The Orthographic Agreement of the Portuguese language is an unavoidable topic for anyone who writes in Portuguese. In Portugal, this agreement brought about changes in the way many words are written, with the aim of unifying spelling between Portuguese-speaking countries.
Implemented gradually from 2009 and compulsory since May 13, 2015 the new orthographic agreement still raises doubts and debates, but is already part of everyday life for students, translators and the general public. Below is a complete guide to everything you need to know about the orthographic agreement in Portugal, from its origins to the main changes, useful tools and impact on our language.
What we're going to explore:
What you should know about the spelling agreement in Portugal
The current orthographic agreement is often referred to as the New Orthographic Agreement or AO90 (because it was finalised in 1990). It is an international treaty signed in Lisbon on December 16, 1990 by the seven Portuguese-speaking countries – including Portugal and Brazil – with the aim of creating a unified orthography for Portuguese. In practical terms, the agreement seeks to eliminate two divergent official orthographic standards (European and Brazilian) and increase orthographic unity to around 98 per cent of the common vocabulary (previously it was around 96 per cent). In this way, it is hoped to strengthen the international prestige of the Portuguese language and facilitate communication between Portuguese-speaking countries.
In Portugal, the orthographic agreement was ratified in 2008 and phased in from 2009, with a transition period of six years. Since 2015, the use of the new spelling has been compulsory in official documents and in education, and the old spelling is no longer accepted in formal communications. During the transition, many publications gradually adopted the new rules – for example, since January 1, 2012 all Portuguese government acts and the Diário da República have been in line with the spelling agreement. Today, the vast majority of media organisations and government bodies already write according to the new agreement.
It’s important to note that the spelling agreement didn’t change the way words were pronounced, just the way they were written. Even so, it generated controversy and divided opinion in Portugal: in 2008, a manifesto against the agreement collected more than 100,000 signatures and several cultural figures spoke out against the change. Despite the initial criticism, the orthographic agreement has been fully implemented and consolidated in Portuguese daily life, especially among the younger generations who have already learnt to write with the new rules.
Tip: If you’re working in translation or content production, it’s essential to make sure you follow the rules of the Portuguese spelling agreement. Consistent adoption of the new spelling is essential for the quality and professionalism of your texts.
1990 Orthographic Agreement - context and purpose
The 1990 Orthographic Agreement was the culmination of decades of efforts to unify the writing of Portuguese. Prior to this, Portugal and Brazil had already carried out their own orthographic reforms in the 20th century (Portugal reformed its spelling in 1911; subsequent agreements in 1945 and 1973 sought to bring the standards closer together, but without total success). As a result, until the late 1980s there were significant differences in Portuguese spelling between the two sides of the Atlantic. For example, in Portugal “ação” was spelt with a c (acção), while in Brazil it was spelt without a c (ação); on the other hand, words like “idéia” had an accent mark in Brazil and not in Portugal (which spelt it ideia).
To put an end to these discrepancies, official representatives from Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe and Guinea-Bissau met and signed the orthographic agreement in 1990. (East Timor, then under foreign occupation, would join later, in 2004.) The agreement established a common orthographic base, aiming for a single official orthography for all Portuguese-speaking countries. In practice, this meant that each country would have to make adjustments to its way of writing: European Portuguese would be the most affected in terms of certain unpronounced consonants (as we’ll see below), while Brazilian Portuguese would see changes mainly in terms of some graphic accents.
It is crucial to realise that the 1990 agreement was not implemented immediately. Once signed, all countries had to ratify it. Portugal approved it in 1991, but some Portuguese-speaking countries took more time ratify it (Angola and Mozambique, for example, only ratified it years later, and effective implementation in these countries still faces resistance and adjustments). In Portugal, it was only in 2008 that the agreement was formally approved again, and it began to gain legal force in 2009, with the publication of the Second Amending Protocol and the definition of a transition period until 2015.
2011 Orthographic Agreement (guide to the new rules)
We often call the period in which the new spelling rules were taught and required in Portugal the “2011 Orthographic Agreement”. In 2011, the agreement became the norm in the education system (2011-2012 school year) and in official publications, with all new editions of dictionaries already adapted to the rules introduced at that time. But what are the main changes of the new spelling agreement? Let’s summarise the key points in a practical guide:
- 26-letter alphabet: The Portuguese alphabet once again included the letters K, W and Y, rising from 23 to 26 letters. Before the agreement, these letters were considered foreign, used only in abbreviations (kg, watt), foreign proper names (Kuwait, Darwin) and words of foreign origin. With the agreement, k, w and y are officially part of the alphabet and used in these contexts (for example, “Kwanzas” is written for the Angolan currency, keeping the k).
