Liaison and Elision | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

Spoken European Portuguese does not pronounce words as separate, discrete units with pauses or even clear boundaries between them. Adjacent words fuse, contract, delete vowels, and merge consonants whenever the phonological context permits. Some of these fusions are mandatory and codified in the spelling — you must write ao rather than a o, dele rather than de ele, nisso rather than em isso. Others are purely phonetic: they happen in rapid speech, with no effect on the written form, but with massive effect on what a listener actually hears. A phrase like para a minha mãe is written as four words and spoken as roughly two syllables: prà-minha-mãe, where para a collapses entirely into [pɾɐ]. For a learner, mastering both kinds of fusion — the written contractions and the phonetic reductions — is the single biggest step toward understanding Portuguese at natural speed.

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Portuguese has the reputation of being "hard to understand" partly because learners expect the stream of speech to correspond to the stream of written words. It does not. Whole words get swallowed by contractions, whole syllables disappear under vowel reduction, and what sounds like a single long word is often three or four words that have fused. Training your ear to parse the reduced speech is a project of months, not weeks.

Two kinds of fusion: orthographic vs. phonetic

Portuguese has two systems of word-level fusion operating simultaneously, and it helps to keep them separate in your mind:

Orthographic contractions — compulsory written fusions. Portuguese requires you to write no instead of em o, à instead of a a, pelo instead of por o. These are codified in the spelling. Writing em a casa instead of na casa is a spelling error.
Phonetic reductions — optional pronunciation fusions. In running speech, speakers routinely elide final vowels before initial vowels, delete unstressed [ɨ], and compress multi-word phrases into single prosodic units. These are not reflected in the spelling; you write the words fully, and the speaker reduces them at the phonetic level.

Both processes contribute to the compressed, consonant-rich texture of Lisbon Portuguese. This page covers both, starting with the compulsory orthographic contractions (which must be learned as part of basic grammar) and then turning to the phonetic elisions (which must be learned by listening).

Orthographic contractions — the compulsory ones

Portuguese has a tidy set of preposition + article/demonstrative contractions that must be written as single words. Learn these early. They are not optional; you cannot write them apart.

Preposition de + article

Preposition	Article	Contraction	Example
de	o	do	o livro do professor
de	a	da	a casa da Ana
de	os	dos	os amigos dos miúdos
de	as	das	as chaves das portas
de	um	dum (colloquial)	uma parte dum plano
de	uma	duma (colloquial)	o fim duma era

O meu irmão é amigo do professor de matemática.

My brother is friends with the maths teacher. (do = de + o, compulsory contraction)

A filha da minha vizinha mora em Londres.

My neighbour's daughter lives in London. (da = de + a)

As portas das lojas fecham às sete.

The shop doors close at seven. (das = de + as, às = a + as)

Preposition em + article

Preposition	Article	Contraction	Example
em	o	no	no Porto
em	a	na	na praia
em	os	nos	nos parques
em	as	nas	nas montanhas
em	um	num	num restaurante
em	uma	numa	numa cidade grande

Vivo no Porto, mas trabalho em Lisboa.

I live in Porto, but I work in Lisbon. (no = em + o, for Porto which takes the article o; em Lisboa with no contraction because Lisbon takes no article)

Os miúdos estão na escola agora.

The kids are at school now. (na = em + a)

Comi num restaurante fantástico ontem.

I ate at a fantastic restaurant yesterday. (num = em + um)

Preposition a + article

Preposition	Article	Contraction	Example
a	o	ao	vou ao mercado
a	a	à (grave accent, crasis)	vou à praia
a	os	aos	vou aos supermercados
a	as	às	vou às montanhas

Note the grave accent on à, às, àquele, àquela, àquilo — a unique use of the grave in Portuguese, marking the fusion of two identical vowels (the crase). See Accent Marks for more.

Vou ao café e depois à biblioteca.

I'm going to the coffee shop and then to the library. (ao = a + o, à = a + a)

Dei o livro aos alunos e às alunas.

