I apologize if this has been covered elsewhere, but I haven’t seen it yet. I’m trying to figure out if there are patterns to when -e and -o should be pronounced as ê / ô and when as é / ó when there’s no written accent, but they appear in a stressed position in a conjugated verb.
This comes into play in verbs with a stem ending in o or e (for example, almoçar and levar in -ar verbs, conhecer and escolher in -er, and preferir and dormir). Should it be almóço or almôco? And is that the same for almóces/almôces and the other forms? And is the pattern the same between ar/er/ir verbs?
If anyone can help me out with the rules or a good place to look up, i would greatly appreciate it. I would love to know better how to predict this in normal verbs as well as the more common irregulars. Thanks in advance!
@Christianh, I’d say that one of the best things for you to do would be to explore our Verbs section and listen to all the provided audio examples across conjugations for all the most common verbs (we have at least a couple hundred of them in there). The pronunciation patterns might sink in more naturally that way, especially for the more irregular verbs. Here in writing, I’ll just share some general pointers for regular(-ish) verbs, using our vowel pronunciation guide as reference.
Any ending -eu, -ei or -ou diphthongs are stressed. The Os and the Es of -eu are medium, the Es of -ei sound like a medium A (as in amigo).
Apart from the above, stressed Es and Os are normally open in -AR/-IR verbs (except 1st and 2nd person plural), and medium in -ER verbs (except 2nd and 3rd person in the simple present, singular and plural).
So, some examples of what things should sound like, with accents for illustration:
eu almóço (simple present) and tu almóces (present subjunctive), but ele almoçôu (simple past) → -AR verb
eu bêbo (simple present) and ele bebêu (simple past), but tu bébes (simple present) → -ER verb
ele prefére (simple present), but nós preferirêmos (simple future) → -IR verb