How to Pronounce 'Obrigado': Portuguese (Brazil) Pronunciation Guide

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

obrigado is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /o.bɾiˈga.du/. It means “thank you (said by a man).” oh-bree-GAH-doo — four syllables, the punch on "GAH," and the final o sounds like "oo."

How do you pronounce "obrigado" in Portuguese (Brazil)?

oh-bree-GAH-doo — four syllables, the punch on "GAH," and the final o sounds like "oo."

obrigado /o.bɾiˈga.du/

Weight lands on the third syllable, "-ga-," which the default rule delivers for free: the word ends in -o, so the second-to-last syllable is stressed, and no written accent is needed. Say it with a strong "GAH" and let the last syllable fall away quietly.

Listen: obrigado

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Sound it out

o The opening vowel is a light closed "oh," unstressed but still fully pronounced; Brazilians don't swallow it the way Lisbon speakers do, so you should hear a real vowel before the b.

br The r inside this cluster is a single quick flick of the tongue against the ridge behind the teeth — the same motion as the middle of American "butter." It is not the throaty h-sound that r gets at the start of a word.

ga A hard g as in "go," and this is the loud syllable. The a is wide open, tongue low, like the vowel in "father."

do The final o raises to an "oo" in Brazilian speech, so the word ends "doo." Note also that the d stays hard here — it only softens to "dj" before an i-sound, and this is an o.

Hear it in a sentence

Muito obrigado pela ajuda.

Thank you very much for the help.

Listen: Muito obrigado pela ajuda.

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"Muito obrigado pela ajuda" shows the word doing its real job inside a sentence. Notice "muito" — despite the spelling with no tilde, Brazilians pronounce it with a nasal first syllable, "MOOEEN-too." And the final "-do" of obrigado slides straight into "pela" with no break, so the two words share a single rhythmic run.

Where English speakers slip

The commonest problem isn't a sound at all — it's the ending. "Obrigado" is what a male speaker says; a woman says "obrigada." Beyond that, English speakers habitually stress the wrong place and produce "oh-BREE-ga-do," pulling the accent onto the second syllable. And the trilled Spanish r sneaks in constantly: this r is one light tap, over in an instant.