Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o rato is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ˈha.tu/. It means “rat.” oo HAH-too. That initial r is a throaty h — no trill, no English r.

oo HAH-too. That initial r is a throaty h — no trill, no English r.

o rato /u ˈha.tu/

Say it HAH-too, with the punch at the front. The word is worth pairing with "prato," meaning plate: same vowels, same t, and an r that is a tap inside the cluster rather than a throat-h at the front. One position change, two completely different sounds.

Listen: o rato

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Sound it out

r Word-initial r in Brazil is friction from the back of the throat, close to a firmly pushed English h. Spanish demands a trill here and English a curl; Brazilian Portuguese does neither.

a Wide open, jaw down, and stressed. It arrives straight out of the throat friction, which takes a little coordination.

to A dry dental t, finishing on a rounded "oo." Crisp and short after the guttural opening.

Hear it in a sentence

O rato correu para o buraco.

The rat ran into the hole.

Listen: O rato correu para o buraco.

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"O rato correu para o buraco" is dense with r's: a throat-h at the front, a double rr in "correu" that is also a throat-h, and a tap between vowels in "buraco." Three r's, two realizations, in one short sentence.

Where English speakers slip

Trilling the initial r is the Spanish transfer error and it's the loudest one here. Make it an h. Learners also leave the final o unraised. And note that "rato" is a rat while "camundongo" is a mouse — Brazilians distinguish them, and "rato" is the bigger and less welcome animal.