Brazilian Portuguese Grammar

Vowel sounds & spelling

Diacritics and accent marks

The following diacritics and accent marks are used in Portuguese to help with pronunciation:

Acento agudo (acute accent), as in método (method);
Acento circunflexo (circumflex accent), as in pêssego (peach);
Acento grave (grave accent), as in às vezes (sometimes);
Til (tilde), as in grão (grain);
Cedilha (cedilha), as in graça (grace);
Trema (dieresis), as in qüinquagésimo (fiftieth).

Portuguese has five vowels - a, e, i, o, u - which can be spelled with or wiithout an accent mark.

Only consonant c can also be spelled with a cedilha (ç).

Only vowel u can have a dieresis (ü).

Letters and their possible diacritics and accent marks:

acute accent	á	é	í	ó	ú
circumflex accent	â	ê		ô
tilde	ã			õ
grave accent	à
dieresis					ü
cedilla						ç

Guidelines

Words can have only one accent (acute, grave or circumflex);

The acute and circumflex accents mark stressed syllables in words and also indicate if vowels are open (acute accent) or closed (circumflex accent);

The tilde, only used over a (ã) and o (õ), marks nasalized vowel sounds;

Don't mark nasal vowels with a tilde (~) before m and n;

The dieresis indicates that the u in the strings gu and qu is pronounced very clearly;

The cedilla indicates that the c is pronounced as the s in Sandra;

The vowels i and u can only have an acute accent when they form a *hiatus;

* A hiatus is a sequence of vowels pronounced in different syllables, such as in baú (trunk, chest), saída (exit), rainha (queen), Saara (Sahara), xiita (Shiite).

Don't use the acute accent in hiatuses composed of the sequences aa (Saara), ii (xiita) or before nh (rainha).

Some verbs have an acute accent above u in some persons and tenses, as in some verb forms of verb argüir (to accuse, to disclose). For more information, read Special verb patterns;

Refer to Alphabet & sounds for the pronunciation of diphthongs and triphthongs;

Read Diacritics for more information.