How to Pronounce 'Tenho': Portuguese (Brazil) Pronunciation Guide

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

tenho is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈtẽ.ɲu/. It means “I have.” TEH-nyoo, with the first vowel nasalized and "nh" as a single squashed "ny" sound, like the middle of "canyon."

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

TEH-nyoo, with the first vowel nasalized and "nh" as a single squashed "ny" sound, like the middle of "canyon."

tenho /ˈtẽ.ɲu/

Two syllables with the weight on the first: "tenho" ends in -o, so the default rule stresses the second-to-last syllable, and there's nothing exceptional to mark with an accent. This is a verb form meaning "I have," and its stressed first syllable distinguishes it from the infinitive "ter."

Listen: tenho

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Sound it out

te A clean dental t — no puff of air after it — and a closed "eh" that picks up nasal resonance from the nh that follows, so air is already leaking through your nose while you say the vowel.

nh One sound, not two letters read in sequence. The middle of your tongue presses flat against the roof of your mouth, exactly the Spanish ñ. Saying "n" and then "h" separately produces something no Brazilian would recognize.

o The final unstressed o raises to "oo," so the word ends "nyoo." It's a short, quiet ending — don't give it the length of a real "oh."

Hear it in a sentence

Tenho uma pergunta.

I have a question.

Listen: Tenho uma pergunta.

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"Tenho uma pergunta" links across the word boundary: the nasal ending of "tenho" runs into the "uma" so smoothly that it sounds like "TEH-nyoo-muh." Inside "pergunta" you get a syllable-final r rendered as a breathy h and then another nasal vowel in "-gun-," giving the word a soft, humming middle.

Where English speakers slip

The predictable failure is pronouncing nh as an n followed by an h, producing "TEN-hoe" with an English-style breath in the middle. It's one fused palatal sound. The other error is the first vowel: English speakers give it a flat oral "eh" and forget the nasalization that the following nh spreads backward onto it, which makes the word sound thin and clipped.