Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

ontem is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈõ.tẽj̃/. It means “yesterday.” ONE-tayng. Two nasal vowels back to back, and neither one ends in a real consonant.

ONE-tayng. Two nasal vowels back to back, and neither one ends in a real consonant.

ontem /ˈõ.tẽj̃/

The default does the work: words ending in -em are stressed on the second-to-last syllable, so "on-" is loud and no accent is needed. This is the same rule that leaves "jovem" and "ordem" unmarked, and the same one that "também" has to break with an acute.

Listen: ontem

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Sound it out

on A closed o resonating through the nose, and it carries the weight. Lips rounded, and the n is written rather than spoken.

tem A crisp dental t, then the nasal diphthong -em: a closed e gliding toward a nasalized y, giving "tayng." The t stays hard because the vowel is a nasal e rather than an i.

Hear it in a sentence

Ontem foi domingo.

Yesterday was Sunday.

Listen: Ontem foi domingo.

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"Ontem foi domingo" moves from two nasals into "foi," a single-syllable diphthong, and then into "domingo," which has a nasal of its own in the middle. Three of the four syllables after the opening word involve rounded vowels, so the sentence has a notably closed, dark colour.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers produce two hard consonants — "ON-tem" with an n and an m — where Portuguese has two humming vowels and no closure at all. The lips must not meet at the end. Spanish speakers reach for "ayer," an entirely different word, which at least avoids the phonetic trap by sidestepping it.