LingoDrop
Portuguese (Portugal) · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "loja" in Portuguese (Portugal)?
Say 'LAW-zhuh', with an open 'o' as in 'pot' and j making the soft 'zh' sound of 'measure'.
Stress is on the first syllable; the o here is open, and j is always pronounced as a soft 'zh', with the unstressed final a reducing to a light 'uh'.
Listen: loja
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
A loja abre às nove.
The shop opens at nine.
Listen: A loja abre às nove.
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
A loja abre às nove uses abrir (abre, 'it opens') and às ('at the', contracting a + as) before a time, nove ('nine') — a standard way to state opening hours. Note that às here implicitly means 'nine o'clock', with horas ('hours') dropped, exactly as English can drop 'o'clock' in casual speech.
Where English speakers slip
As with janela, the letter j is the main hazard: it must be the soft 'zh' of 'measure', never the hard English 'j'. Specifically for loja, learners should also watch the stressed o — it's open like 'pot', and collapsing it into a closed 'oh' (as some might from Spanish 'loja'-adjacent instincts) gives the word a noticeably un-Portuguese ring.