ISAAC BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE GUIDELINES

ISAAC-SPECIFIC GUIDELINES FOR BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE

Revision History

Version Revision Date Author (INITIALS) Description

1.0 04/20/2022 JP Creation

1. REFERENCES

1.1 Standard references

Please refer to these standard references for the PTB language.

1. Academia Brasileira de Letras: https://www.academia.org.br/

2. Aulete Digital: https://www.aulete.com.br/
3. Manual de Redação da Folha de São Paulo:
http://www.estadao.com.br/manualredacao/
4. Michaelis: http://michaelis.uol.com.br/
5. FLIP – Orthographic Agreement: https://www.flip.pt/Acordo-Ortografico

1.2 Other good sources

6. Língua Brasil: http://www.linguabrasil.com.br/

7. VOLP – orthography: http://www.academia.org.br/nossa-lingua/busca-no-
vocabulario
8. Microsoft Portal: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/language
9. Maiúsculas e minúsculas: https://www.ipea.gov.br/sites/manualeditorial/padroes-
editoriais/padronizacoes-textuais/maiusculas-e-minusculas

2. STYLE AND TONE

2.1 General style

There are specific instructions from the client regarding general style in the guidelines of each
project.

Please check the corresponding paragraph in the main project instructions:

HT Instructions
MTPE Instructions

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ISAAC BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE GUIDELINES

2.3 Addressing

If the source sentence contains a level of formality, try to replicate the same level of
formality/politeness. If the source sentence does not provide a level of formality, translate with an
informal style by default, unless this would be perceived as unnatural by the target audience.

2.4 Emphasis

• In general, do not capitalize Brazilian Portuguese words for emphasis as often occurs in
English.
• Do not transfer the extensive use of possessive pronouns in English to the translation.
• The use of parentheses should be limited in Brazilian Portuguese, wherever possible.
• Use colon or comma instead of hyphens, n-dashes and m-dashes.
• The first word in a sentence following a colon sign should begin with lowercase.
• When a coordinating conjunction, such as “e” or “ou”, joins the last two elements in a series,
do not use a comma before the conjunction.

3. GRAMMAR & SYNTAX

3.1 Prepositions

Pay attention to the correct use of the preposition in translations. In several situations, prepositions
combine with another (forming a contraction) and thus establish agreement in grammatical gender
and number with these words.

Examples:
de + o = do
por + a = pela
em + um = num

Source Avoid Use

To participate in Participar em Participar de
Download from the website Baixe do website Baixe no site
To remember sth Lembrar de algo Lembrar-se de algo/Lembrar
algo
Compatible to Compatível a Compatível com

3.2 Pronouns

Being terms that replace or follow the noun, pronouns are a great tool to enrich a text, by avoiding
word repetition. Varying in grammatical gender and number, pronoun application needs to be

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consistent in terms of gender and number with its object, even when it appears absent in the
statement.

Demonstrative pronouns
Use “esse” and its inflected forms when making a reference to something that has already
been mentioned. Use “este” and its inflected forms when making a reference to something that will
be mentioned, or when you are describing.

Third person pronouns

Even though the possessive pronoun for the third person in Portuguese is “seu/sua”, it’s use often
results in ambiguous interpretations. When there are 2 or more people in the sentence, the use of
“dele/dela” is preferred, when that option exists.

Source Target
Blocking a member will permanently remove Se você bloquear um usuário, as
their endorsements and recommendations recomendações dele serão removidas
from your profile. permanentemente do seu perfil.

3.3 Possessives

Possessive pronouns
In general, English uses more possessive pronouns than Portuguese. Whenever it is not crucial for
the understanding of the content and contextually appropriate, try to avoid overtranslating
the common use of possessive pronouns. Instead, delete or replace them by definite articles.

Source Target
Turn on your computer Ligue o computador
Your computer will restart now O computador reiniciará agora

3.4 Verb tense

Adapt the target verb tense to the Brazilian Portuguese grammar rules so that the relationship
between events makes sense.

English uses the verb “can” more often than Brazilian Portuguese. When coming across this verb in a
sentence, first of all ask yourself if translating it in Brazilian Portuguese is necessary to the meaning. If
you feel that the meaning is equally clearly conveyed, please omit it.

