How the checker works

It is not a grammar checker and does not pretend to be. It is a short list of conservative rules, all visible on this page. Each flag is a question, not a verdict: writing Brazilian Portuguese or pre-Agreement spelling is a legitimate choice, and every rule group can be switched off. The text it checks is Portuguese; the rules do not apply to other languages.

How it runs

Everything runs in your browser, even offline. Your text is never sent: there is no server to receive it.

Words from Brazil

Swaps for words the Priberam dictionary marks as Brazilian and that have a different everyday name in Portugal. Words valid in both varieties (arquivo, time, fila, motorista, lanche, grama…) are left out. Three words are flagged only in context, because they exist in Portugal in other senses: “o celular” (célula is a different matter), “baixar” followed by a file or program, “tela” followed by a device.

Spelling: 1990 Orthographic Agreement

Pre-Agreement forms with a mute consonant (acção, actual, projecto). Switch this group off if you do not write by the Agreement. Consonants that are pronounced stay (facto, contacto, secção, espectador).

Gerunds

In Portugal the progressive is “estar a + infinitive” (estou a fazer); “estou fazendo” is the Brazilian form. The checker flags estar + gerund (with an exception list for adjectives such as lindo or tremendo), the “gerundismo” vou estar a fazer, and sentences chaining three or more gerunds.

Pronoun at the start of a sentence

In Portugal a sentence does not open with an unstressed pronoun: “Disse-me”, not “Me disse”. Only me, te, lhe and lhes at sentence start are flagged. “Se” and “nos” are left alone, since they begin ordinary sentences.

Repeats and long sentences

A word of more than three letters that reappears within 30 words (excluding pronouns, articles, prepositions and other function words) gets a blue underline. Sentences over 35 words are shaded: the limit is a readability convention, not a rule of the language. Reading time assumes 200 words per minute silent and 130 aloud, both conventional figures.

AO90 reminders

These never mark the text; they live in the review panel.

• Silent consonants are dropped in Portugal (ação, atual, ótimo); pronounced ones stay (facto, contacto, secção).
• Weekdays, months and seasons are lowercase.
• Lost accents: para, pelo; and «oo»/«eem» forms: voo, leem, veem.
• Prefix hyphen rules: before h, and with some vowel repetitions; r/s are doubled after vowel prefixes.
• Hyphen stays with stressed pré-, pós-, pró- and ex-, vice-, sem-, além-, recém-.
• Fixed compounds: cor-de-rosa keeps hyphens; mão de obra, fim de semana do not.

What it does not do

• It does not check agreement or syntax.
• It has no context: tela as in painting, baixar o preço and celular as an adjective are correct Portuguese and are flagged only in the uses described above.
• It does not fix proper names or quotations, and cannot tell a character from the narrator.

Sources

The rules rest on these works. Always confirm when in doubt: write.pt is not a substitute for a dictionary.

• Acordo Ortográfico de 1990 (Resolução da AR n.º 35/91) e Vocabulário Ortográfico do Português. Bases III–IV: consoantes não articuladas deixam de se escrever em Portugal; as articuladas mantêm-se (facto, contacto, secção).
• Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa. Regista as variantes marcadas como Brasil (Bras.) e as formas de Portugal.
• Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa. Consultório sobre colocação de pronomes, gerundismo e diferenças entre as variantes.
• Cunha & Lindley Cintra, Nova Gramática do Português Contemporâneo. Colocação dos pronomes átonos: em Portugal a ênclise é a posição não marcada, e não se começa a frase por pronome átono.

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