Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

voltar is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /vowˈtah/. It means “to come back / to return.” vohw-TAH. The l in the middle is pronounced as a w, so no tongue contact at all.

vohw-TAH. The l in the middle is pronounced as a w, so no tongue contact at all.

voltar /vowˈtah/

The vocalized l sits in the unstressed syllable, which is where Brazilians vocalize l most consistently, and the change is total rather than partial: there is no l sound left anywhere in this word. The stress itself lands on "-tar."

Listen: voltar

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Sound it out

vol A proper v, a closed "oh," and then that l — which, because it closes the syllable, becomes a w glide. So the syllable is "vow," rhyming with the start of English "vowel."

tar Dental t and the loud wide vowel, which contrasts sharply with the rounded syllable before it. The closing r contributes airflow and nothing else.

Hear it in a sentence

Volto em cinco minutos.

I'll be back in five minutes.

Listen: Volto em cinco minutos.

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"Volto em cinco minutos" uses the present tense with future meaning, which Portuguese does routinely. The conjugated "volto" moves the stress to the first syllable and raises its final o, giving "VOW-too" — a word with two w-ish sounds and no l or hard consonant in sight.

Where English speakers slip

Saying "VOL-tar" with a real l is the near-universal starting point, and English speakers don't notice they're doing it because a dark l feels natural before a consonant. Brazilians replace it with w. Spanish speakers have exactly the same problem, since Spanish "volver" keeps its l. The fix is to think of the first syllable as rhyming with "how" rather than "hall."