- Upper and lower case: Some words that were previously often written with an initial capitalisation have switched to lower case in generic uses. Names of months, seasons and cardinal points are now written in lower case (e.g. January, Spring, North). For example, “January” is now january and “North” (cardinal point) is now north when used in the middle of common sentences. The initial capitalisation remains, however, if the word is part of a proper name or title (for example, “South” in “South Africa” remains with a capital S). These cases are intended to standardise criteria, although in many situations capitalisation was already optional before the agreement.
- Elimination of silent consonants: This is perhaps the most visible change in Portuguese in Portugal. The agreement removed consonants such as c and p from many words where they are not pronounced in cultured speech. So today we write olfato instead of olfacto, ato instead of acto, receção instead of recepção, ótimo instead of óptimo, etc. Compare some examples before and after the agreement:
- acção ➡ ação
- director ➡ diretor
- electrónico ➡ eletrónico
- óptimo ➡ ótimo
- Egipto ➡ Egito
In all these cases, the dropped consonant (c or p) was not pronounced in Portugal.
General rule: if the consonant is not read in any cultured pronunciation, it has been eliminated; if it is pronounced in at least one variant of the language, its presence in writing may be optional. For example, the word “fato/facto” (in the sense of event) can be written facto in Portugal (where many speakers pronounce the c audibly) and fato in Brazil. The agreement recognises both spellings as correct, according to regional pronunciation, avoiding forcing a single form where there is a different tradition.
However, in Portugal it was recommended that most of these silent consonants be eliminated in order to simplify things – hence today we have receção instead of recepção (the p was never pronounced much in Portugal). Dictionaries now record both variants when applicable, indicating which countries use which form.
- Graphic accentuation: There have been several changes to accents:
- Homograph words: the so-called differential accent has disappeared in words that could only be distinguished by their accent. For example, “pára” (the verb to stop) no longer has an acute accent and is now written para (the same as the preposition). The same has happened with “pélo” (from pelar) and “pêlo” (noun, hair), which are now both written pelo, and with “pólo” (place/position) which has been standardised with polo (same as sport). This change causes some ambiguities in writing, but the context is usually enough to distinguish (“ele para o carro” vs. “para fazer algo”).
- Verbs: the accent in verb forms of the 3rd person plural of the present tense of 2nd conjugation verbs has been removed. Thus, crêem became creem, lêem became leem and vêem became veem. However, the differential accent remains on pôr (verb) to distinguish it from por (preposition).
- Diphthongs and hiatuses: In Brazil, several words have lost their accents to bring them into line with European practice. For example, “idéia” became ideia, “assembléia” became assembleia, “heróico” became heroico. In Portugal, these words were already written without accents, so there was no change here. As for the language as a whole, it was decided to eliminate the acute accent in grave words (paroxytones) with the stressed diphthong -oi, standardising spellings such as jiboia (formerly jibóia) and asteroide (formerly asteróide). Place names follow this logic: Troia is spelt Troia instead of Tróia. It has also become optional to use accents in verb forms such as entregámos/entregamos (both valid for the past perfect tense of entregar).
- Umlaut: The agreement definitively abolished the umlaut (¨), which in Brazil was still used over u in cases such as qüe, qüi (e.g. lingüiça, freqüência). As of 2009, the umlaut no longer exists in Portuguese orthography – you now write linguiça, frequência, sequência, etc., everywhere. (Portugal hadn’t used the umlaut for a long time, so this change only affected Brazilians and those who wrote according to Brazilian norms).
- Use of the hyphen: The hyphen rules have been reformulated to be more consistent, resulting in changes to both joining and separating words:
- No hyphen (union): Many compound words or locutions no longer have a hyphen. For example, we now write fim de semana (without a hyphen, previously fim-de-semana) and dia a dia (previously dia-a-dia). Words formed with prefixes have also changed: if the prefix ends in a vowel and the second part begins with a different vowel, the hyphen is removed. Thus, auto-estrada became autoestrada (prefix auto + estrada beginning with e), anti-aéreo became antiaéreo, extra-escolar became extraescolar, etc… In addition, prefixes ending in a vowel before an r or an s now require the doubling of these consonants instead of a hyphen: anti-social became antissocial, mini-saia became minissaia, contra-regra became contrarregra, antirreligioso (previously anti-religioso) and so on.