Please do not combine the future-tense form of the verb “ir” with an infinitive. Instead, use
the conjugated auxiliary “ir” with an infinitive.

Source Wrong Right

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ISAAC BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE GUIDELINES

The program will run in O programa irá rodar O programa vai rodar
the cloud. na nuvem. na nuvem.

The version is goint to A versão irá ser A versão será

be updated in April. atualizada em abril. atualizada em abril.

3.5 Passive voice

The use of the passive voice is not as widely used in Brazilian Portuguese as it is in English. Although
the passive voice can be used, prefer the active voice most of the times.

Source Avoid Use

A password must be entered Uma senha precisa ser digitada Digite sua senha

4. ORTHOGRAPHIC STANDARDS & SYMBOLS

4.1 Capitalization

Please follow the specific capitalization rules of each project:

HT Instructions
MTPE Instructions

Do not contradict current capitalization guidelines, which are to follow source capitalization as much
as possible. For any other instruction about capitalization you cannot find in the guidelines, please
use Brazilian Portuguese capitalization.

For instance, English in general tends to capitalize much more than Brazilian Portuguese. When you
translate, please try to use common sense and apply Brazilian Portuguese Capitalization rules. Do not
capitalize for emphasis as occurs in English.

• Do not capitalize adjectives referring to nationalities, languages, name of days, months,

jobs and occupations.
• Do not capitalize words after colon when they are in the same line.

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4.2 Hyphen/en-dash/em-dash

• Hyphen: -

Follow Brazilian Portuguese standard rules for hyphenation and the new spelling rules implemented
in 2009. Hyphens are used to split words at the end of a line as well as for compound words. The
hyphen shouldn't be used in Brazilian Portuguese to enclose asides within a sentence (use commas
instead) or to introduce a list (use a colon, comma, or semicolon instead).

In English, hyphens are often used instead of colons (:). In this case, localize the hyphen with a colon
(:) in Brazilian Portuguese.

Source Target
sub-network sub-rede
He is afraid of two things—spiders and snakes Ele tem medo de duas coisas: aranhas e cobras

• En dash: –

The en dash is used as a minus sign, usually with no spaces after. The en dash is also used in number
ranges and dates, such as those specifying page numbers. When en dash (–) is used to indicate a
range of values such as those between numbers in English, keep it the same in Brazilian Portuguese
as it is in English.

Source Target

266–500MHz 266–500 MHz

Copyright 2008–2015 Copyright 2008–2015

• Em dash: —

In general, avoid using em dash (—). Please use common sense and replace them with commas,
parenthesis, etc. if needed.

4.3 Ellipsis

Three dots Ellipsis

Three dots are used in a situation in which words are left out of a sentence. Using three dots instead
of ellipsis generally does not make visual difference. However, when there is character limit, use
Windows ellipsis - ALT + 0133 or Mac OS ellipsis - OPTION + semicolon to help keep text within the
limit.

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ISAAC BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE GUIDELINES

Source Target
Save as… Salvar como...
Loading... Carregando...

9.4 Quotation marks

Please use single/double curly quotation marks in the following format: ‘ ’ “ ”

Quotation marks are used when quoting sentences from other sources exactly or to surround he
titles of documents and publications. No space should be place between the quotation marks and
the text inside them.

In Brazilian Portuguese, if the sentence starts and ends with quotation marks, the period
should be placed within the quotes. Put punctuation marks that do not belong to the quoted text
outside the quotation marks.

Please notice the quotations mark are also used for the abbreviation of inches as unit of
measurement. This abbreviation is used as well in Brazilian Portuguese (mostly to indicate the
dimension of screen and display in electronic devices).

Source Target

Inches (") Polegadas (")

For more details, see "Resolved Issues." Para obter mais detalhes, consulte "Problemas
resolvidos".

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can “As pessoas que são loucas o suficiente para pensar
change the world are the ones who do.” (Steve Jobs) que podem mudar o mundo são as que o fazem.”
(Steve Jobs)

4.5 Percentages

Symbol of percentages should be written after the number.