I gave the book to the students (masc and fem). (aos, às)

Preposition por + article

Preposition	Article	Contraction	Example
por	o	pelo	pelo caminho
por	a	pela	pela rua
por	os	pelos	pelos campos
por	as	pelas	pelas ruas

Passei pelo centro da cidade a caminho de casa.

I passed through the city centre on my way home. (pelo = por + o)

As crianças correm pelas ruas.

The children run through the streets. (pelas = por + as)

Preposition + demonstratives

Prepositions also contract with demonstratives (este, esse, aquele series). This is one of the densest contraction tables in Portuguese, so prepare to memorise.

este	esse	aquele	Base prep
neste	nesse	naquele	em
deste	desse	daquele	de
(no contraction, a este)	(no contraction, a esse)	àquele (crasis)	a

Nesta cidade tudo é possível.

In this city anything is possible. (nesta = em + esta)

Gostei desse filme que me recomendaste.

I liked that film you recommended. (desse = de + esse)

Vou àquele café na esquina.

I'm going to that café on the corner. (àquele = a + aquele, with the grave marking crasis)

Preposition + personal pronoun

Prepositions contract with third-person pronouns ele, ela, eles, elas and (after de) with ele(s)/ela(s):

Preposition	Pronoun	Contraction	Meaning
de	ele	dele	his / of him
de	ela	dela	her / of her
de	eles	deles	their / of them (m)
de	elas	delas	their / of them (f)
em	ele	nele	in him / on it (m)
em	ela	nela	in her / on it (f)

O carro dele é mais rápido do que o dela.

His car is faster than hers. (dele, dela)

Confio nele de olhos fechados.

I trust him with my eyes closed. (nele = em + ele)

Summary: compulsory contractions

If you are writing Portuguese and you have a preposition next to an article, a demonstrative, or a third-person pronoun, you are almost certainly obliged to contract. The table below summarises the core ones.

	o	a	os	as	um	uma	este	esse	aquele
de	do	da	dos	das	dum	duma	deste	desse	daquele
em	no	na	nos	nas	num	numa	neste	nesse	naquele
a	ao	à	aos	às	—	—	—	—	àquele
por	pelo	pela	pelos	pelas	—	—	—	—	—

Phonetic reductions — the optional but omnipresent ones

Now we turn to the part of the system that is not written but is pervasively present in speech. These reductions are what make spoken Lisbon Portuguese so different from its written form.

Elision at word boundaries

When an unstressed vowel at the end of one word meets a vowel at the start of the next, the two often merge or the first is elided. This is especially strong when the first vowel is [ɐ] (reduced a) or [ɨ] (reduced e).

Para a minha mãe, a família é tudo.

For my mother, family is everything. (para a → [pɾɐ] in rapid speech; the two unstressed a's fuse)

De onde és?

Where are you from? (de onde → [dõdɨ], the [dɨ] of de fuses with [õ] of onde)

Vou a uma festa amanhã.

I'm going to a party tomorrow. (a uma → [awmɐ] or [uɐ̃mɐ], the a is elided before the unstressed u)

Ele está em casa há uma hora.

He's been home for an hour. (em casa há uma → blurred across the boundaries)

The most famous elision is para a → prà (sometimes even written this way in colloquial registers or dialogue in fiction, though para a is the standard orthography).

Isto é para a tua mãe.

This is for your mother. (in standard writing: para a; in rapid speech, collapses to something like [pɾɐ ˈtuɐ ˈmɐ̃j̃])

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In careful speech, para remains [ˈpaɾɐ]. In rapid casual speech, it often reduces further: to [pɾɐ] before a word starting with a vowel, and sometimes even [pɾ] as a single consonant cluster before a consonant. Colloquial writing may render it as pra, but this is substandard orthography.

Consonant liaison

When a word ending in [ʃ] or [s] (typically the final -s of plural nouns and verb forms) is followed by a word starting with a vowel, the [ʃ] is voiced to [ʒ] and effectively links into the following syllable. This is called sandhi or liaison.

Os amigos chegaram cedo.

