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ele

Portuguese, pronoun

ele is spelled E-L-E (3 letters) and appears 2,455 times per million words in written Portuguese, the 40th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Ele is a Portuguese masculine pronoun meaning “third-person masculine singular nominative personal pronoun; he; it” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Ele is a different word: “Honorific alternative letter-case form of ele, sometimes used when…”. With an accent, êle is a different word: “pre-reform spelling (used until 1971 in Brazil and 1945 in Portugal)…”. The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “pronome pessoal da terceira pessoa do singular”.

What does ele mean in English?

pronoun

  1. 1

    masculinethird-person masculine singular nominative personal pronoun; he; it

    Ele andou até mim.

  2. 2

    masculinethird-person masculine singular prepositional pronoun; him; it

    Eu gosto de conversar com ele.

  3. 3

    Brazilmasculinethird-person masculine singular personal pronoun used in all positions; he; him; it

    Um homem matou ele.

noun

  1. 1

    masculineThe name of the Latin script letter L/l.

pronoun

as Ele
  1. 1

    Honorific alternative letter-case form of ele, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.

pronoun

as êle
  1. 1

    pre-reform spelling (used until 1971 in Brazil and 1945 in Portugal) of ele

Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How Portuguese dictionaries define it

pronoun: 1. pronome pessoal da terceira pessoa do singular

noun: 1. nome da letra do alfabeto latino representada por l, L

The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.

Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of ele

  • ela feminine
  • eles masculine plural
  • elas feminine plural
  • êle alternative
  • elle alternative
  • êlle alternative obsolete
  • êles plural

Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to ele

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is ele in Portuguese?

ele appears 2,455 times per million words in written Portuguese.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after ele