Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

leve is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written ['lɛvɨ]. It means “light (weight).” Say "LEH-vuh," with an open "eh" on the stressed first syllable and the final e trailing off almost silently, more "uh" than "eh."

Say "LEH-vuh," with an open "eh" on the stressed first syllable and the final e trailing off almost silently, more "uh" than "eh."

leve ['lɛvɨ]

Stress is on the first syllable, LE, pronounced with an open "eh" sound; the final unstressed e reduces to a faint, almost swallowed [ɨ].

Listen: leve

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Sound it out

le An open "leh," similar to the "le" in English "let," but held slightly longer since it's stressed.

ve A clear English-like v, followed by a final e that almost disappears — closer to a light "vuh" or even just "v" than a full "veh."

Hear it in a sentence

A minha mochila é leve.

My backpack is light.

Listen: A minha mochila é leve.

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"A minha mochila é leve" (My backpack is light) uses the possessive "minha" (my), which must agree in gender with the feminine noun "mochila." This is another "ser" sentence for an inherent physical property, reinforcing the pattern that weight, size, and dimension words pair with "ser" rather than "estar."

Where English speakers slip

Learners often give the final e in "leve" its full textbook value, pronouncing something like "LEH-veh." In natural Lisbon speech that final vowel is barely there — the word trails off almost like "LEH-v" with a whisper of a vowel. Over-pronouncing that last e is one of the clearest giveaways of a non-native accent in European Portuguese, since EU Portuguese swallows unstressed final vowels far more aggressively than Brazilian Portuguese does.