Leia a legenda agora.

Leia comes from the verb ler, which means to read.

In this sentence, leia is a command form: read.

So the basic breakdown is:

• ler = to read
• leia = read! / please read

Because leia is the usual imperative form used with você in Brazilian Portuguese.

In Brazilian Portuguese, commands often work like this:

• tu → lê
• você → leia

Since Brazil very often uses você, leia sounds natural in many contexts.

So this sentence is basically understood as:

• (Você) leia a legenda agora.

Even though você is not written, it is understood.

Yes, but that is completely normal in Portuguese.

Portuguese often leaves out the subject pronoun when it is already clear from the verb or from the context. In commands, this is especially common.

So:

• Leia a legenda agora.

naturally means:

• You, read the caption now.

But Portuguese does not need to say você explicitly.

A legenda usually means the caption or the subtitle, depending on context.

In Brazilian Portuguese:

• legenda can mean a subtitle on a video
• legenda can also mean a caption under a post, image, or graphic

So the exact English word depends on where the sentence appears.

Here, a is the definite article, meaning the.

So:

• a legenda = the caption / the subtitle

Portuguese uses articles very often, sometimes more often than English does. In this sentence, legenda is a specific thing the speaker wants the listener to read, so a is natural.

Agora means now.

Placing it at the end is very natural in Portuguese. It gives the sentence a sense of immediacy:

• Leia a legenda agora. = Read the caption now.

You could also move agora in some contexts, for example:

• Agora leia a legenda.

That is also correct, but the original word order sounds very normal and direct.

It is somewhat neutral-to-polite, because leia matches the você style of command.

It is not extremely formal, but it is also not the most casual possible version.

For example:

• Leia a legenda agora. → neutral instruction
• Lê a legenda agora. → more associated with tu, and depends on the region
• Leia a legenda agora, por favor. → softer / more polite

So the original sentence sounds like a normal instruction you might see in an app, video, lesson, or announcement.

Leia is pronounced in two syllables, approximately:

• LAY-ah

A simple approximation of the whole sentence is:

• LAY-ah ah leh-ZHEN-dah ah-GOH-rah

A few pronunciation notes for Brazilian Portuguese:

• lei sounds like lay
• the g in legenda sounds like the s in measure
• agora has stress on go

So the stress pattern is:

• LEI-a
• le-GEN-da
• a-GO-ra

Not necessarily. In Portuguese, commands are very common in instructions, ads, apps, teaching materials, and signs.

So Leia a legenda agora. can sound perfectly normal in contexts like:

• a learning app
• a video instruction
• a social media prompt
• a classroom direction

If you want to make it softer in everyday speech, you could add:

• por favor = please

For example:

• Leia a legenda agora, por favor.

That sounds more explicitly polite.