As we know, since January 1, 2009, a new law came into effect that established changes in some words in the Portuguese language. There were many aspects influenced by these changes, such as: accentuation, use of the hyphen, use of the umlaut and the so-called differential accents, which we will know now. If you want to remember a little more, just access the text "The new orthographic rules of the Portuguese language”.
Differential accents are present in spelling changes
Before the new Orthographic Reform, some verb forms were already spelled with accents to differentiate themselves from others. After that, the accent still remains to establish that same differentiation. Let's meet them?
have and come verbs
The forms related to the third person plural are accented to differentiate from the third person singular, when they are conjugated in the present tense:
he has - they have
he comes - they come
Verbs contain, get, retain and agree
The verb forms relating to the third person plural of the present tense are accentuated (all of them receive circumflex accent) to differentiate themselves from the third person singular, which receives accent acute:
he gets - they get
he retains - they retain
it suits - they suit
it contains - they contain
The verb forms could and can
Might, written with a circumflex accent and representing the third person of the past perfect tense of the way indicative, remains accentuated to differentiate from the third person present in the indicative mode - he can:
He was able to arrive early yesterday.
He might be late today.
The preposition for and the verb to put
The verb put remains accented precisely to distinguish itself from the preposition by:
I go there.
The girl is going to put the school supplies on the desk.
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
