A1 · Alphabet and pronunciation · about 4 minutes
The alphabet
Twenty-six letters, their names, and how to spell a name out loud.
Do you know this already?
“New to me”: the explanation first, then practice. “Test myself”: 3 short questions – get at least two right and you go straight to the harder exercises.
Words you will need11
They appear in this topic’s examples and exercises and are new at this point on the learning path.
- pronunciar-seto make a pronouncement
- escreverto write
- doistwo
- o quilothe kilo
- quererto want
- o apelidothe surname
- soletrarto spell out
- por favorplease
- as festas de São Joãothe feast of Saint John
- chamar-seto be called
- o carrothe car
Practise as flashcards · 1Practise as flashcards · 2
Missing a word? Look it up in the dictionary
Understand
RememberEvery letter is masculine: o agá, dois erres.
- Signal words
- agá
- dois
- cedilha
- til
The form
How it is written and said
Each row gives the rule first, then examples in Portuguese that show it.
| the letter H | agá |
| the letter J | jota |
| the letter Q | quê |
| the letter X | xis |
| the letter Z | zê |
| the letter G | gê |
| the letter R | erre |
| the letter K, foreign words only | capa |
| the letter W, foreign words only | dâblio |
| the letter Y, foreign words only | ípsilon |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
The names of the letters are masculine.
O agá não se pronuncia.The H is not pronounced.
A double letter is spelt with dois, « two ».
Ferreira escreve-se com dois erres.Ferreira is spelt with a double r.
The marks above and below the letters are spelt out as well.
Açores escreve-se com cê cedilha.Açores is spelt with a c-cedilla.
A Portuguese word writes the k sound with c or qu, never with k.
Quilo escreve-se com quê.« Quilo » is spelt with a Q.
Example sentences
Como se escreve o teu apelido?How do you spell your surname?
Soletra, por favor.Spell it, please.
Sousa: esse, ó, u, esse, á.Sousa: S, O, U, S, A.
1 more example sentences
João escreve-se com til no a.João is spelt with a tilde on the a.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
English gives no clue here, because a letter in English has no gender at all. In Portuguese every letter is masculine, including the ones ending in -e or -a: o erre, o esse, o jota. You hear it as soon as a number comes in front: dois erres, not duas erres.
Quick check
A warm-up: 2 questions, answered straight away. They do not count towards your progress.
Practise
One lesson, one clear goal: you pass with 80% right on the first try. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
Now write it yourself4 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
Your progress
What your lesson on this topic shows:
The lesson decides this, not a button: passed at 80% on the first try, mastered when you pass it again on another day.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The Portuguese alphabet has the same 26 letters as the English one. K, w and y, though, only appear in foreign words, names and abbreviations. A Portuguese word writes the k sound with c or qu: casa, quilo.
On top of that come marks above and below the letters: the acute in café, the circumflex in você, the tilde in mãe, the grave in à and the cedilla in praça. They are not separate letters, but they are part of the spelling — a word without its mark is misspelt, not simplified.
The letter names are the real trap for an English speaker, because the vowels are named by their own sound: A is á, E is é, I is i. Spell « E » the English way, as « ee », and a Portuguese listener writes down an I; say « I » as « eye » and nobody knows what you mean. H is agá, J is jota, Q is quê, X is xis, K is capa.
Double letters are spelt with dois: dois erres, dois esses — « double r » said as « two r's ». The marks are spelt out too: cê cedilha, com til, com acento. The question is Como se escreve?
The verbs on this page, in every form: escrever