Portuguese Accent Marks

Portuguese has many sounds and accent marks. The purpose of this guide is to demystify the Portuguese accents and explain the pronunciation so you can start to incorporate them into your reading and speaking.

O acento agudo is an upward slanting accent that can appear over any vowel (á, é, í, ó, ú). Of all the Portuguese accents this one is by far the most important — it is used very widely throughout the language and has a big impact on how the vowel is pronounced.

When saying a word with this accent mark, pronounce the accented vowel with the most emphasis and open your mouth more when pronouncing it.

The accent grave is the downward sloping accent that appears only over the letter -à in Portuguese. It is somewhat rare and is pronounced exactly the same way as the acute accent -á.

The -à is used on its own or followed by -s and means 'to' or 'at'. It is the result of combining the preposition a with the feminine definite article a/as.

The circumflex — the little hat (o chapeuzinho) — appears over -â, -ê, -ô. It changes the sound of the vowel to make it sound more closed, similar to the 'o' sound in the English word 'flow'.

Try to keep your mouth more closed when pronouncing a vowel with this accent mark. Por exemplo:

Of all the Portuguese accents, the tilde is probably the most unique. It appears over -ã and -õ and creates a nasal vowel sound that is very important to the Portuguese language. Imagine you are humming as you pronounce the vowel — the sound resonates through your nose.

The cedilla is the little squiggly mark under the letter -c (ç). It makes the -c produce a strong 's' sound, like the -s in 'Sam'. The ç only appears before the letters -a, -o and -u.