My friends arrived early. (os amigos → [uz ɐˈmiɣuʃ], the s of os voices to [z] before the vowel)

Mais alto, por favor!

Louder, please! (mais alto → [majˈzaɫtu], the final s of mais becomes [z] and attaches to alto)

As escolas estão fechadas.

The schools are closed. (as escolas estão → [ɐ zɨʃˈkɔlɐʒ iʃˈtɐ̃w̃], voicing and linking across boundaries)

Fomos às compras.

We went shopping. (às compras, the s of às stays [ʃ] because the next word starts with a voiceless consonant; would be [z] before a vowel or voiced consonant)

Rule: S sandhi in EP

Following sound	Realisation of final s	IPA
Voiceless consonant (p, t, k, f, s, etc.)	Voiceless [ʃ]	os pratos [uʃ ˈpɾatuʃ]
Voiced consonant (b, d, g, v, z, m, n, etc.)	Voiced [ʒ]	os meus livros [uʒ meuʒ ˈlivɾuʃ]
Vowel	Voiced [z] (linked into next syllable)	os amigos [u.zɐ.ˈmi.ɣuʃ]
Pause (utterance-final)	Voiceless [ʃ]	os meus amigos. [uʒ meuz ɐˈmiɣuʃ]

This is one of the most systematic sandhi rules in Portuguese and one of the clearest markers of native speech. Learners who keep all final -s as [s] (English style) or as [ʃ] everywhere (beginner EP style) sound foreign.

Deletion of unstressed [ɨ]

Unstressed e reduces to [ɨ], and [ɨ] routinely deletes in rapid speech — especially between consonants that can cluster. This creates surface consonant clusters that look impossible on paper.

Preciso de telefonar ao médico.

I need to call the doctor. (telefonar → [tlfuˈnaɾ] with double [ɨ] deletion)

De manhã, tomo sempre o pequeno-almoço.

In the morning, I always have breakfast. (de manhã → [dmɐˈɲɐ̃], pequeno → [pˈkenu])

Que queres tu?

What do you want? (que → [k], fully deleted vowel; the utterance sounds like [ˈkkɛɾɨʃ tu])

Depressa! O autocarro vai partir.

Quick! The bus is going to leave. (depressa → [dˈpɾɛsɐ])

Extensive coverage of [ɨ] deletion is in the Vowel Reduction page. For present purposes, note that deletion compounds with liaison: words fuse not only because final vowels merge with initial vowels, but because internal vowels vanish, shrinking words down to their consonantal skeletons.

Fusion of clitic pronouns

Portuguese clitic pronouns (me, te, se, o, a, lhe, nos, vos, lhes) are never stressed, attach directly to the verb, and phonetically merge with it. Orthographically, they are separated by a hyphen (digo-lhe, dá-me, levou-o). Phonetically, they form part of the verb's prosodic word.

Diz-me a verdade.

Tell me the truth. (diz-me → [ˈdiʒmɨ] or [ˈdizmɨ] as a single prosodic unit)

Levou-a ao hospital.

He took her to the hospital. (levou-a → [lɨˈvowɐ] with the clitic fused)

Disseste-me ontem que vinhas.

You told me yesterday that you'd come. (disseste-me → [diˈsɛʃtmɨ] with deletion of the second unstressed [ɨ])

Phonetically, clitics often barely register as separate syllables. A learner parsing disseste-me might hear only disseste'm, and must recognise that the -me is there.

Mesoclisis — the split-word clitic

A curious European Portuguese feature: in the future and conditional tenses, clitic pronouns can be inserted inside the verb form, between the stem and the ending. This is called mesoclisis. It is formal and relatively rare in casual speech (most speakers avoid it by restructuring), but it appears in writing and formal speech.

Dir-lhe-ei a verdade amanhã.

I will tell him/her the truth tomorrow. (dirlhe-ei = dir + lhe + ei, the clitic is embedded inside the future form direi)

Far-se-ia um grande esforço.

A great effort would be made. (far-se-ia = fariam restructured)

Phonetically, a mesoclitic form is still a single prosodic word — the hyphens are orthographic only. Learners encountering these in writing should not try to pronounce them as three separate words.

