Se a senhora não ler meu e-mail hoje, eu deixo outro recado amanhã.

A senhora is a polite, formal way to say you when speaking to a woman in Brazilian Portuguese.

A few important points:

• It is more formal than você.
• It is very common in customer service, business, or when speaking respectfully to an older woman.
• Even though it means you, it takes third-person singular verb forms.

So:

• a senhora não ler
• not a senhora não leres or anything like that

That is why the sentence is built as if it were talking about she, even though it really means you, ma’am.

In Portuguese, o senhor and a senhora are fixed polite expressions. The article is normally part of the expression.

So you usually say:

• A senhora quer esperar?
• O senhor precisa de ajuda?

In English, we do not say the ma’am, but Portuguese does use the article here.

Because after se when talking about a possible future situation, Portuguese normally uses the future subjunctive.

So in this sentence:

• Se a senhora não ler meu e-mail hoje...

ler is the future subjunctive form of ler.

This structure is very common in Portuguese:

• Se ele vier, eu saio.
• Se você puder, me liga.
• Se a senhora não ler..., eu deixo...

So ler here does not mean the infinitive to read. It is a conjugated form.

Some verbs in the future subjunctive look exactly like the infinitive in certain persons.

With ler, the forms are:

• quando eu ler
• quando você ler
• quando ela ler
• quando a senhora ler

So yes, it looks identical to the dictionary form ler, but the grammar and context show that it is a finite verb.

The clue is the structure:

• Se + subject + verb
• plus a future idea such as hoje / amanhã

That tells you it is functioning as future subjunctive, not as a plain infinitive.

Because leia is the present subjunctive, not the future subjunctive.

Compare:

• Se a senhora não ler... = if you do not read...
• Espero que a senhora leia... = I hope you read...
• Talvez a senhora leia... = maybe you will read...

After se for a future condition, standard Portuguese normally uses the future subjunctive, so ler is the expected form.

In Brazilian Portuguese, the present tense is often used to talk about the near future or a planned future action.

So:

• eu deixo outro recado amanhã
• literally looks like I leave another message tomorrow
• but it naturally means I’ll leave another message tomorrow

This is very common in everyday Portuguese.

You could also say:

• eu deixarei outro recado amanhã — more formal or more explicitly future
• eu vou deixar outro recado amanhã — very common spoken alternative

All three can work, but eu deixo sounds natural and conversational.

Not with this exact first clause.

Eu deixaria means I would leave, so it normally goes with a more hypothetical pattern:

• Se a senhora não lesse meu e-mail hoje, eu deixaria outro recado amanhã.

That structure is more like If you didn’t read my email today, I would leave another message tomorrow.

But your sentence is presenting a real future possibility, so:

• Se a senhora não ler..., eu deixo...
• or eu vou deixar / eu deixarei

is the better match.

Because in Brazilian Portuguese, the article before a possessive is often optional.

So both are possible:

• meu e-mail
• o meu e-mail

In many contexts, especially in modern Brazilian Portuguese, leaving out the article sounds completely normal.

There can be regional and stylistic variation, but in this sentence meu e-mail is perfectly natural.

Yes. In Brazilian Portuguese, e-mail/email is normally masculine:

• o e-mail
• meu e-mail
• um e-mail

Both spellings are seen:

• e-mail
• email

The hyphenated form is still very common, but email also appears a lot.

Recado usually means a message, note, or short message left for someone.

It often suggests something like:

• a note
• a phone message
• a message passed through another person
• a brief follow-up message

In this sentence, outro recado means something like another message or another note.

It is a little different from mensagem, which is a broader word and often sounds more neutral or more digital. Recado can feel a bit more personal or practical.

Both are possible, but outro recado is the simpler, more usual choice here.

• outro recado = another message
• um outro recado = another message, sometimes with a bit more emphasis

In everyday Portuguese, outro + noun is very common and natural.

In Portuguese, não normally goes before the verb it negates.

So:

• não ler = not read
• não deixo = I do not leave

That is why the sentence says:

• Se a senhora não ler meu e-mail hoje...

This is the standard position for negation.

Yes, it is standard to use a comma here because the sentence begins with a conditional clause:

• Se a senhora não ler meu e-mail hoje, eu deixo outro recado amanhã.

The first part sets up the condition, and the second part gives the result. Portuguese, like English, normally separates that opening if clause with a comma.

Yes. That would make the sentence less formal:

• Se você não ler meu e-mail hoje, eu deixo outro recado amanhã.

That is grammatically correct and very natural in Brazilian Portuguese.

Notice that the verb after se stays the same:

• se você não ler
• se a senhora não ler

because both você and a senhora use third-person singular verb forms.

Yes. Portuguese allows some flexibility in word order, especially with time expressions.

These are all natural:

• Se a senhora não ler meu e-mail hoje, eu deixo outro recado amanhã.
• Se a senhora não ler meu e-mail hoje, amanhã eu deixo outro recado.
• Amanhã eu deixo outro recado, se a senhora não ler meu e-mail hoje.

The original version is clear and neutral, but other orders are possible depending on emphasis.