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Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "chefe" in Portuguese (Portugal)?
Say "SHEH-fuh" — ch is a soft "sh," and the final e almost disappears into a light "uh."
Stress falls on the first syllable; ch is always pronounced [ʃ] ("sh") in Portuguese, never like English "ch," and the unstressed final e reduces to a near-silent [ɨ].
Listen: chefe
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
O meu chefe é muito exigente.
My boss is very demanding.
Listen: O meu chefe é muito exigente.
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"O meu chefe é muito exigente" places the possessive meu before the noun, as Portuguese normally does, and uses é (from ser) because being demanding here is treated as an inherent trait, not a temporary state — contrast this with the estar-based emotion words seen elsewhere in this set. Muito again works as an invariable adverb meaning "very."
Where English speakers slip
The instinct to pronounce ch as in English "chef" (which is actually a French loanword pronunciation) or as "ch" in "chair" is misleading — in Portuguese ch is always a plain "sh" sound, so chefe starts just like the English word "shepherd," not "chef." The final unstressed e should also nearly vanish in European speech, whereas Brazilian speakers often pronounce it more fully as a clear "ee" sound, so the muted, swallowed European ending is worth practicing deliberately.