Comparison with English

English has liaison too, but less systematic. English speakers link consonants across word boundaries (it is → it_is, turn off → tur-noff) and occasionally drop unstressed vowels in fast speech (chocolate → choc'late). But English preserves most word boundaries prosodically and doesn't have compulsory orthographic contractions on the scale Portuguese does.

Where English has contractions like don't, isn't, won't, these are all verb contractions. Portuguese contractions are almost all preposition + article/demonstrative/pronoun — a completely different grammatical pattern.

Ele vai ao mercado de manhã.

He's going to the market in the morning. (English contracts he's; Portuguese contracts ao and de manhã)

Comparison with Spanish

Spanish has some compulsory contractions — al (= a + el) and del (= de + el) — but no others. Spanish does not contract de la to anything, or en el to anything. Portuguese contracts far more extensively.

Spanish also does very little vowel reduction and relatively little liaison. Where a Portuguese speaker would say [pɾɐˈtuɐ ˈmɐ̃j̃] for para a tua mãe, a Spanish speaker would say [ˈpaɾa la tu.a ˈmaðɾe] for para la tu madre — fully articulated, no fusions.

For Spanish speakers learning Portuguese, this is a double adjustment: learn the orthographic contractions (do, da, no, na, ao, à, pelo, pela, dele), and then learn to apply phonetic reductions on top of them.

Comparison with Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese has the same orthographic contractions — do, da, no, na, ao, à, etc. But it has much less phonetic reduction:

BR keeps unstressed [e] audible rather than reducing it to [ɨ] and deleting it.
BR maintains most final vowels clearly, where EP heavily reduces them.
BR's final -s is typically [s], not [ʃ]/[ʒ], so the sandhi rule differs.
BR liaison across word boundaries is much less aggressive than EP's.

So while the orthography is essentially shared, the spoken realisation differs dramatically. A Brazilian speaker reading aloud "Os meus amigos chegaram ontem à noite" will produce much more phonetic material than a Portuguese speaker reading the same sentence aloud.

Os meus amigos chegaram ontem à noite.

My friends arrived yesterday night. (BR: [uʒ meus ɐˈmiɣus ʃɨˈgaɾɐ̃w ˈõtẽj a ˈnojtʃi]; EP: [uʒ meu̯z ɐˈmiɣuʃ ʃˈɣaɾɐ̃w ˈõtẽj a ˈnojtɨ] with much more compression)

Practical impact on listening

For learners, these reductions pose a fundamental listening-comprehension challenge. When you learn Portuguese from textbooks and careful audio, you hear words as discrete units. When you arrive in Portugal, you hear phrases as unbroken streams. The gap between those two experiences is exactly the territory covered by this page.

Concrete strategies:

Listen to native audio that is not hyperarticulated. Podcasts, films, YouTube vlogs in EP. Avoid textbook recordings that separate every word.
Shadow what you hear. Play a short utterance, pause, and repeat it exactly as you heard it — fusions, reductions, and all. Do not "correct" what you heard to a textbook form.
Expect whole phrases. Train your ear to parse prosodic chunks: com certeza is [kõ sɨɾˈtezɐ] as one unit, not three separate words. Para a minha mãe is a single chunk.
Read along while listening. Seeing the spelling and hearing the reduction simultaneously builds the mapping between them.

Com certeza podes contar comigo para qualquer coisa.

You can certainly count on me for anything. (com certeza [kõ sɨɾˈtezɐ] is a fused chunk; para qualquer coisa [pɾɐ kwaˈɫkɛɾ ˈkojzɐ] merges para with qualquer)

De certeza que ele disse isso.

For sure he said that. (de certeza → [dsɨɾˈtezɐ] with deletion; disse isso → [ˈdisiˈisu] with merged boundary)

Common Errors

Error 1: Writing prepositions separately when contractions are required

Writing a o mercado or em a casa is a spelling error. These contractions are compulsory.

❌ *Vou a o Porto amanhã.*

Must be written *vou ao Porto amanhã*.

