after its accented opening.

Hear it in a sentence

O pássaro canta de manhã.

The bird sings in the morning.

Listen: O pássaro canta de manhã.

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"O pássaro canta de manhã" uses "de" pronounced "djee" and ends on "manhã," with its nh and its stressed nasal ã. "Canta" adds another nasal, so the sentence moves from a completely oral opening word into two hums.

Where English speakers slip

Lengthening the double s is the phonetic slip, and ignoring the accent to say "pah-SAH-roo" is the rhythmic one. Both matter. Spanish speakers reach for "pájaro," whose j is a throat sound — and the two words are close enough in shape that the interference is real.