The elusive crase! We all see it from time to time…but do we know exactly when and how to use it, or the rules attached to it? It’s an interesting part of Portuguese grammar and here’s the scoop:

When you use the feminine article “a” or the pronoun “a” with the preposition “a”, you need to use a crase. For example:

Eu vou dançar hoje à noite. (I’m going to dance tonight)

Without the crase, you would say hoje a a noite, which does not make sense in Portuguese. So, we use the acento grave (à) to rectify it.

The crase fixes awkward points in grammar when there are two identical vowels. The basic rule is that any time this happens, you use a crase.

With time, using the crase will come naturally and it is important to study its use in Portuguese. For more information, watch YouTube videos. Here is a good one: