Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

já is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ʒa/. It means “already.” Say "zhah", with the "j" like the "s" in English "pleasure", not like an English "j" or an "h" sound.

Say "zhah", with the "j" like the "s" in English "pleasure", not like an English "j" or an "h" sound.

já /ʒa/

A single stressed syllable with a fully open "a" vowel and no reduction, since it carries the sentence's main informational weight.

Listen: já

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Sound it out

j Always the soft "zh" sound of "measure" or "vision" in Portuguese, never the hard English "j" of "jump".

á A clear, open "ah" vowel, held briefly and marked by the accent to show it's stressed and not reduced.

Hear it in a sentence

Já acabei o trabalho.

I've already finished the work.

Listen: Já acabei o trabalho.

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"Já acabei o trabalho" translates as "I've already finished the work", with "já" placed right before the verb, unlike English where "already" often comes at the end ("I've finished the work already"). This mid-sentence placement is the default and most natural position in Portuguese, so learners should get comfortable putting "já" before the verb rather than translating English word order directly.

Where English speakers slip

The most common mistake is pronouncing "j" like the English letter "J" (as in "Java") or softening it into an "h" sound picked up from Spanish, where "j" is a harsh "h". In Portuguese it must be the buzzy, voiced "zh" sound — get this wrong and "já" can be misheard as a completely different word or simply sound foreign.