Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

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

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

ler is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /leh/. It means “to read.” LEH, one syllable, with a clear l and an r that's just a breath.

LEH, one syllable, with a clear l and an r that's just a breath.

ler /leh/

A monosyllabic r-final infinitive, stressed by default and unaccented. Its conjugated forms are irregular and include "leio" and "lê," and that circumflexed "lê" is a good example of an accent used purely to lock in a closed vowel on a one-syllable word where stress isn't in question.

Listen: ler

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Sound it out

le A true l with the tongue tip touching the ridge, since it opens the syllable rather than closing it. The vowel is a closed e, held with some length because it carries the whole word.

r Easily dropped altogether. Set it against the l at the front and you have a two-consonant word in which one consonant gets full articulation and the other gets almost none.

Hear it in a sentence

Gosto de ler à noite.

I like to read at night.

Listen: Gosto de ler à noite.

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"Gosto de ler à noite" uses "gostar de" with an infinitive, and the "de" is a quick "djee." The "à" carries a grave accent marking the merged preposition and article, and "noite" ends with the palatalized "tchee" — so the sentence has a soft, palatal texture throughout.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers say "lair" or "lehr" with a curled r, and the tongue movement is the giveaway. Nothing curls. Watch also for confusion with "lê" and "leia" in conjugation, and note that Portuguese uses "ler" for reading of every kind, so there's no separate verb for reading aloud versus silently the way some languages have.