Portuguese accentuation system
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In Portuguese, accentuation rules take an economical approach — if most words ending in a certain letter, for instance, have a certain stressed syllable, only those that differ from them will get an accent mark.
Before we proceed, two points that should be made clear:
1)
- oxytone: a word with the stress on the last syllable: você [you singular], alguém [someone];
- paroxytone: a word with the stress on the second syllable from the right: gente [people], homem [man], cobra [snake];
- proparoxytone: a word with the stress on third syllable from the right: úmido [humid], xícara [cup], mágica [magic].
2)
- acute accent ( ´ ) — used over the letters a, i, u and over the letter e in em, indicates the stressed syllable in a word. Besides, when used over e and o, it also marks their open pronunciation (/ɛ/ and /ɔ/).
- circumflex accent ( ^ ) — used over the letters a, e, o, marks both stressed syllable and closed pronunciation of e and o (/e/ and /o/).
- tilde ( ~ ) — used over the letters a and o to indicate they must be pronounced nasaly.
- grave accent ( ` ) — indicates the fusion of the preposition a with the articles a, as, plus a few other words.
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Basic rules
a) proparoxytones — they all bear accent marks: lâmpada [light bulb], Atlântico [Atlantic], ótimo [great], relâmpago [flash of lightning], etc.
b) paroxytones — the largest group of words in Portuguese. You should add an accent mark to those ending in:
- i, is: táxi [taxi], lápis [pencil]
- us, um, uns: vírus [virus], álbum [album], álbuns [albums]
- l, n, r, x, ps: incrível [incredible], hífen [hyphen], éter [ether], tórax [thorax], fórceps [forceps]
- ã, ãs, ão, ãos: ímã [magnet], ímãs [magnets], órgão [organ], órgãos [organs]
- oral diphthongs (either followed by an s or not): água [water], vôlei [volleyball], mágoa [bitterness]
- Note: There are neither proparoxytone nor paroxytone words ending in u in Portuguese.
c) oxytones — you should add an accent mark to those ending in:
- a, as: está [(he) is], estás [(you) are singular]
- e, es: você [you singular], jacarés [alligators]
- o, os: jiló [Solanum gilo], avó [grandmother], avô [grandfather], retrós [silk thread]
- em, ens: alguém [someone], parabéns [congratulations]
d) stressed monosyllables — you should add an accent mark to those ending in:
- a, as: pá [shovel], gás [gas]
- e, es: pé [foot], mês [month]
- o, os: xô [shoo interjection], nós [we], pôs [(he) put]
Special Rules
Hiatuses
When the second vowel in a hiatus is a stressed i or u, either followed by an s or not, it has to bear an accent mark: saída [exit], viúva [widow], país [country], baú [trunk], juíza [female judge / referee].
Note: if the i is followed by nh, there will be no accent mark: rainha [queen], moinho [mill], campainha [doorbell]. Besides, you should not write any accent marks if the i or the u are doubled: vadiice [idling], sucuuba [Himatanthus sucuuba], xiita [Shiite].
It is also worth keeping in mind that when such i and u are followed by other consonants in the same syllable, they do not bear any diacriticals either: juiz [judge, referee], ruim [bad], cairmos [(if we) fall].
At last, when the stressed i or u in the hiatus follows a decrescent diphthong, it should not receive any accent mark, either: feiura [ugliness], baiuca [tavern].
Diphthongs
The stressed diphthongs ei, eu, oi must bear an acute accent when they are open diphthongs in oxytones or stressed monosyllables: anéis [rings], géis [gels], chapéu [hat], céu [sky, heaven], herói [hero], sóis [suns].
Note: The diphthongs above should not bear any accent marks when they are unstressed (aneizinhos [little rings], chapeuzinho [little hat], heroizinho [little hero]), when they are stressed closed diphthongs (lei [law], hebreu [Hebrew], boi [ox]), or when they are stressed open diphthongs in paroxytones (ideia [idea], joia [jewel], heroico [heroic], apoio [I support]).
Verb + Objective Pronouns
When you have a verbal form followed by an unstressed objective pronoun, you should disregard the pronoun and treat the verbal form as an ordinary word — if it falls into any categories of words that receive accent marks, it just will: cortá-lo [to cut it], amá-los [to love them] (oxytones ending in an a) but produzi-los [to produce them] (oxytone ending in an i).
Differential Accents
There are certain words in Portuguese that receive a special accent in order to be told from their homonyms. These are very particular cases and thence small in number.
1. The 3rd person plural of the verbs ter [to have] and vir [to come] receives a circumflex accent in order to be told from the 3rd person singular forms:
ele tem [he has] — eles têm [they have]
ele vem [he comes] — eles vêm [they come]
2. The 3rd person plural of the verbs derived from ter [to have] and vir [to come] bear a circumflex accent, too, but the 3rd person singular forms bear an acute accent in this case:
ele mantém [he keeps] — eles mantêm [they keep]
ele obtém [he obtains] — eles obtêm [they obtain]
ele convém [it suits] — eles convêm [they suit]
3. The Infinitive form of the verb pôr [to put] receives a circumflex accent in order to be told from the preposition por [for, by, through].
4. The Perfect 3rd person singular form of the verb poder [can] receives a circumflex accent in order to be told from the Present 3rd person singular form:
pode [(he) can] — pôde [(he) could]
Note: in this case, the pronunciation of the o also changes (/ɔ/ in pode, /o/ in pôde).
5. The use of the differential accents on the following nouns is optional, to be employed when the context does not convey the distinction clearly:
| fôrma /o/ [bakeware; mold] | in order to be told from | forma /ɔ/ [shape, form] |
| sêde /e/ [thirst] | in order to be told from | sede /ɛ/ [seat, headquarters] |
