Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

tanto is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈtɐ̃.tu/. It means “so much.” TAHN-too, with the first vowel nasal and no real n consonant in the middle.

TAHN-too, with the first vowel nasal and no real n consonant in the middle.

tanto /ˈtɐ̃.tu/

The hum falls on the loud syllable, unwritten. The word agrees when used as an adjective — "tanta gente," "tantos anos" — and stays fixed as an adverb. It also anchors the comparison "tanto quanto," meaning as much as, where both halves keep their own stress.

Listen: tanto

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Sound it out

tan An unaspirated t and an a that hums. Nasal a is higher and more central than the wide oral version, closer to the vowel of "sun."

to The same dental t again, hard because an o follows, and a final "oo." One consonant twice over with two very different vowels behind it.

Hear it in a sentence

Trabalhei tanto hoje.

I worked so much today.

Listen: Trabalhei tanto hoje.

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"Trabalhei tanto hoje" puts the word after a past-tense verb, where it quantifies rather than modifies. "Trabalhei" ends in a stressed "ei" diphthong, so the sentence moves from a bright front glide into the nasal of "tanto" and then into the silent h of "hoje."

Where English speakers slip

Giving the n full value produces "TAN-toh," flattening the nasal and leaving the final o unraised. Both need fixing. Learners also confuse "tanto" with "tão": "tão" modifies adjectives — "tão bonito" — while "tanto" quantifies verbs and nouns, and mixing them up is one of the more persistent grammar errors.