- With a hyphen (maintenance): In some cases, the hyphen is kept or added to avoid confusion. Hyphens continue to be used when the prefix ends in the same vowel as the next word – for example, contra-ataque (a-a) or micro-ondas (o-o) remain hyphenated. Hyphens are also used before h (e.g. anti-higiénico) and in compounds with the prefixes ex-, vice-, pré-, pós- when they have their own meaning (e.g. ex-marido, vice-presidente, pré-natal, pós-guerra). Locutions established by usage have remained hyphenated in some special cases, such as cor-de-rosa (by exception, this has not lost its hyphen). On the other hand, in constructions with the verb haver de followed by a verb in the infinitive, the agreement has made it clear that no hyphen is used: hei de fazer, hás de ver are spelt hei de fazer, hás de ver (previously they were also spelt without a hyphen as a rule, but there were many doubts).
These are, in a nutshell, the main points of the new 1990 spelling agreement (implemented in Portugal from 2011). It may seem like a lot to remember, but daily practice ends up automating these rules. To help with the transition and consistent application of the new orthography, we can fortunately count on various tools.
Useful tools (spelling converter and Portuguese spell checker)
Adopting all the changes in the orthographic agreement can be challenging, especially for those who learnt to write before it or frequently have to switch between European and Brazilian spelling. Fortunately, there are useful tools to help you convert and correct the spelling of texts according to the new agreement – both spelling converters and spell checkers (Portuguese from Portugal).
Online spelling converters
- Porto Editora Spelling Agreement Converter: Automatically converts old texts to the new spelling.
- Lince (Directorate-General for Education): Converts complete text files to the new spelling.
- Priberam Spelling Converter (FLiP): Free online tool for spelling conversion.
Spell checker (Portuguese from Portugal)
- LanguageTool: Online spell checker that checks grammar and spelling according to post-agreement Portuguese in Portugal.
- FLiP Online: Integrated spell checker that helps you correct texts according to the new rules.
Portuguese dictionaries with the new spelling agreement
No guide to the agreement would be complete without mentioning the updated dictionaries. With the implementation of the orthographic agreement, all the main lexicographic works in Portugal were revised to reflect the new spellings. As early as 2011-2012, all published dictionaries began to comply with the new rules, often including the old and new spellings of each word side by side. This means that if you open a modern Portuguese dictionary, you’ll find entries such as ótimo (with the indication “antes: óptimo”) or receção (“antes: recepção”) clarifying the change.
Some reference dictionaries and vocabularies in the context of the new spelling agreement are:
- Vocabulário Ortográfico do Português (VOP): Official vocabulary adopted in Portugal with around 180,000 words according to the agreement.
- Dictionary of the Portuguese Language – Porto Editora (Infopédia): Dictionary updated with the new spelling, allowing search in old or new spelling.
- Priberam Dictionary of the Portuguese Language: Shows the differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese and provides clear information on spelling changes.
- Prontuário da Língua Portuguesa: Great for clearing up linguistic doubts.
- Dicio: Brazilian online dictionary that clarifies post-agreement Portuguese terms.
