{"id":7271,"date":"2016-09-23T00:19:25","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T00:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/?p=7271"},"modified":"2016-09-23T00:22:36","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T00:22:36","slug":"the-tilde-in-portuguese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/the-tilde-in-portuguese\/","title":{"rendered":"The tilde (~) 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 are just interested in the language, you definitely came upon the character <\/span>~<\/b> at some point. But what does this squiggly line that appears over vowels mean? The tilde, known in Portuguese as <\/span>til<\/span><\/i> was originally an abbreviation of the letter <\/span>n<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>m<\/span><\/i>. So it is a mark used to indicate the nasalisation of vowels. \u00a0This means that the pronounciation of the word is produced with the air vibrating in your nose. <\/span><\/p>\n

You may recognize the graphic sign from Spanish. But note that, in Spanish, the tilde can be seen above the letter <\/span>n<\/span><\/i>, as in <\/span>espa\u00f1ol<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>ma\u00f1ana<\/span><\/i>. In Portuguese, however, we only use it above the vowels <\/span>a<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>o<\/span><\/i>) <\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>til<\/span><\/i> can be identified in the following forms: <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00e3, \u00e3e, \u00e3o, \u00f5e<\/span><\/i> and in the plural form:<\/span> \u00f5em, \u00e3s \u00e3es, \u00e3os, \u00f5es.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

For example: <\/span><\/p>\n