Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

e is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [i]. It means “and.” Pronounced exactly like the English letter 'e' or word 'ee' — a short, crisp 'ee' sound, not 'eh'.

Pronounced exactly like the English letter 'e' or word 'ee' — a short, crisp 'ee' sound, not 'eh'.

e [i]

Unstressed conjunction; despite being spelled with 'e', it's pronounced [i], one of the few EP words where an unstressed 'e' goes all the way to a clear 'ee' rather than the muddier [ɨ].

Listen: e

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Sound it out

e Pronounced as a short, clear 'ee', identical to the vowel in English 'see' — an exception to the usual EP rule that unstressed e's blur toward 'uh'.

(whole word) Only one letter, no consonants — the entire word is just this single vowel sound, said crisply and quickly rather than drawn out.

Hear it in a sentence

Eu e tu vamos juntos.

You and I are going together.

Listen: Eu e tu vamos juntos.

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'Eu e tu vamos juntos' links two subject pronouns with 'e', just like English 'and'. Note the verb 'vamos' (we go) already agrees with the combined 'eu e tu' subject, which functions like 'we' — Portuguese doesn't need a separate word for that.

Where English speakers slip

Because most unstressed EP vowels reduce and mumble, learners sometimes assume 'e' does too and clip it into a near-silent [ɨ] like they would with 'de'. In fact 'e' is one of the exceptions — it stays a clean, audible 'ee', so swallowing it too much makes 'eu e tu' hard to parse for a listener.