The Pronunciation of the R & RR in Brazilian Portuguese

I've realized it's tough for some of my students of Brazilian Portuguese to pronounce the sounds of the R and RR correctly.

So, to help them and help anyone who finds those sounds hard to pronounce, I decided to write this article.

First of all, you should know there are 3 types of R sounds in Portuguese.

• Strong R (R forte) which sounds like the letter H in "house" (if you speak English), or the letter J in "jamón" (if you speak Spanish)

• Weak R (R fraco) which sounds like TT in English as in the word "butter" or like the word "pero" in Spanish.

• Silent R (R mudo) when the R is not pronounced or it's slightly pronounced.

Let's see some examples with the Strong R. Read the words below, then click here to listen to my pronunciation.

• Rato
• Rei
• Carro
• Macarronada
• honra
• enriquecer

Notice that the Strong R appears when

• letter R is at the beginning of the word, as in the word "rato"
• RR  - Carro
• R is after the letter N, as in "honra"

Now, let's see some examples with the weak R. Read the words below, then click here to listen to my pronunciation.

• Brasil
• França

• Caro
• Barato
• Carne (in this case there are variations based on the region of Brazil)
• Tarde (in this case there are variations based on the region of Brazil)

• Favor (in this case there are variations based on the region of Brazil)
• Escrever (in this case there are variations based on the region of Brazil)

Notice that the Weak R appears with

• R at the end of a word - Favor
• R between 2 vowels - Caro
• R between a vowel and a consonant - Carne (in this case there are variations based on the region of Brazil)
• "BR", "CR", "DR", "FR", "GR", "PR", "TR" e "VR" - Brasil

Regarding the silent R, you should know that it doesn't happen all over Brazil and it usually appears when the R is at the end of a word, mainly with the verbs in their infinitive forms.

Let's see some examples. First read the words below, then click here to listen to my pronunciation.

(I'm from Fortaleza, a city in the Northeast of Brazil and we don't normally pronounce the R at the end of words)

• Comprar
• Entender
• Desistir
• Por favor
• Amor
• Dor

Now, listen to the pronunciation of the words below by people from other cities.
(Click here to listen to someone from São Paulo)

(Click here to listen to someone from Rio de Janeiro)

• Carne
• Tarde

• Favor
• Escrever