Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

passar is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /paˈsah/. It means “to pass / to spend (time).” pah-SAH. The double s is a single hissed s, and the final r disappears into breath.

pah-SAH. The double s is a single hissed s, and the final r disappears into breath.

passar /paˈsah/

Stressed on the final syllable because of the r ending, unaccented. The verb is regular in the -ar class, so its whole paradigm is predictable — but its meanings are not: passar covers passing, spending time, ironing clothes and things going wrong, and none of those shift the stress or the sound.

Listen: passar

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Sound it out

pa A tight p and an open "ah." Portuguese p is drier than English p — hold back the puff of air that English adds.

ss Written double to keep the sound unvoiced between vowels. A single s there would become a z, so the doubling is a spelling device rather than an instruction to lengthen anything.

ar The stressed open "ah" and a final r fading to a breath. Two identical open vowels bracket the s, giving the word a very even shape.

Hear it in a sentence

Passei o fim de semana em casa.

I spent the weekend at home.

Listen: Passei o fim de semana em casa.

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"Passei o fim de semana em casa" uses the past tense, where the -ei ending is a closed e gliding to a y in one syllable, stressed. Note "fim de semana" strings together a nasal, a "djee" and two open a's, and Brazilians run the whole phrase as if it were a single word.

Where English speakers slip

Learners lengthen the double s into "pass-SAR," but Portuguese has no long consonants — the doubling is purely orthographic. The final r attracts the usual English curl. And watch the idioms: "passar mal" means to feel ill, "passar roupa" means to iron, and neither is guessable from the base meaning.