B2 (Upper Intermediate)Lesson 7: Normative Essentials
Crase is not an accent you sprinkle on feminine words: it is the preposition a fused with the feminine article a, written a with a grave accent. This point gives you the two conditions that must both be true, the masculine-noun test that settles almost every case, and the full required, forbidden and optional lists, including clock times, fixed phrases, the demonstratives and the city-name trap.
à = a + a: the preposition a (to) demanded by a verb or noun, fused with the feminine article a (the). Both parts must be there, or there is no crase.
The test that works: put a masculine noun in the slot. If you get ao, write à — Vou à praia / Vou ao clube (I go to the beach / to the club).
Always: clock times (às três horas — at three o'clock), fixed feminine phrases (à toa, às vezes, à direita), and àquele / àquela / àquilo.
Never: before masculine nouns (a pé — on foot), before verbs (a partir de — starting from), before most pronouns (a ela — to her), or between repeated words (cara a cara — face to face).
Optional before possessives and women's first names: à minha irmã or a minha irmã (to my sister) — both are correct.
Cities take the Vim da / Vou à test: vim da Bahia (I came from Bahia) gives you vou à Bahia; vim de Salvador (I came from Salvador) gives you vou a Salvador.
Crase is invisible in speech — a and à sound identical in Brazil. It is purely a writing skill, and native speakers miss it constantly.
verb or noun demands A + feminine noun takes the article A → À · test: swap in a masculine noun — if ao fits, write à
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Crase is the most visible marker of careful writing in Brazil. It shows up in job applications, university essays, contracts and work e-mails, and a wrong à — or a missing one — is spotted instantly by the very reader you are trying to impress, even though that reader probably gets it wrong too. There is a comprehension payoff as well: à uma hora and daqui a uma hora say different things, and Vou a Salvador is not the same sentence as Vou à Salvador da Bahia. Since speech gives you no clue at all, this is one rule you learn with your eyes.
Portuguese has a preposition a (to) and a feminine article a (the). When a verb or a noun demands the preposition and the noun that follows brings its own article along, the two identical vowels collide and are written as one à. That is the whole story: a + a = à. The grave accent is the receipt for a merger — not decoration, not a stress mark, and never something you add because a word "looks feminine".
So there are always two questions, and you need a yes to both:
Does the word in front demand the preposition a? (ir a, voltar a, assistir a, referir-se a, favorável a)
Does the noun after it take the feminine article a?
Vou à escola. (I go to school.) — ir demands a, escola takes a: two yeses.
Vejo a escola daqui. (I can see the school from here.) — ver demands no preposition, so that a is only the article. No crase.
Cheguei a Brasília. (I arrived in Brasília.) — chegar demands a, but Brasília refuses the article. No crase.
| Portuguese | Meaning |
|---|---|
| A gente vai à feira todo sábado. | We go to the market every Saturday. |
| O banco atende das dez às quatro. | The bank is open from ten to four. |
| Fiquem à vontade, a casa é de vocês. | Make yourselves at home, the house is yours. |
| Escrevi o bilhete à mão mesmo. | I wrote the note by hand. |
| Às vezes eu esqueço o guarda-chuva. | Sometimes I forget my umbrella. |
| Prefiro ir a pé, o trânsito está horrível. | I would rather walk, the traffic is awful. |
| Comprei o celular a prazo. | I bought the phone in instalments. |
| Peça isso a ele, não a mim. | Ask him for that, not me. |
Treating à as 'the accent for feminine nouns'. ❌ Comprei à blusa. → ✅ Comprei a blusa. (I bought the blouse.) Comprar takes a plain direct object, so that a is only the article — there is no preposition to fuse with it.
Writing ❌ à partir de. Partir is a verb, and verbs never take an article. ✅ A partir de segunda, o horário muda. (From Monday on, the timetable changes.)
Inventing ❌ à manhã by analogy. À tarde and à noite are correct, but the morning phrase is de manhã or pela manhã: ✅ Estudo de manhã e trabalho à tarde. (I study in the morning and work in the afternoon.)
Putting crase before a pronoun. ❌ Entreguei à ela. → ✅ Entreguei a ela. (I handed it to her.) But with a noun the fusion is back: ✅ Entreguei à moça do caixa. (I handed it to the woman at the till.)
Confusing the time trio. ❌ daqui à pouco, ❌ daqui à dois dias → ✅ daqui a pouco (in a little while), ✅ daqui a dois dias (in two days), and ✅ há dois dias (two days ago) when the time has already passed.
Dropping the accent on clock times. ❌ A aula começa as sete. → ✅ A aula começa às sete. (The class starts at seven.) The hidden noun is horas, which is feminine and takes the article.
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