Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

ele is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written [ˈɛ.lɨ]. It means “he.” Say 'EH-luh', with an open 'eh' (like in 'bed') on the stressed syllable and a near-silent final vowel.

Say 'EH-luh', with an open 'eh' (like in 'bed') on the stressed syllable and a near-silent final vowel.

ele [ˈɛ.lɨ]

Stress on the first syllable, which takes the open vowel [ɛ] (like English 'bed'), not the closed [e] of French 'é'; the final 'e' reduces to the barely-there [ɨ].

Listen: ele

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Sound it out

e Stressed and open, like the 'e' in English 'bed' — more open than learners typically expect from a Portuguese 'e'.

le A clear 'l' followed by the near-silent final [ɨ] vowel, so the ending almost disappears.

Hear it in a sentence

Ele mora em Lisboa.

He lives in Lisbon.

Listen: Ele mora em Lisboa.

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'Ele mora em Lisboa' uses 'ele' as the subject pronoun 'he'. As with 'eu', Portuguese often drops subject pronouns once context is clear, since the verb ending alone can convey the subject in many tenses — though third person is more ambiguous, so 'ele/ela' get kept more often than 'eu' or 'tu'.

Where English speakers slip

Learners frequently pronounce the stressed 'e' as a closed vowel (like French 'é' or English 'ay'), producing something like 'AY-luh'. European Portuguese uses the more open [ɛ], closer to the vowel in 'bed' — getting this wrong makes the word sound oddly formal or foreign to native ears.