Note 7:

Regular alternations of half-open sounds /E/ and /O/, and half-close sounds /e/ and /o/ (metafonia).

• Conjugations (source: Venâncio)

  • Verbs in -ar

    Verbs that have an infinitive that ends in -ar, and which have an e or o in the penultimate syllable have the open sound (as if written é or ó) whenever that syllable is stressed.
    Example: emprego /e~prEgu/ (I use /AI ju:z/), emprega /e~prEg3/ (he/she/it uses), etc.
    See also verb vs. noun.
    There are some exceptions to this rule: chegar (chego /Segu/ (I arrive)) and arguably fechar: fecho (I close) often sounds as if written feicho /f3iSu/, probably due to the assimilation of the /S/ sound and insertion of a short /i/.
    Sonhar and soltar have closed vowels in their conjugation. But voltar is regular.

  • Present tense of verbs in -er

    Many of these that have a non-nasalised e or o in the penultimate syllable have /e/ or /o/ in the first person singular of the present indicative and in all persons of the subjunctive, but /E/ or /O/ in the other persons of the present indicative (i.e., because of the stress patterns, second and third singular, and third plural.
    Thus we have:

    Indicative:
    corro	(I run)	/koR\u/
    corres	(you run)	/kOR\1s/ [kOR\1S]
    corre	(he runs)	/kOR\1/
    correm	(they run)	/kOR\3~i~/
    Subjunctive:
    corra	(that I tun / that you run)	/koR\3/
    corras	(that you run)	/koR\3s/ [koR\3S]
    corram	(that they run)	/koR\3~u~/

  • Perfect etc. of verbs in -er

    • Regular verbs in -er

      The e in the endings of the Perfeito, Subjuntivo Imperfeito and Subjuntivo Futuro of regular er-verbs have the half-close sound /e/.
      Example: vendeste (you sold) /ve~dest1/ [ve~ndeSt1].

    • Irregular verbs in -er

      In the corresponding conjugations of irregular er-verbs (except ler=read) we hear the half-open /E/.
      Examples: soubeste (you knew) /soubEst1/ [souBESt1], houver (that there was/were) /ouvEr/.

• Verb vs. noun

  Because the rule about open sounds in conjugated forms of ar-verbs is only valid for verbs, not for nouns, there is a systematic difference between first person singular verbal form and the corresponding noun. The difference can be heard, but after several spelling reforms there is no longer any distinction in writing. Example:

  emprego /e~prEgu/ means "I use" /AI ju:z/, but
  emprego /e~pregu/ means "use" /ju:s/.
  Likewise começo (I begin, beginning), jogo (I play, game), olho (I look, eye), and many others.

  The same thing can occur with nouns ending in -a and third person verbs: força /fors3/ means force, power, strength; while força /fOrs3/ is a verb conjugation meaning it/she/he forces.

  Special case: see ¹⁴ about "sonho".

• Singular vs. plural nouns.

  Some nouns have /o/ in the singular, but /O/ in the plural.

  Thus we have:

  jogo	(I play)	/ZOgu/
  joga	(he plays)	/ZOg3/
  jogo	(game)	/Zogu/
  jogos	(games)	/ZOgus/ [ZOguS]

  By combining information from various sources I compiled the following table of words with a different o-vowel in singular and plural, and of other with have the close vowel in both.

  Note that some words are in both lists, due to conflicting information from different sources: almoços, acordo, esposo, or mention of variation in one source (Willis): desporto, estofo. I haven't yet checked (June 2004) what the Academia has to say about these.

  Singular ô, but plural ó Portuguese English abrolho caltrop acordo agreement, accord almoço breakfast, lunch caroço seed kernel, pit contorno shape, outline corno horn; cuckold coro choir, chorus corpo body corvo rave, crow despojo booty; leftover desporto sports destroço destruction escolho cliff esforço effort esposo husband estofo upholstery estorvo impediment fogo fire forno oven, hearth foro charge, forum fosso ditch imposto tax jogo game, play miolo brain, soft part of bread, interior olho eye osso bone ovo egg pescoço neck poço well porco pig porto harbour posto post, place povo people reforço reinforcement renovo sprout, offshoot rogo request sobrolho eyebrow sogro father-in-law socorro aid, help tijolo brick toco stub tojo furze, gorse, whin tordo thrush torno lathe; round troco change (money) troço piece, block Portuguese English Singular ô, but plural ó

  Singular ô, plural also ô Portuguese English abono bonus, approval acordo agreement, accord adorno adornment almoço breakfast, lunch bobo fool, clown bojo bulge, belly bolo cake, pot bolso pocket cachorro pup, whelp coco coconut colmo straw consolo consolation desporto sports dono master, owner dorso back encosto support, back of a chair engodo bait, enticement esboço sketch, outline esposo husband estofo upholstery estojo case, etui ferrolho latch garoto boy globo globe golfo gulf gorro cap, bonnet gosto taste lobo wolf logro cheat, swindle mocho owl; stool moço young man molho sauce mono monkey morro hill mosto must, new wine namoro darling piloto pilot piolho louse poldro colt, young horse polvo octopus, polypus potro colt, young horse raposo fox reboco plaster repolho cabbage restolho stubble field rolo cylinder, roller rosto face sopro whiff, breath soro serum suborno bribery topo top trambolho clog, impediment, nuisance Portuguese English Singular ô, plural also ô

• Singular masculine adjectives vs. feminine and plural forms

  Many adjectives have /o/ in the masculine singular, but /O/ in the feminine singular, and also in both the masculine and feminine plurals. Examples: novo /novo/ ^© vs. nova /nOv3/ ^©, novos /nOvus/, novas /nOv3s/, canhoto, choco, grosso, morno, morto, porco, posto, torto, and all adjectives that end in -oso/-osa/-osos/-osas.
  Todo however always keeps its /o/, also in toda, todos, todas.

• Pronouns.

  Many pronouns follow a similar pattern as the aforementioned adjectives, except that here masculine plurals also have the close sound: ele /el1/ vs. ela /El3/, eles /el1s/, elas /El3s/.
  Likewise este, essa and aquele and àquele.

  Note that in these examples either half-open sounds, /E/, /O/ or /3/, meet in the same word, or they are all (half-)close sounds /e/, /o/ or /1/ (written e) or /u/ (written o). So one could speculate that this phenomenon was once due to assimilation (making sounds in each other's vicinity similar) or some kind of vowel harmony, like what is also found in unrelated languages like Turkish, Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian. This same pattern is also seen with related words such as porta (door) ^© and porto (harbour) ^©. But counter-examples exist: todo /todu/, but also toda /tod3/, not */tOd3/.

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