Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "por isso" in Portuguese (Brazil)?

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

por isso is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /poh ˈi.su/. It means “that's why / so.” poh EE-soo. Breathy r on the first word, and the double s stays a plain hiss.

poh EE-soo. Breathy r on the first word, and the double s stays a plain hiss.

por isso /poh ˈi.su/

The weight lands on the "i" of "isso," with "por" leaning on it unstressed. "Isso" on its own follows the -o default and is front-stressed, and joining it to a preposition doesn't move anything — Portuguese prepositional phrases keep the noun's own stress rather than redistributing it.

Listen: por isso

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Sound it out

por Closed "oh" plus a syllable-final r as a light rasp. It's unstressed and links straight into the vowel that opens the next word, so the two run together as one flow.

i A tense high "ee" carrying the stress of the phrase. Because a vowel starts this word, the r before it can firm slightly into a tap in careful speech.

sso Doubled to keep the sound unvoiced between vowels — a single s there would buzz. The o behind it raises to "oo," so the phrase ends on "soo."

Hear it in a sentence

Está tarde, por isso vou dormir.

It's late, so I'm going to bed.

Listen: Está tarde, por isso vou dormir.

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"Está tarde, por isso vou dormir" would open as "tá tarde" in speech. "Tarde" ends in the palatalized "djee," and then "por isso" links its r into the following vowel. The sentence closes on "dormir," whose two r's are both breath rather than tongue movement.

Where English speakers slip

Lengthening the double s is the phonetic slip; the meaning is the bigger issue. "Por isso" means therefore or that's why, looking backward at a cause already stated, while "porque" introduces the cause itself. Learners swap them, producing sentences where the logic runs backwards.