That Portuguese language is full of rules you already know, don't you? There are so many that we are often confused, then it is a mistake for sure! To avoid unwanted mistakes, the best tip is to study our Grammar to get even better in written and oral modalities.
Grammar addresses several aspects, including those concerning the sounds of words, which are studied by phonetics. Within Phonetics is the prosody, which deals with the correct knowledge of the predominant syllable, that is, the so-called stressed syllable. When we don't know the stressed syllable of the word, and this happens mainly with words that don't receive any graphic accent, we can make a mistake known as syllable. But what is a syllable?
The syllable is an undue alteration in the tonic accent of the word — in its number of syllables and in its constitutive phonemes — that causes a pronunciation error. Because we do not know the word, we end up making a prosody error by confusing the position of the stressed syllable. To test whether you've ever been a victim of the syllable, read the words below aloud:
Circuit
Free
Fluid
Rubric
Ibero
greedy
Philanthropist
Subtle
Option
Archetype
Interim
Prototype
prudish
Did you read? How about knowing if you got it right or wrong? Note how the above words must be pronounced correctly:
Circuit and not circuit
Free and not free
Fluid and not fluid
Rubric and not initial
Ibero and not Iberian
greedy and not avaricious
Philanthropist and not philanthropist
Subtle and not subtle
Option and not option
Archetype and not archetype
Interim and not interim
Prototype and not prototype
* prudish and not prudish
*Remembering that the word prudish it received the accent on the second syllable just to illustrate its stress.
So, did you pass the test? All of the above words, when mispronounced, are examples of syllables. It is necessary to be very careful not to disrespect the tonic accent of the words and thus avoid this language addiction so commonplace.
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters
