the grave accent (`) – this accent does not indicate word stress it only signals the contraction of the preposition a with feminine definite articles ( a+ a, a+ as > à, às), and with certain demonstrative pronouns (e.g., a+ aquele > àquele).In that case, the stress is indicated by the acute accent, while the tilde only stands for the nasal sound. There are a few words that take both the tilde and the acute accent, for example, órgão (organ). the tilde (~) – used to indicate word stress as well as a nasal vowel/diphthong sound.the circumflex accent (^) – used to signal the stressed syllable while indicating a more closed vowel sound (compared to the acute accent).the acute accent (´) – used to signal the stressed syllable and an open vowel sound.In Portuguese, there are four accent marks: ca-sa- rio (a group of houses)Įvery word that does not conform with the above-mentioned patterns will take an accent mark to indicate the stressed syllable. Otherwise, they are said to be stressed on the second-to-last syllable (the one containing either -i or -u). If we consider them to be diphthongs, then the word stress falls on the last syllable. In this case, it is not clear (depending on how you pronounce it) whether the vowels comprise a diphthong (one syllable) or a hiatus (two syllables). These are words ending in vowel pairs whose first vowel is either -ior -u – such as -ia, -io, -ua, or – uo. Words ending in crescent diphthongs (diphthong or hiatus?) constitui > cons-ti- tui (it constituted).consentirei > con-sen-ti-r ei (I will allow).Words ending in diphthongs whose last vowel is either -i or -u (closed vowel sounds) – such as -ai, -au, -ei, – eu, -iu, -ou or -ui – are also stressed on the last syllable: compreendi > com-pre-en- di (I understood).Words ending with the vowels -ior -u, even with -is, -iz, – u s or – uz, are stressed on the last syllable: Words ending with the consonants -r, -lor -z are stressed on the last syllable: Let’s look at the different subgroups of this category. However, words ending in certain consonants, vowels, and diphthongs are stressed on the last one. Most commonly, Portuguese words are stressed on the next-to-last syllable. Without any accent mark, Portuguese words are normally stressed on either the next-to-last syllable or the last syllable. Word stress on the second-to-last syllable.Word stress on the third-from-last syllable.Word stress on the next-to-last syllable.Both aspects are relevant to pronunciation, and so this read is a good complement to the former. In this one, I will be digging into word stress in specific. Note! I’ve previously written an article covering Portuguese phonology and its basic sounds. Thus, word stress in Portuguese is conspicuous and you can clearly hear it. This leads to the shortening and reduction of unstressed syllables so that they can fit into relatively fixed time intervals set by stressed ones.Īs a result, unstressed syllables are pronounced less clearly, whereas stressed syllables really stand out. In stress-timed languages, time intervals between stressed syllables are fairly consistent. Like English, Portuguese is a stress-timed language (as opposed to syllable-stressed languages). Otherwise, words are marked with an accent mark that clearly indicates where word stress falls (either on the last, next-to-last, or third-from-last syllable). Portuguese words without accent marks are stressed on either the last or next-to-last syllable according to a few spelling patterns. Here’s Portuguese word stress in a nutshell: If you care about Portuguese pronunciation and want to get good at it, you have to come to grips with its word stress patterns.