Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

sempre is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈsẽ.pɾi/. It means “always.” SEM-pree. Nasal first vowel, a quick tap in the cluster, and the final e raises to "ee."

SEM-pree. Nasal first vowel, a quick tap in the cluster, and the final e raises to "ee."

sempre /ˈsẽ.pɾi/

The nasal and the stress coincide, which makes the resonance easy to hear — a useful warm-up before words like "pensar" or "comprar," where the nasal is tucked into an unstressed syllable and much easier to miss entirely.

Listen: sempre

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Sound it out

sem A hissed s and an e nasalized by the m. Portuguese writes m rather than n before a p, but the lips stay apart and the nose does everything.

pre Unaspirated p with a tap flicked straight after, then a final e raised to "ee." The cluster should be tight, with no vowel wedged between the p and the r.

Hear it in a sentence

Ele está sempre atrasado.

He is always late.

Listen: Ele está sempre atrasado.

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"Ele está sempre atrasado" links "sempre atrasado" so the raised "ee" of the adverb runs straight into the "ah" of the adjective. "Atrasado" contains a tapped r inside its cluster, so the sentence has two taps and one nasal, all in five words.

Where English speakers slip

If your lips meet on the m you get "SEMP-ray," which adds a consonant and then leaves the final e as a full "ay." Neither is Brazilian. There's also a homograph hazard nearby: "sem" alone means without and is pronounced "sayng," so the first syllable of "sempre" is not the same word despite looking like it.