About the Portuguese word list
The list is ordered by frequency and keeps the diacritics: the tilde on a and o, the cedilla on c, and the acute and circumflex accents on vowels. All entries are lowercase words without apostrophes or hyphens.
Brazilian and European Portuguese agree on most everyday spellings, but you may still meet older European forms in some texts. The list follows the spelling used in the frequency source.
Letters worth drilling
The tilde is the signature Portuguese mark. Words such as nao, sao and entao lose their shape without it, and the key combination for a and o with tilde is worth practising until it is automatic.
The c with cedilla appears in words such as voce and acao. Accents on e, a and o are extremely common and usually sit at the end of words, which makes them predictable once you have practised the movement.
Keyboard layout
Brazil uses the ABNT and ABNT2 layouts, which add a dedicated c with cedilla key and use dead keys for accents. Portugal uses a slightly different arrangement, and many Portuguese speakers work on a US layout with software dead keys.
If your system uses another layout, make sure the accents are reachable before you start, and select Portuguese in the language menu so the word list matches.
How to practise Portuguese typing
- Warm up on plain lowercase words before adding the tilde drills.
- Drill the tilde combinations on a and o until they no longer interrupt your rhythm.
- Drill c with cedilla in the short words that use it most.
- Add punctuation for one run to bring accents and capitals together under realistic conditions.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Portuguese test include accents and tildes?
Yes. The words keep their marks because that is how Portuguese is written. Typing without them would be faster but would not measure the language.
Brazilian or European Portuguese?
The word list follows the frequency source and uses spellings that are current in both variants. The main differences today are vocabulary and pronunciation rather than the everyday spellings in this list.