B1 · The finishing touches
The accents
The accent writes a different word, and both words exist.
The <b>acute</b> (á, é, í, ó, ú) marks the stressed syllable and opens the vowel: café, até, saída. The <b>circumflex</b> (â, ê, ô) also marks the stress but closes the vowel — avô against avó, grandfather against grandmother.
The <b>tilde</b> (ã, õ) makes the vowel nasal: pão, mãe, corações. It is not a stress mark, and the stress may sit elsewhere in the word. The <b>cedilla</b> (ç) keeps the c soft before a, o and u: começo, faço. Never before e or i, where the c is soft anyway.
English has no marks of this kind at all, so the temptation is to treat them as ornament and leave them off when typing quickly. What actually happens is that a different word appears, and one that exists: pode is « he can », pôde is « he could ». Por is a preposition, pôr is the verb « to put ».
That is what makes it worse than an ordinary typing slip. A spellchecker looks each word up, finds it, and says nothing. The sentence is well formed and means something else, and only a reader will notice.
Die Form
| grandfather / grandmother | avô / avó |
| he can / he could | pode / pôde |
| for / to put | por / pôr |
| nasal, by the tilde | pão, mãe, corações |
| soft, by the cedilla | começo, faço |
| a + a, merged | à |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
The circumflex closes the vowel, the acute opens it.
O meu avô e a minha avó vivem juntos.My grandfather and my grandmother live together.
The tilde makes a vowel nasal and says nothing about stress.
Comprei dois pães.I bought two loaves.
The cedilla stands only before a, o and u.
Começo às oito.I start at eight.
à is a merged with the article a.
Vou à praia amanhã.I am going to the beach tomorrow.
Woran man es erkennt
- á
- ê
- ã
- õ
- ç
- à
Beispielsätze
Ele não pôde vir ontem, mas hoje pode.He could not come yesterday, but today he can.
Vou pôr a chave na mesa.I will put the key on the table.
Há muitas informações no site.There is a lot of information on the site.
Faço o jantar hoje.I am making dinner today.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
Vou por a chave na mesa is a complete sentence using the preposition, and it means nothing sensible. Vou pôr a chave na mesa is « I will put the key on the table ». One circumflex separates them, no tool will flag it, and the pair turns up constantly because both words are among the most frequent in the language.
The accent tells apart two words that both exist.
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