Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "eles" in Portuguese (Brazil)?

Q: How do you pronounce eles in Portuguese (Brazil)?

eles is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈe.lis/. It means “they.” EH-leess, with a closed first vowel and the plural ending sounding like "eess."

EH-leess, with a closed first vowel and the plural ending sounding like "eess."

eles /ˈe.lis/

Stress stays on the opening vowel, unwritten. That's true generally in Portuguese: pluralizing a word leaves its stressed syllable exactly where it was.

Listen: eles

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Sound it out

e The closed e again, tight and high like the vowel in "they" minus its glide — the same quality as in the singular "ele," and the same contrast with the open vowel of "elas."

le A clear l starting the syllable, then an unstressed e raised to "ee." The raising happens even though a consonant follows, because the syllable is unstressed and word-final in effect.

s The plural marker, a clean hiss that voices to z before a following vowel. So "eles estão" comes out as one flowing "eh-lee-zish-TOWNG."

Hear it in a sentence

Eles chegam amanhã.

They arrive tomorrow.

Listen: Eles chegam amanhã.

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"Eles chegam amanhã" ends on one of the trickiest words in the language. "Amanhã" has an nh in the middle and a stressed nasal ã at the end, released entirely through the nose with no consonant. Meanwhile "chegam" begins with a "sh" and ends with an unstressed nasal that sounds roughly like "eyng."

Where English speakers slip

The default English rendering is "EH-less" with an open vowel and a full "eh" in the second syllable. Both need adjusting: closed first vowel, raised second. Learners also forget that "eles" covers mixed-gender groups — a room with nine women and one man is "eles" in Portuguese, which surprises speakers coming from languages without that convention.