Most relevant words in the new spelling agreement
Throughout this article we’ve already seen several examples, but here we’ll take a look at some of the most relevant words that have changed with the new spelling agreement in Portugal. Either because they are very common or because they have generated doubts, these words illustrate the impact of the reform. The list could be extensive (thousands of terms have changed, albeit to varying degrees), but we’re focusing on the most emblematic cases:
Words that have lost consonants
- acção -> ação
- direcção -> direção
- electrónico -> eletrónico
- optimizar -> otimizar
- óptimo -> ótimo
- acto -> ato
- baptismo -> batismo
- óptica -> ótica
- Egipto -> Egito
- factor -> fator
- recepção -> receção
- selecção -> seleção
- projecto -> projeto
- detecção -> deteção
- concepção -> conceção
Words that have lost their accents
- pára -> para
- péla -> pela
- pêlo -> pelo
- pólo -> polo
- idéia -> ideia
- vôo -> voo
- assembléia -> assembleia
- heróico -> heroico
Words with hyphen changes
- fim-de-semana -> fim de semana
- Ano-Novo -> ano novo
- cor-de-laranja -> cor de laranja
- anti-social -> antissocial
- auto-estrada -> autoestrada
- extra-curricular -> extracurricular
- co-autor -> coautor
- super-ego -> superego
- pré-história (retains hyphen)
- pós-graduação (retains hyphen)
- ex-aluno (retains hyphen)
- vice-presidente (retains hyphen)
- não-ficção (retains hyphen)
Differences between Portuguese in Portugal and Portuguese in Brazil after the agreement
A frequent question is: has the orthographic agreement completely unified writing between Portugal and Brazil? The answer is no – there are still differences, albeit minor ones. The agreement has managed to eliminate some historical orthographic differences, but not all of them. In addition, the very nature of the agreement has in certain cases allowed for more than one correct spelling (the so-called double spelling) to accommodate regional pronunciation differences.
To summarise, after the orthographic agreement there are still two main orthographic standards: that of Portugal and that of Brazil (not counting the particularities of the PALOP and Timor, which largely follow the European standard). The good news is that the spelling differences between them have diminished considerably. It is estimated that around 98 per cent of words are now written identically in both standards, compared to 96 per cent before the agreement – a small but significant step forward in unification. The differences that remain are relatively few and have been identified.
From a practical point of view, a text written according to the new agreement in Portugal will be widely understood and considered correct in Brazil, except for one or two words that catch the eye (such as fato/facto or receção, which is spelt recepção there). The reverse is also true: a post-agreement Brazilian text shows very few “signs” of orthographic Brazilianness apart from vocabulary. Therefore, the agreement has partially fulfilled its role of bringing the two official orthographies closer together.
However, translators and writers should continue to pay attention to the text’s target audience. Even though we are closer orthographically, it is still advisable to adapt a text into Portuguese varieties if the audience is exclusively European or exclusively Brazilian. Example: In a literary translation for Portugal, you might prefer característica over caraterística, as it sounds more natural to the Portuguese reader – even though caraterística is not an error, it’s a matter of cultural preference. In a technical text that circulates in both countries, it might be better to opt for a neutral spelling (in this case caraterística, without c, which is understood in PT and used in BR) to maximise uniformity.
To better understand these nuances and differences in Portuguese, including specific vocabulary and linguistic style, you can check out other articles on our blog such as Varieties of Portuguese, Idiomatic Expressions and Expressions from Northern Portugal. In these articles, we explore regional differences, unique expressions and effective strategies for adapting content to the culture and target audience.
General overview of the changes and impact of the new agreement in Portugal
More than a decade after its implementation, what is the outcome of the orthographic agreement in Portugal? In short, the new orthographic agreement has standardised the writing of Portuguese internationally in many respects, making it easier to produce content that circulates between Portuguese-speaking countries. The main changes – inclusion of the letters k, w, y, removal of unpronounced consonants, adjustments to accents and new hyphen rules – have now been assimilated into Portuguese education and the media. The younger generations already write naturally according to the agreement, and even many people who initially opposed it ended up adopting the new spelling by force of norm and usage.
The practical impact of the agreement in Portugal can be seen in several areas:
- Education: Since 2011/2012, all schools have used the new rules of the agreement exclusively. Old spellings are considered incorrect in national tests.
- Public Administration: Since 2012, all official government documents and communications have been obliged to follow the agreement.
- Media and Publishing: Newspapers, magazines and publishing houses have adopted the new spelling since 2011. Only a few historical works retain the original spelling for cultural reasons.
- Society and Business: Despite initial resistance, companies and individuals have gradually adapted. Today, the use of the new spelling is widespread and natural.
- International Unification: The agreement slightly reduced the differences between Portuguese in Portugal and Brazil, making it easier to communicate and publish common texts between the two countries.
- Continuing Controversy: There is still resistance and debate about some changes that are considered unintuitive. However, there are no official plans to revise or repeal the agreement.
In short, the agreement has brought significant changes that are already integrated into Portuguese daily life, facilitating correct and standardised writing.
If you want a quality translation, count on Dokutech Translations, which specialises in professional translation.
👉 Get in touch with us for a free quote!
