Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

o ônibus is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ˈõ.ni.bus/. It means “bus.” oo OH-nee-boos. Accent on the first syllable, which is also nasal.

oo OH-nee-boos. Accent on the first syllable, which is also nasal.

o ônibus /u ˈõ.ni.bus/

Third-from-last stress, always written in Portuguese because no default rule reaches back that far. The circumflex also fixes the vowel as closed. And because the word already ends in s, the plural adds nothing — "o ônibus" and "os ônibus" differ only in the article.

Listen: o ônibus

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Sound it out

ô The circumflex marks the stress and specifies a closed o, and the n after it makes the vowel nasal. So this one syllable carries an accent mark, the word's weight and its nasal resonance all at once.

ni A real n consonant opening its own syllable — nasalizing nothing — and a short unstressed "ee." Quick and easily swallowed, but Brazilians keep it audible.

bus A bilabial b with the lips fully closing, an unstressed u, and a closing s. That final s isn't a plural marker: "ônibus" is identical in singular and plural, which is unusual in Portuguese.

Hear it in a sentence

O ônibus está atrasado.

The bus is late.

Listen: O ônibus está atrasado.

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"O ônibus está atrasado" links the noun's final s into the vowel of "está," which voices it into a z: "OH-nee-boo-zish-TAH." In speech "está" clips to "tá," and "atrasado" contains a tapped r inside its cluster.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers stress the middle syllable, ignoring the accent, and give the first n full consonant value. Both need fixing: the accent is on the front and the vowel hums. The invariable plural also catches people out, since "ônibuses" feels natural and doesn't exist.