Do not include a space between the number and the percent symbol.

Source Incorrect Correct

80% 80 % 80%

4.6 Non-breaking spaces

Non breaking spaces are used in Brazilian Portuguese. Use non breaking spaces in these cases:

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1. Between numeric values and currency symbols

2. Between the number and the unit of measurement

4.7 Other symbols and characters

# = Nº
& = e (except when it appears in trademarks)
@ = em (except when it designates e-mail addresses)

Hashtags should be maintained in ISAAC projects

5. NUMBERS & SPECIFIC CONVENTIONS

5.1 Time and date

Time

The standard time format is hh:mm:ss, in 24 hour clock format. So, “8 a.m.” becomes “8:00”, and
“11:30 p.m.” becomes “23:30”. Time between midnight and 1 am should be written using figure “0”:
“0:30” is half past midnight. Do not add a leading zero before the first nonzero digit (use “8:00”
instead of “08:00”).

There is no plural of the abbreviations for hours, minutes and seconds. Also, there is no period after
the abbreviations (E.g., 3h17min30s). The abbreviation for hour, minute, and second is h, min, s for
plural and singular.

Date

Days of the week and months are written in lowercase in Brazilian Portuguese.
The date format is day/month/year. Use slashes (/) as separators. There is no zero to the left of the
number (it is 7/11/12 and not 07/11/12). The written date format is: 7 de novembro de 2012.

The first day of the month is written as 1º (ordinal number) and not 1 (cardinal number).
Abbreviations of the days of the week and months have a period at the end. E.g., seg. The
abbreviation of months consists of the first three letters followed by a period. Preferably, the
month of May should not be abbreviated as it has only four characters

Source Target
March 21, 2018 21 de março de 2018
03-21-18 21/03/18
8-June-2020 8 de junho de 2020

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5.2 Measurements

Units

In Brazilian Portuguese convention symbol should be after unit. Use a space between the number
and the unit. For example: 1 kg, 61 cm, 3 m, 20 km, 2,5 KB, 5 °C, 5 MHz, 1 GHz.
Please use a non-breaking space to avoid splitting the figure and the symbol or unit over two lines.
Note: Don’t convert units.

For additional information regarding measurements, please check the specific instructions of each
project:

HT Instructions
MTPE Instructions

5.3 Currencies

Please use a space between the symbol and the number. The symbol should be before the amount.
For example: R$ 2. Use a period as thousands separator. For example: R$ 2.000. For dollar, use US$.
Leave a non-breaking space between the amount and the unit or symbol.
Note: Currency names should be translated (not converted).

For additional information regarding currencies, please check the specific instructions of each
project:

HT Instructions
MTPE Instructions

5.4 Decimals and thousand separators

In numerals, the decimal mark used in Brazilian Portuguese is a comma. The thousands separator
used is a period. For numbers smaller than 1, always put the zero before the decimal comma (0,5).

Source Target
0.7 0,7
1.7 1,7
1,700 1.700

Version numbers contain a period, even in Brazilian Portuguese.

Source Target
version 1.5 versão 1.5
USB 2.0 USB 2.0

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ISAAC BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE GUIDELINES

Spell out numbers one through nine. Use numerals for 10 and above.
Exception: Units of measure or phone numbers.

OTHER STANDARDS

Portuguese reform

Please use new spelling rules:

http://www.priberam.pt/docs/NovaOrtografiaBr.pdf

Gender

Whenever possible, use neutral gender (você).

Source Target
We would like to introduce you to… Gostaríamos de apresentar você a…

Note: If the source sentence has a specific gender, it should be translated into the same gender in
the target language.

For additional information regarding gender, please check the specific instructions of each project:

HT Instructions
MTPE Instructions

Use of “please”

“Por gentileza” is preferred to “Por favor”.

If using ‘polite’ words, e.g., 'please' is not common or expected, it’s fine to omit them.

Article before people names

Put a definite article before peoples' names (o João, a Maria) to add more fluency, except
when you are not sure of the gender.

Slashes

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There are no spaces before OR after slashes:

Don’t Use - Rio / São Paulo
Use - Rio/São Paulo

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