Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o tempo is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ˈtẽ.pu/. It means “time / weather.” oo TEM-poo. The article is "oo," the noun's first vowel is nasal, and its last raises to "oo" too.

oo TEM-poo. The article is "oo," the noun's first vowel is nasal, and its last raises to "oo" too.

o tempo /u ˈtẽ.pu/

The noun is front-stressed by the -o default, and the article carries no stress at all. Note that the same word covers both time and weather in Portuguese, with no change in pronunciation — "não tenho tempo" and "o tempo está bom" rely entirely on context to disambiguate.

Listen: o tempo

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Sound it out

o The masculine article, permanently unstressed and therefore raised from "oh" to "oo." It leans onto the noun with no pause between them.

tem A t made against the teeth and an e nasalized by the m. Portuguese writes m before a p as a convention, but the lips stay apart and the nose carries the sound. This is the stressed syllable.

po A clean p out of the nasal, then "oo" — which means the phrase opens and closes on the same rounded vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

Não tenho tempo hoje.

I don't have time today.

Listen: Não tenho tempo hoje.

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"Não tenho tempo hoje" opens with a nasal diphthong, then "tenho" adds an nh, then "tempo" adds another nasal — three consecutive words with nasal resonance. "Hoje" then closes on a silent h and a soft "zh," which by contrast sounds almost airy.

Where English speakers slip

Let the lips meet on the m and you get "TEM-poh," adding a consonant and leaving the final o unraised. Both need work. The double meaning is the practical hazard: learners assume "tempo" is only time, then get lost when a Brazilian complains about "o tempo" and means the rain.