Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

pronto is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈpɾõ.tu/. It means “ready.” PRONE-too, but with the o humming through your nose and no real n in the middle.

PRONE-too, but with the o humming through your nose and no real n in the middle.

pronto /ˈpɾõ.tu/

The nasal syllable carries the accent. In Brazil the word also works as a conversational full stop, meaning roughly "there, done" — and in that use Brazilians lean hard on the nasal, stretching it out for emphasis.

Listen: pronto

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Sound it out

pr Unaspirated p with a tap flicked immediately after it. Keep the two glued together; English speakers habitually let a small vowel leak in between.

on The n exists to nasalize the o, not to be pronounced. Say a closed "oh" with air escaping through the nose and slide straight into the t, tongue never rising for a separate consonant.

to A hard t, since no i-sound follows, closing on "oo." The word stops abruptly after its nasal centre.

Hear it in a sentence

O jantar está pronto.

Dinner is ready.

Listen: O jantar está pronto.

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"O jantar está pronto" starts with the article pronounced "oo" and "jantar" opening on a soft "zh." That noun carries its own nasal in the first syllable, so the sentence has two nasal vowels bracketing a breathy r — a compact tour of Portuguese consonant textures.

Where English speakers slip

The full n is the standard error: "PRON-toh" with the tongue hitting the ridge, plus an unraised final o. Nasalize and raise. Spanish speakers bring "pronto" spelled identically but meaning soon rather than ready, which is a genuine false friend — Portuguese uses "logo" or "em breve" for soon.