The tilde, the cedilla and all four accents, for Brazilian and European Portuguese alike.
Portuguese words to try
Tap a word to put it in the box above, or type it yourself with the keys shown (only the special letters need a shortcut).
| Word | Meaning | Keys |
|---|---|---|
| No | Alt+A ×3 | |
| Heart | Alt+C Alt+A ×3 | |
| You | Alt+E ×2 | |
| Grandmother | Alt+O | |
| Bread | Alt+A ×3 |
Portuguese accent shortcuts
Each accented letter on this keyboard and the shortcut that types it from a US or UK keyboard. Hold Alt on Windows, Linux and ChromeOS, or Option on a Mac. Add Shift for the capital.
| Letter | Capital | Shortcut |
|---|---|---|
| á | Á | Alt + A |
| â | Â | Alt + A ×2 |
| ã | Ã | Alt + A ×3 |
| à | À | Alt + A ×4 |
| ç | Ç | Alt + C |
| é | É | Alt + E |
| ê | Ê | Alt + E ×2 |
| í | Í | Alt + I |
| ó | Ó | Alt + O |
| ô | Ô | Alt + O ×2 |
| õ | Õ | Alt + O ×3 |
| ú | Ú | Alt + U |
The Portuguese accents
Portuguese uses four accent marks and the cedilla. They mark stress, the quality of a vowel, nasal sounds, and in one case a contraction. Brazilian and European Portuguese use the same marks; since the 1990 Orthographic Agreement took effect, most spellings are the same too.
| Mark | Letters | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acute (agudo) | á é í ó ú | Stressed, open vowel | café, próximo |
| Circumflex (circunflexo) | â ê ô | Stressed, closed vowel | você, avô |
| Tilde (til) | ã õ | Nasal vowel | não, mãe, lições |
| Grave (crase) | à | a + a contracted | vou à praia |
| Cedilla (cedilha) | ç | An s sound before a, o, u | coração, açúcar |
Accents that change the word
Several common word pairs differ only by an accent. Avô (grandfather) and avó (grandmother) differ in the quality of the o. Pôde is the past tense and pode the present of "can". Por is a preposition and pôr means to put. É means "is" while e means "and". The tilde matters too: pão is bread, and without the tilde it is not a word.
The crase, à, is the one Portuguese learners find hardest to place. It appears where the preposition a meets the feminine article a: Vou a a escola becomes Vou à escola. It never goes before a masculine noun, so vou ao cinema, not à cinema.
Brazilian and European keyboards
Brazil uses the ABNT2 layout, which has a key for ç to the right of l, dead keys for the accents and the tilde, and an extra key near the right Shift. Portugal uses its own layout, also with ç beside l but with the dead keys in different places. Both put the cedilla where English keyboards have the semicolon. If you learned to type on an English keyboard, switching to either moves punctuation you rely on, so this page keeps your layout and adds the letters.
On this keyboard, Alt+A cycles through á, â, ã and à; Alt+O through ó, ô and õ; Alt+E through é and ê; and Alt+C types ç. Add Shift for capitals.
Typing Portuguese on your own device
- Mac: Option+E then the vowel for the acute, Option+I for the circumflex, Option+N then a or o for the tilde, Option+` then a for à, and Option+C for ç.
- Windows: the United States-International layout gives á with ' then a, ã with ~ then a, â with ^ then a, and ç with ' then c.
- Phone: press and hold a vowel for all its accents, and hold c for ç. Adding Portuguese (Brazil) or Portuguese (Portugal) as a keyboard language also turns on the matching autocorrect.