"Ele é um menino."

Translation: He is a boy.

[meadowdewdrop]

"é" pronounced "ih" or "eh"?

[Wezzee]

yeah, and the "eh" is pronounced sharply. that's why it has an accent over it. it's stressed.

[Zinornia]

why is it 'um' not 'o'

[InesTrigo]

um menino = a boy
o menino = the boy

[jailoves1d]

Dosent uma and um have the same meaning

[ceaer]

They have the same translation - a/an. But they are used differently.

In Portuguese, words have a gender. "um" is the masculine indefinite article and "uma" is the feminine indefinite article.

You use "um" before masculine nouns, and "uma" before feminine ones.

Um menino = A boy

Uma menina = A girl

Um livro = A book

Uma mesa = A table

[yadwinder_gadari]

Duolingo gave me "he is a lad" as another translation. XD

[3009324]

yeah i put "he is a lad" and marked it right.

[roberto-_--_-]

is boy ending with an O and girl ending with a E or the other way round? and also is O masculine and E feminine?

[Paulenrique]

NO. Girl = garota. Most feminine words end with the letter "A".

[Scutigera]

Girl also = menina. =}

[KTKee-EnglishEng]

Is this an accurate pronunciation? It sounds more like am, but that might be because of the merger of é and um.

[Scutigera]

I agree. Having to do everything again (over and over) with the new Crowns system and the fast voice sounds like, "ele ammenino" to me (or even "ele almenino" like she is about to break out into the alphabet...)

[KTKee-EnglishEng]

I wish up and down votes weren't anonymous. What sort of twerp votes a simple question down?

[stalagmites]

um... i put boy, and it said to put "lad." I am out to get multiple meaning messages.......