Portuguese Year 4: Writing it right: spelling, punctuation and word division
Portuguese, Year 4 (Portugal): Use accents, punctuation and hyphens correctly, divide words at the end of a line and lay out the page well.
Five things to write right
Writing right has several parts. Spelling (grafia) is writing words as they should be, with the auxiliary signs: accents (á, à, â), the tilde (ã), the cedilla (ç) and the hyphen. Punctuation organises sentences: full stop, comma, question mark, exclamation mark, colon and dash. Word division (translineação) splits a word at the end of a line, by syllables, with a hyphen. And the layout is how the page looks: title, margins, paragraphs and legible handwriting.
Small signs change the meaning
Small signs change the meaning. «Está» with an accent is the verb «estar»; «esta» without an accent points at something. A comma can change a sentence: «Vamos comer, avó!» (Let's eat, Grandma!) calls Grandma; «Vamos comer a avó!» (Let's eat Grandma!) is something very different. And a clean, well-organised page is easier to read and shows respect for whoever reads it.
Correcting one line, step by step
Badly written: «o rui perguntou onde esta a bola» (Rui asked where the ball is). Step 1: capital letters at the start and in names: «O Rui». Step 2: for the speech, colon and dash: «perguntou: — …». Step 3: here «esta» is the verb «estar», so it takes an accent: «está». Step 4: it is a question, so: «Onde está a bola?» with a question mark. Result: «O Rui perguntou: — Onde está a bola?» Word division: if «borboleta» does not fit on the line, write «bor-» and put «boleta» on the next line, cutting by syllables.
Cutting a word where it happens
In word division, the mistake is to cut the word wherever it happens. You cut by syllables: ca-sa, bor-bo-le-ta. «lh», «nh» and «ch» are never separated: ga-lho, ma-nhã, ca-cho. «rr» and «ss» are separated: car-ro, pas-sa. The hyphen stays at the end of the first line and is not repeated on the second. Also avoid leaving one letter alone: write «ami-go», not «a-migo».
Cards, notes and notebooks
You use this in a letter or a postcard, in a note for your parents, on a poster and in your school notebook. The right comma makes a recipe clear: «Junta o leite, o açúcar e a farinha» (Add the milk, the sugar and the flour). The dash and the colon appear in every book with dialogues. And when you write by hand in a notebook, you are the one who decides how to split words at the end of a line.
Test what you learned
What is word division (translineação)?
- a) Putting an accent on a word
- b) Splitting a word between two lines, by syllables, with a hyphen
- c) Putting a comma between two words
Correct answer: b) Splitting a word between two lines, by syllables, with a hyphen — Yes: at the end of a line, the word is cut by syllables and the hyphen is left there.
Which is the correct way to write: «o rui perguntou onde esta a bola» (Rui asked where the ball is)?
- a) «O Rui perguntou: — Onde está a bola?»
- b) «O rui perguntou — onde esta a bola.»
- c) «O Rui perguntou: — Onde esta a bola?»
Correct answer: a) «O Rui perguntou: — Onde está a bola?» — Yes: capital letters, colon and dash for the speech, accent on «está» and a question mark.
Which is the right way to split «passarinho» at the end of a line?
- a) pass- / arinho
- b) passarin- / ho
- c) pas- / sarinho
Correct answer: c) pas- / sarinho — Yes: it cuts between the two s's, by syllables (pas-sa-ri-nho), and «nh» stays whole.
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