Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "chave" in Portuguese (Portugal)?

Q: How do you pronounce chave in Portuguese (Portugal)?

chave is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ˈʃa.vɨ]. It means “key.” Say 'SHA-vuh', where ch is a soft 'sh' sound and the final e nearly disappears.

Say 'SHA-vuh', where ch is a soft 'sh' sound and the final e nearly disappears.

chave [ˈʃa.vɨ]

Stress is on the first syllable cha; ch is always pronounced 'sh' in Portuguese, never like English 'ch', and the unstressed final e is heavily reduced, close to a whisper.

Listen: chave

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Sound it out

ch Always a soft 'sh' sound, as in English 'shave' — never the 'ch' of English 'chair'.

a The stressed syllable, a clear open 'ah'.

ve The final e is unstressed and nearly swallowed, ending up closer to a faint [ɨ] sound than a full vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

Onde está a chave da porta?

Where is the door key?

Listen: Onde está a chave da porta?

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Onde está a chave da porta? is a question using estar (está) to ask about the current location of an object — a classic use of estar for something that can change position, contrasted with ser for permanent traits. Da contracts de + a before the feminine porta, showing again how Portuguese habitually fuses prepositions with articles.

Where English speakers slip

Because ch looks identical to the English digraph, learners almost always want to pronounce chave like English 'chave' with a hard 'ch' sound. In Portuguese ch is always soft, like 'sh' — and true to the EU pattern, the final e should trail off almost silently, quite unlike the fuller, more open final vowel typical of Brazilian pronunciation.