The scope of this article is to explain clearly types of accent symbols used in Portuguese and its rules.

In Portuguese there are four types of accent symbols or diacritics. These are graphic symbols that have to be placed above vowels in certain words:

´ - acento agudo (café, rodapé, música, fantástico)

^ - acento circunflexo (português, francês, êxito, ciência)

` - acento grave(à, às, àquilo)

~ - til (cão, maçã, amanhã, canção)

Why and when should they be used? Sometimes people find these symbols confusing, but they can actually be rather simple! Let’s see some examples and go through the rules.

Acento agudo and acento circunflexo

In Portuguese, words have well defined pronunciation rules. For instance, in words ending with the vowels a, o, or e the penultimate syllable is usually tonic, for example:

alfabeto
chocolate
livro
caneta
elefante

However, there are words that do not fit into this rule. In these cases, acento agudo (´) or acento circunflexo (^) come into play and helps us know how the word is pronounced, as below:

análise
ciência
ópera
mecânico
rápido

Acento agudo (´) represents an open stressed sound while acento circunflexo (^) represents a closed stressed sound.

The hardest thing here is to know which of these diacritics to use. Here are some tips: acento agudo is more common, while acento circunflexo is generally used in words ending with -ência.

It is very important to remember that the same word written with and without diacritics can have very different meanings. For instance, the word esta (pronounced Ésta) means “this”, while the word está (pronounced as estÁ) means “is”. So, please pay attention and do not forget the accents when necessary!

Now let’s look at when exactly we have to use the acento agudo and acento circunflexo diacritics:

In words ending with the vowels a, o, or e, the penultimate syllable is usually the strongest. If not, a diacritic should be used. Therefore, these words do not require a diacritic:

aluna
galo
poeta
verde

While the following words do require a diacritic:

língua
está
máximo
importância

In words ending with the vowels i or u, the last syllable is usually the strongest. If not, a diacritic should be used. Therefore the following words do not require a diacritic:

ali
javali
tabu
peru

While the following words do:

álibi
júri

In plural words, the stress of a word does not change (alunas, galos, javalis, perus).

In words ending with consonants (except s and em) and the letter combinations ps, is, and us, the last syllable is usually the strongest. If not a diacritic should be used. Therefore, the following words do not require the use of a diacritic:

falar
comer
partir
colher

While the following words do require the use of a diacritic:

bíceps
lápis
vírus

In words ending with s (except ps, is, and us) or em, the penultimate syllable is the strongest. If not, a diacritic should be used. Therefore the following words require the use of a diacritic:

falas
comes
partem
pires

While the following words do not require the use of a diacritic:

estás
português
alguém
Santarém

When the vowels i and u do not create a diphthong in the stressed syllable, a diacritic should be used, as in the following words:

saída
caído
moído
Conteúdo
saúde.

This is the case except when the vowels i and u come before nh (rainha, moinho) or in syllables ending with m, n, or r (Coimbra, ainda, sairdes).

In certain monosyllabic words, acento agudo is used to distinguish an open sound (dó, nó, pó, dá, já): otherwise, it could have a different meaning. For examples:

dó means “pity” while do means “of the…”
nó means “knot” while no means “at the…”

See? It is quite simple!

Acento grave

Acento grave (`) seems to be very similar to acento agudo. However, acento grave has a rather different function. It requires the merging of preposition a with the definite article a or with a pronoun beginning with a. That means, effectively, that a + a = à.

Here are some examples:

ir à escola (go to school).
às duas horas (at two o’clock).
dá a tua caneta àquela menina (give your pen to that girl).

You should pronounce the vowel a with acento grave (à) more openly than a standard a.

Til

Til (~) looks like a wave over the vowels a and o, that gives them have a nasal sound:

não
pão
põe
maçã
manhã
atenção
coração
imaginação

In these examples ãe, ão, and õe are diphthongs (sounds formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable). They can be found mostly at the end of words.

There are words in Portuguese that, though very similar in pronunciation, have very different meanings. In these cases a nasal sound (and consequently, til) can make all the difference:

pão – pau
mão – mau
não – nau
maçã – massa

Usually, a vowel with til is stressed. But it is also possible to find two diacritics in the same word, such as órgão or órfã. In these cases acento grave (´) has priority when it comes to stress.

Now you know four Portuguese diacritics: acento agudo (´), acento circuflexo (^), acento grave (`), and til (~) -- and their functions.

Basically, acento agudo and acento circuflexo represents a stressed syllable in words that are exceptions to the usual stress rules. Acento grave is a merging of two a vowels. Finally, til represents a nasal form of the vowels a and o.

I hope that this article was useful in helping you to understand why and when each of these diacritics should be used. Familiarize yourself with the learnings here as knowing Portuguese diacritics and its rules will allow you to be able to read and to write correctly.

Hero image by Dennis Flinsenberg on Unsplash