Surely these two elements (tonic accent and graphic accent) aren't all that unknown to you, are they? But if so, the time has come for us to learn a little more about the concept of each one of them and, thus, when we're in the higher grades, we won't have any more doubts about this case. Do you know why? Ah! because we will know how to distinguish between them, without any problem!
So, how about we start our study? Come on!!!
The best way to find out where the stressed accent of words is is to divide the syllables very slowly. We will try?
good - la - ca- huh- ok - pin - cell - well - well...
The syllables that are underlined were those that, when pronounced, showed all their strength, all their intensity. Therefore, we kill the riddle: the stressed accent refers to that syllable that has this characteristic. But there is a detail you need to know: for us to make this discovery, none of the syllables need to be accented.
So, what will happen to those that receive accent? Ah! don't worry, it's very short to find out, as you know, there are special reasons for accentuating some words, such as:
ma – çã - o - to - millstone - vel - lam - dad...
The first word is accented because it is an oxytone ending in “a”;
The second is a paroxytone ending in “l”;
And finally, we come to the third – which is a proparoxytone. And, as you know, proparoxytones are lucky... they are all accented.
As you can see, the graphic accent is related to the accentuation rules of which we already have a little knowledge. In this way, it refers to that syllable that is accented.
Take the opportunity to check out our video lesson related to the subject:
