Grandma in Portuguese: Avó, Vovó and the Accent Trap
Grandma in Portuguese is avó (ah-VAW), and grandpa is avô (ah-VOH). The two words are spelled the same except for the accent: the acute accent on avó opens the final vowel, as in “saw”, and the circumflex on avô closes it, as in “go”. The warm, informal versions are vovó and vó for grandma, vovô and vô for grandpa. Both grandmothers are avó, whichever side of the family they are on. And the plural avós can mean grandmothers or both grandparents together.
The accent trap: avó vs avô
This is the part every card-writer gets wrong at least once. Wiktionary’s entry for avó gives the Brazilian pronunciation as /aˈvɔ/ and the entry for avô as /aˈvo/. The only difference is that last vowel, open for her and closed for him. Say the English words “saw” and “so” and you have the two endings.
So the accent is not decoration. Write avô on a card for your mother-in-law and you have called her grandfather. Leave the accent off altogether and it’s worse: the Lisbon dictionary Priberam lists avo without an accent as a separate word from mathematics, used for a fraction’s equal parts (“doze vinte e cinco avos” is 12/25). A grandchild’s birthday card that says Feliz aniversário, avo has wished a happy birthday to a fraction.
Two regional notes from the same Wiktionary entries. In Portugal the first vowel is reduced, closer to “uh-VAW” (/ɐˈvɔ/). In northern Portugal the v can come out as a soft b, giving something like “uh-BAW”. All three are the same word. Your grandchild will say it however their parents say it.
Vovó, vó and the Brazil-Portugal split
Little children don’t say avó. They say vovó, the doubled form. Wiktionary describes vovó as a reduplication of vó, and tags it as an endearment used in Brazil. Priberam, the Portuguese-from-Portugal dictionary, lists vovó more simply as informal, defines it as “mother of the father or of the mother,” and gives its origin as a shortening of avó, doubled. So the word exists on both sides of the Atlantic, but if your family is Brazilian, Vovó is the one you will hear most.
Vó is the clipped form, informal and everyday. Wiktionary’s example sentence is Minha vó é uma mulher muito bondosa, “My grandma is a very kind woman,” which is about as good a thing as anyone can say about a vó.
The grandpa side mirrors it exactly: vovô and vô. If you are choosing a matched pair, Vovó and Vovô work beautifully, as long as everyone remembers which accent goes with which grandparent.
Avós: the plural that means grandparents
Portuguese has a lovely quirk here. Wiktionary’s usage note on avô calls it one of the few Portuguese nouns with a three-way plural:
- avós (feminine): grandmothers;
- avôs: grandfathers only, a group of two or more men;
- avós (masculine): grandparents, men and women together.
So os avós on a card covers both of you, and it is the form you want for “Grandma and Grandpa” together. Priberam adds a second sense worth knowing: avós can also mean the earlier generations of a family, ancestors in general.
Maternal and paternal grandma in Portuguese
Unlike Swedish, Hindi or Vietnamese, Portuguese uses one word for both grandmothers. When it needs to say which side, it adds an adjective, the way Priberam’s examples do: avós maternos, avós paternos. In practice, that gives you avó materna for your mother’s mother and avó paterna for your father’s.
Nobody says those at the dinner table, though. Families with two grandmothers on the same name do what families everywhere do: Vovó plus a first name, or Vovó for one and Vó for the other. If the other grandmother is the Portuguese-speaking one and you are not, ask before you take the name, the way I suggest in grandma name already taken.
The words around avó
If you are becoming a vovó, these are the family words you will hear:
- Neto and neta: grandson and granddaughter. Priberam defines neto as the child of one’s son or daughter, “in relation to the grandfather or the grandmother.”
- Bisavó: great-grandmother, defined by Priberam as “mother of the grandfather or of the grandmother.” Bisavô is great-grandfather.
- Tataravó and trisavó: further back still. Wiktionary lists both among the words built from avó.
The root runs back to Latin. Wiktionary traces avó to Late Latin aviola, a diminutive of avia, “grandmother,” and avô to Latin avus, noting it is cognate with Spanish abuelo. That is why Portuguese and Spanish grandmothers sound like cousins. The Spanish side, with abuela, abuelita and the Mexican diminutives, is in my grandma in Spanish post. Italian went another way entirely with nonna, which I cover in Italian grandma names.
Using Avó or Vovó as your grandma name
If your family has Portuguese or Brazilian roots, either word is yours, and most families settle the choice by which country the parents grew up in. Vovó is the easier of the two for a baby. Every one of my grandchildren managed a doubled syllable long before anything fancier, and vo-vo is about as doubled as a grandma name gets.
If you are borrowing it for the sound alone, it is a pretty choice. Just learn the accent before the first card, and expect any Portuguese speaker in the family to correct a misplaced one. For more languages, my grandma names in different languages guide has the full list.
FAQ: grandma in Portuguese
How do you say grandma in Portuguese?
Avó, pronounced roughly ah-VAW. The informal forms are vovó and vó.
What is the difference between avó and avô?
Avó (acute accent, open vowel) is grandmother. Avô (circumflex, closed vowel) is grandfather. The accent is the only difference in spelling.
Is vovó Brazilian or Portuguese?
Both dictionaries list it. Wiktionary tags it as a Brazilian endearment and Priberam, from Lisbon, lists it as informal, so you will hear it most in Brazilian families.
How do you say grandparents in Portuguese?
Os avós. The same spelling also means grandmothers; avôs means grandfathers only.
What is great-grandma in Portuguese?
Bisavó. Great-grandpa is bisavô.
