Eu uso o vale-refeição no trabalho.

Yes, you often can leave it out.

Portuguese verbs usually show the subject clearly, so uso already tells you the subject is I. That means both of these are natural:

• Eu uso o vale-refeição no trabalho.
• Uso o vale-refeição no trabalho.

Including eu can add:

• emphasis
• contrast
• clarity

For example:

• Eu uso o vale-refeição, mas ele não usa.
  = I use the meal voucher, but he doesn’t.

So eu is correct, but not always necessary.

Uso is the 1st person singular present tense of usar (to use).

So:

• eu uso = I use
• você usa = you use
• ele/ela usa = he/she uses
• nós usamos = we use
• vocês usam = you all use
• eles/elas usam = they use

In this sentence, uso expresses a habitual or general present action.

Portuguese uses definite articles much more often than English does.

So where English might say:

• I use meal vouchers at work

Portuguese often prefers:

• Eu uso o vale-refeição no trabalho.

Here, o is the masculine singular definite article (the), because vale-refeição is treated as a masculine singular noun.

In many real-life contexts, this sounds more natural than leaving the article out.

In Brazil, vale-refeição usually refers to a meal benefit given by an employer, often as a card or voucher used to buy meals, especially at restaurants or similar places.

It is a culture-specific term, so it is not just any random “voucher.” It usually refers to an employee benefit.

A related term is vale-alimentação, which is often used for food purchases more generally, especially groceries. In practice, the distinction can depend on the employer and the card system being used.

It is written with a hyphen because it is a fixed compound expression in Portuguese.

• vale-refeição
• vale-alimentação

Learners often want to write it as two separate words, but the standard form is hyphenated.

This is mostly something you need to learn as vocabulary, rather than something you can always predict easily from general grammar rules.

Because no is the contraction of:

• em + o = no

So:

• no trabalho = in/at the workplace, at work

This kind of contraction is extremely common in Portuguese.

Other examples:

• na = em + a
• nos = em + os
• nas = em + as

So em o trabalho is not the normal form. Native speakers use no trabalho.

In this sentence, no trabalho is best understood as at work or at the workplace.

Even though trabalho literally relates to work, the phrase no trabalho often refers to the workplace context.

So here it means something like:

• at work
• in my workplace environment

It does not usually mean that the speaker is using the voucher while performing labor in a literal sense. It is about the work setting.

Yes. Portuguese word order is somewhat flexible.

The original sentence is neutral and natural:

• Eu uso o vale-refeição no trabalho.

You could also say:

• No trabalho, eu uso o vale-refeição.

That version puts more focus on no trabalho.

In everyday speech, you might also omit eu:

• Uso o vale-refeição no trabalho.

So the basic meaning stays the same, but the emphasis can shift.

A helpful approximation is:

• VAH-lee heh-fay-sowng

A few details:

• vale: the e at the end is not silent; in Brazilian Portuguese it sounds like ee
• refeição: the ção ending sounds nasal, roughly like sowng but more nasal
• the r in refeição is pronounced like an English h in most Brazilian accents when it appears at the start of a syllable

The stress falls on:

• VA in vale
• ÇÃO in refeição

So: VA-le re-fei-ÇÃO

Yes, usar is natural and very common here.

In Brazil, people often say they use a benefit card, voucher, or transport card:

• usar o vale-refeição
• usar o cartão
• usar o vale-transporte

You may also hear:

• utilizar — more formal
• gastar — if the focus is on spending the balance, not simply using the benefit

So for normal everyday speech, usar is a very good choice.

Yes, you could say:

• Eu uso meu vale-refeição no trabalho.

That makes it more explicitly my meal voucher.

The version with o vale-refeição is still natural, especially when the context already makes it clear whose benefit is being discussed.

Portuguese often uses the definite article where English might prefer a possessive.

So both can work:

• o vale-refeição = the meal voucher / the meal benefit
• meu vale-refeição = my meal voucher

Normally, it suggests a habit, a general fact, or a regular practice.

• Eu uso o vale-refeição no trabalho.
  = I use the meal voucher at work / I use my meal benefit at work.

If you wanted to make it clearly about right now, Portuguese would often use a different structure, depending on context, such as:

• Estou usando o vale-refeição agora.

So the simple present here is most naturally understood as something usual or routine.