{"id":7071,"date":"2016-06-20T01:56:10","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T01:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/?p=7071"},"modified":"2016-09-22T02:08:52","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T02:08:52","slug":"the-cedilla-c-in-portuguese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/the-cedilla-c-in-portuguese\/","title":{"rendered":"The cedilla \u201c\u00e7\u201d in Portuguese"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ol\u00e1, pessoal! A semana de voc\u00eas come\u00e7ou bem? (Hey guys, did you week get off to a good start?)<\/span><\/p>\n

If you study Portuguese or is just interested in the language, you definitely came upon the character <\/span>\u00e7<\/b> at some point. But what does this squiggly line under the letter <\/span>c<\/b> mean? The cedilla, known in Portuguese as <\/span>cedilha<\/span><\/i> is actually a mark under the letter <\/span>c<\/b> used to indicate that the pronounciation of the word is more similar to an<\/span> s <\/b>(a soft sound)<\/span> – as in sopa (soup) –<\/span> than to a <\/span>k <\/b>(a hard sound)- as in carro (car). <\/span><\/p>\n

It is most common in Portuguese, French, and Catalan, and originated in Spain (as a diminutive for the letter <\/span>z<\/b>, <\/span>thus meaning \u201clittle z\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

You must find it familiar because of the word <\/span>fa\u00e7ade<\/span><\/i> in English – loaned from French (possibly the only one in the English language).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"CEDILHA\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The <\/span>\u00e7 <\/b>is <\/span>only used<\/span><\/i> before the vowels \u00a0<\/span>a, o, u<\/b> – as in pra\u00e7a (square), cansa\u00e7o (tiredness) – and<\/span> never <\/span>before<\/span> e<\/b> and <\/span>i <\/b>– before those we can just use the regular <\/span>c<\/b> as in cidade (city) e certeza (certainty).<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes a verb uses the letter <\/span>c<\/b>, but its derivative needs the cedilha:<\/span><\/p>\n