Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "o leite" in Portuguese (Brazil)?

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

o leite is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /u ˈlej.tʃi/. It means “milk.” oo LAY-tchee. The "ei" is one diphthong and the ending is "tchee," not "teh."

oo LAY-tchee. The "ei" is one diphthong and the ending is "tchee," not "teh."

o leite /u ˈlej.tʃi/

The -e ending puts the weight on the second-to-last syllable, and since "ei" fuses into one beat, that syllable is the first. No accent required. The word is a textbook demonstration of why Brazilian and European Portuguese sound so different: Lisbon says something close to "LAYT," swallowing the final vowel, while Brazil expands it into a full "tchee."

Listen: o leite

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Sound it out

o Article, pronounced "oo," running straight into the l.

lei Tongue tip up for a full l, then "ei" — a closed e gliding to a y, the vowel of "weigh." One beat, and the stressed one.

te The closing e is heard as "i," which drags the t into "tch." This is probably the most-cited example of Brazilian palatalization in the whole language, because "leitchi" sounds so unlike its spelling.

Hear it in a sentence

Um leite gelado, por favor.

A cold milk, please.

Listen: Um leite gelado, por favor.

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"Um leite gelado, por favor" places the adjective after the noun. "Gelado" opens with a soft "zh" because the g precedes an e, and "por favor" closes on two breathy r's — so the phrase moves from a palatal affricate through a palatal fricative to a pair of soft rasps.

Where English speakers slip

"LAY-tay" with a hard t is the reflexive reading and it's the clearest possible marker of a non-Brazilian accent. It's "tchee." Learners also break the diphthong into "leh-EE-tchee," giving three syllables where there are two. Note also that Brazilians say "leite" for milk of all kinds and use "leite condensado" constantly in desserts.