Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "ter que" in Portuguese (Brazil)?

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

ter que is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈteh ki/. It means “to have to / must.” teh KEE. Two short words that Brazilians run together into something like "teh-kee" or even "tenh-kee."

teh KEE. Two short words that Brazilians run together into something like "teh-kee" or even "tenh-kee."

ter que /ˈteh ki/

Two monosyllables, with the weight tilting onto "ter" as the verb carrying the meaning. Brazilians compress the whole thing in speech, so "tem que" reduces almost to "teng-ki" and even "tenque." The set phrase behaves like a single word rhythmically, which is why it pays to learn it as a unit.

Listen: ter que

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Sound it out

ter Hard dental t, closed e, and then an r with nowhere to go: the next word starts with a k, so the breath it would have become is swallowed completely.

que A k with a silent u before the e, and that e raised to "ee" since it's unstressed. So the second word is a bare "kee."

Hear it in a sentence

Tenho que trabalhar amanhã.

I have to work tomorrow.

Listen: Tenho que trabalhar amanhã.

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"Tenho que trabalhar amanhã" swaps the infinitive for the conjugated "tenho," and the construction stays identical: a form of ter, then que, then an infinitive. "Trabalhar" contains an lh — one palatal "ly" sound — and "amanhã" ends on the stressed nasal ã, so the sentence finishes with two very Portuguese consonant-vowel combinations.

Where English speakers slip

Learners pronounce "que" as "kway" and give both words full weight, producing a stilted "TEHR KWAY." Natives blur them. There's also a construction trap: Portuguese also has "ter de," which means the same thing and appears more in writing, and beginners sometimes mix the two into "ter que de." And unlike English, you can't drop the "que" — "tenho trabalhar" is not a sentence.