Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

sujo is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈsu.ʒu/. It means “dirty.” SOO-zhoo. The j is the soft sound in "measure," never the hard j of "jump."

SOO-zhoo. The j is the soft sound in "measure," never the hard j of "jump."

sujo /ˈsu.ʒu/

Stress goes to the opening "soo." The word is a small demonstration of how much Portuguese depends on consonant quality rather than vowel variety: both vowels here are the same rounded "oo," and everything distinguishing the two syllables is carried by the s and the j.

Listen: sujo

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Sound it out

su A hissed s and a rounded "oo," stressed. The s stays unvoiced because it opens the word rather than sitting between vowels.

jo The j is "zh" — the s in "measure," the g in French "rouge" — and the o behind it raises to "oo." So both syllables end in the same rounded vowel, which gives the word a curiously smooth shape.

Hear it in a sentence

O carro está sujo.

The car is dirty.

Listen: O carro está sujo.

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"O carro está sujo" puts a throaty double rr in "carro" one word before the soft "zh" of "sujo," which is a good contrast to hear — one sound made deep in the throat, the other with the tongue near the palate, in the same short sentence.

Where English speakers slip

An English j gives "SOO-joh," wrong on both the consonant and the final vowel. Make it "zh" and raise the o. Spanish speakers face the opposite hazard: their j is a harsh throat sound, so importing it produces something closer to a Portuguese r than to a Portuguese j.