Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o trabalho is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u tɾaˈba.ʎu/. It means “work / job.” oo trah-BAH-lyoo. A tapped r in the cluster and an lh as one fused palatal.

oo trah-BAH-lyoo. A tapped r in the cluster and an lh as one fused palatal.

o trabalho /u tɾaˈba.ʎu/

The middle syllable is the loud one. Because lh is indivisible for syllabification, the split is tra-ba-lho, which puts the stressed a in an open syllable where it can be held at full length. The related verb "trabalhar" moves the stress to the end while keeping every consonant identical.

Listen: o trabalho

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Sound it out

tr A dry dental t with a quick tap on its heels. Many Brazilians colour this cluster toward "tch," so "tchrah" is a widespread and entirely normal variant.

ba A b made with the lips closing and the stressed wide-open a. Two consecutive open a's in the first two syllables give the word a flat, driving rhythm.

lho The lh is one palatal consonant, the tongue blade flat against the roof of the mouth. The o behind it raises to "oo," so the ending is "lyoo" — never "l-ho."

Hear it in a sentence

Estou indo para o trabalho.

I'm on my way to work.

Listen: Estou indo para o trabalho.

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"Estou indo para o trabalho" would come out as "tô indo pro trabalho," with "para o" fusing into "pro" — a contraction so standard in speech that written dialogue uses it freely. "Indo" contributes a nasal, and the sentence ends on the palatal.

Where English speakers slip

"tra-BAL-ho" with an audible l and h is the reliable lh error. One fused sound, no l-release. The r attracts a roll from Spanish speakers and a curl from English ones, when it's a single tap. And the final o goes unraised by most beginners, which is the quietest of the three mistakes but the most constant.