Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

tarde is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈtaɦ.dʒi/. It means “late.” TAH-djee. Breathy r in the middle, and the ending is "djee" like the start of "jeep."

TAH-djee. Breathy r in the middle, and the ending is "djee" like the start of "jeep."

tarde /ˈtaɦ.dʒi/

The ordinary rule lands on "tar-," so nothing is written. The word does double duty as a noun meaning afternoon and an adverb meaning late, with no change in stress or sound between the two — only the article and the syntax tell you which one you're getting.

Listen: tarde

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Sound it out

tar A dry dental t, a wide-open stressed a, and an r sealing the syllable off as a light rasp from the throat. The t stays hard because an a follows, not an i.

de The closing e is heard as "i," converting the d to "dj." So the word has a hard t at the front and a palatalized d at the back, each decided by the vowel behind it.

Hear it in a sentence

Cheguei tarde ontem.

I arrived late yesterday.

Listen: Cheguei tarde ontem.

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"Cheguei tarde ontem" opens with a "sh" and a stressed "ei" diphthong, then links "tarde ontem" so the raised "ee" of the adverb runs into the nasal o of "ontem." The sentence therefore ends on two nasal vowels with nothing closing them.

Where English speakers slip

The ending is the standard casualty: "TAR-day" keeps a hard d and a full "ay" where Brazilians say "djee." The r is the second, since English speakers curl it. And watch the noun-adverb overlap — "boa tarde" is good afternoon, but "está tarde" means it's late, and the same four letters are doing both jobs.