Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

porque is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /poɦˈke/. It means “because.” poh-KEH, one word, stressed on the second half. Silent u after the q.

poh-KEH, one word, stressed on the second half. Silent u after the q.

porque /poɦˈke/

The weight sits on the final syllable, and that stress is precisely what keeps its vowel a full "eh" rather than raising it. This is one of a set of four look-alike spellings: "porque" answers a question, "por que" asks one, "por quê" closes one, and "porquê" is a noun meaning the reason. The two with circumflexes mark a stressed word-final vowel.

Listen: porque

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Sound it out

por A closed "oh" with a syllable-closing r softened to a rasp of breath. Unstressed, and it leans forward onto the syllable that follows.

que Silent u before the e, so a plain k, and the vowel is a full closed e. Because this syllable is stressed, the e does not raise to "ee" the way an unstressed one would.

Hear it in a sentence

Fico em casa porque está chovendo.

I'm staying home because it's raining.

Listen: Fico em casa porque está chovendo.

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"Fico em casa porque está chovendo" links "em casa" so the nasal runs into the k, and "está" would clip to "tá" in speech. "Chovendo" opens with "sh" and carries a nasal in the middle, so the sentence closes on a soft, humming syllable.

Where English speakers slip

An audible u — "por-KWAY" — is the reflex from Spanish, where "porque" also exists but with different vowel behaviour. Portuguese silences the u before e. The spelling confusion is the more consequential problem, since using the one-word form to ask a question is an error even native speakers make constantly.