"Ela lê um jornal."

Translation: She reads a newspaper.

[alinasue]

on the "slower" read through, it sounds a bit like "ele" instead of "ela" to me... maybe it's just me

[jools97]

I agree, I always make that mistake

[Piwino]

I do hear the difference, but I would understand it's hard to tell at the beginning

[Cody_F95]

Didn't realize read and reads were completely different words..

[Kylaar]

Yea im saying :-|

[Hamish88]

so it seems like the 'm' of 'um' has fallen away entirely here? Is this standard? I have noticed that often when words end in 'm' and 'n', these consonants are often quite suppressed. The 'm' seems to come from farther back in the throat than English (where it's generate on the lips) - would this be correct?

[djeidot]

You are correct, the 'm' sound comes from the throat, and you do it with your mouth closed. As for the consonant being suppressed, I don't think it's standard. In this case the "mmm" sound should be clearly heard, even if very shortly. As an European Portuguese speaker I could easily mistake the phrase for "Ela lê o jornal".

[TBBaker]

The "m" sound like the second m of "mom", its a nasal sound and every word ending with "m" sounds like these.
Ps. There arent words finnishing with "n" in portuguese.
Ps2. I'm brazilian and I wrote "o jornal", so its really unclear the m sound

[PERCE_NEIGE]

It's because the final "m" is there to nasalize the sound. On some audio of Forvo I use to train myself, I hear a slight "m", and for some I don't hear the "m", but only the nasalized sound.
http://pt.forvo.com/word/homem/#pt

[Niccolo19]

What effect does the circumflex have on the pronunciation of "lê," or any word for that matter? "Ê" doesn't seem to be pronounced any differently from "e."

[rsumlin3]

It gave me two choices. Neither was correct, so I lost a heart!

[keytaro]

I'm getting the same thing. Mine says "Ela [Select word] um jornal" But the select word options are "leem" and "lemos"... Go home Duo Linguo. You're drunk.

[birdybird7]

when am I supposed to use lê, leem or lemos?

[PERCE_NEIGE]

eu leio,
tu les,
ele/ ela/ você lê,
nós lemos,
vós ledes,
eles/ elas/ vocês lêem/leem,

[ChrisNos]

Lê - Eu, Você, Ela, Ele (single person)
Leem - Eles, Elas, (groups of people - As mulheres, etc.)
Lemos - Nós (you & other people)

[Steven328986]

Why would "Ela leio um jornal" be incorrect? To my knowledge you can use both "leio" and "lê." It would simply change from present or past but the sentence itself would still make sense and be correct.