Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o táxi is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ˈtak.si/. It means “taxi.” oo TAHK-see. Here the x is "ks," and the accent holds the stress on the first syllable.

oo TAHK-see. Here the x is "ks," and the accent holds the stress on the first syllable.

o táxi /u ˈtak.si/

The accent is overriding a default. Words ending in -i are normally stressed on the final syllable — think aqui and ali — so without the acute you would read this as ta-XI. The mark pulls the weight to the front, which is exactly why "aqui" needs no accent and "táxi" does.

Listen: o táxi

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Sound it out

tá A crisp dental t and an accented wide-open a. The acute marks the stress, and the t stays hard because an a follows rather than an i.

x Here the letter x is "ks," as in English "taxi" — one of its four Portuguese values alongside "sh" in baixo, "z" in exame and "s" in próximo. Nothing in the spelling predicts which; each word carries its own.

i A short unstressed high "ee" closing the word. It doesn't raise or change, since i is already the highest vowel there is.

Hear it in a sentence

Vamos pegar um táxi.

Let's take a taxi.

Listen: Vamos pegar um táxi.

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"Vamos pegar um táxi" uses "pegar" for catching or taking transport, the everyday Brazilian verb. Its final r vanishes into breath, and "um" contributes a nasal — so the sentence runs soft and hummed right up until the sharp "ks" arrives at the end.

Where English speakers slip

Reading x as "sh" gives "TAH-shee," which over-applies the most common of the letter's values to a word that doesn't take it. Ignoring the accent to say "tah-KSEE" is the rhythmic error. And in Brazil you'll more often hear people say they're taking an "Uber," pronounced roughly "OO-beh," with the final r softened as usual.