❌ *Moro em a cidade velha.*

Must be written *moro na cidade velha*.

✅ *Vou ao Porto amanhã. Moro na cidade velha.*

Compulsory contractions in place.

Error 2: Missing the à vs. a distinction

The grave on à marks the contraction a + a (crasis). Writing vou a praia when the feminine article is required is a spelling error.

❌ *Vou a praia todos os dias.*

Missing the crasis. Should be *vou à praia todos os dias*.

✅ *Vou à praia todos os dias.*

à = a + a, with the grave marking the fusion.

Error 3: Pronouncing every final -s as [s]

English and Spanish speakers often keep final -s as [s]. In EP, the rule depends on what follows: [ʃ] before voiceless or pause, [ʒ] before voiced consonants, [z] before vowels.

❌ Saying *os amigos* as [os amigos].

EP: should be [u.zɐ.ˈmi.ɣuʃ], with voiced [z] linking into the vowel, and final [ʃ].

✅ *Os amigos* as [u.zɐ.ˈmi.ɣuʃ].

Correct sandhi: voiced s links into the following vowel.

Error 4: Keeping every unstressed vowel audible

Preserving every unstressed vowel audibly ("teacherly" pronunciation) sounds foreign. Natives reduce [ɨ] so aggressively it often disappears entirely.

❌ *Pequeno-almoço* as [pe-ke-no aɫ-mo-so] with every syllable clear.

Hyperarticulation. EP: [pˈkenu aɫˈmosu] with [ɨ] deletion.

✅ Reduce unstressed vowels aggressively; delete [ɨ] where clusters permit.

Natural EP rhythm.

Error 5: Applying Brazilian-style fuller pronunciation to EP

If you have learned from BR materials, you will reduce less than a Portuguese speaker. Don't assume the BR pronunciation is "more correct" — in EP, the reduced form is the native norm.

❌ Producing EP sentences with BR-style full vowel articulation.

Sounds foreign to EP listeners; also makes it harder for them to parse you, since they expect reduced speech.

✅ Apply EP reductions: vowel reduction, s-sandhi, liaison, [ɨ] deletion.

Natural EP pronunciation.

Error 6: Treating clitic hyphens as word boundaries prosodically

The hyphen in diz-me, levou-o, dir-lhe-ei is orthographic, not prosodic. The clitic is part of the verb's prosodic word; pronouncing it with a pause or separate stress is wrong.

❌ *Diz... me* with a pause between the verb and the clitic.

The clitic is proclitic-like, attached directly to the verb, no pause.

✅ *Diz-me* as a single prosodic unit [ˈdiʒmɨ].

Fused, single-unit pronunciation.

Key Takeaways

Portuguese has two levels of word-level fusion: orthographic contractions (compulsory, written) and phonetic reductions (optional but omnipresent in speech).
Orthographic contractions: do, da, no, na, ao, à, pelo, pela, dele, dela, neste, nesse, daquele, etc. Learn them as part of basic grammar.
The grave à marks a + a (crasis) — a unique diacritic with a grammatical function.
Phonetic reductions include: elision at word boundaries (para a → prà), s-sandhi (os amigos → [uzɐˈmiɣuʃ]), unstressed [ɨ] deletion, and clitic fusion with the verb.
S-sandhi rule: final s is [ʃ] before voiceless consonants or a pause, [ʒ] before voiced consonants, [z] before vowels.
Multi-word phrases fuse into prosodic chunks: com certeza, de manhã, muito obrigado, para a tua mãe — each a single unit.
Clitic pronouns (me, te, se, o, a, lhe, nos, vos, lhes) are prosodically part of the verb despite the hyphen.
Mesoclisis (dir-lhe-ei) inserts clitics inside the verb in future/conditional — formal and rare but orthographically notable.
Spanish speakers: expect far more contractions than in Spanish. Brazilian speakers: expect far more phonetic reduction than in BR.
Listening training: input (non-hyperarticulated audio), shadow (imitate reductions exactly), expect (parse in prosodic chunks), read along to build the orthography-to-sound mapping.