Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

para is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈpa.ɾa/. It means “for / to.” PAH-rah with a single tapped r — but in real speech Brazilians squash it to "pra," one syllable.

PAH-rah with a single tapped r — but in real speech Brazilians squash it to "pra," one syllable.

para /ˈpa.ɾa/

Ending in -a, the word follows the default and stresses the second-to-last syllable, "pa-," without an accent mark. The colloquial reduction to "pra" collapses that structure entirely into one syllable, and when it merges with an article you get "pro" and "pra" — forms so common in speech that written dialogue uses them freely.

Listen: para

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Sound it out

pa An unaspirated p, without the breath English puts after it, and an open "ah." This is the stressed syllable in the full form of the word.

ra A single r between vowels, so a quick tap — one flick of the tongue tip. The final a lightens slightly but stays a real vowel rather than fading to a mumble.

Hear it in a sentence

Comprei flores para minha mãe.

I bought flowers for my mother.

Listen: Comprei flores para minha mãe.

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"Comprei flores para minha mãe" would come out of a Brazilian's mouth as "pra minha mãe" nine times out of ten. "Mãe" is the payoff word here: the tilde over the a plus the e produces a nasal diphthong, roughly "my" hummed through the nose, and the lips never close at the end of it.

Where English speakers slip

The written form tempts learners into a careful two-syllable "PAH-rah" in every sentence, which is grammatically perfect and rhythmically foreign. Natives compress it. Separately, the r attracts the usual errors — an English bunched r or a Spanish trill — when it should be one light tap. And note the stress: "pára" with an accent used to be a different word, the verb form meaning "stops," though the 2009 spelling reform dropped that accent.