Rio rings up a word-perfect telephone service

Fumbling for the right word? Stumped by syntax? Trying to figure out just what syntax means? Help is just a phone call away - at least if you live in Rio de Janeiro.

The Brazilian state's government has created a grammar telephone hot line. Eight language professors will answer calls five days a week on questions about topics such as spelling, accents and agreement of verbs in Portuguese, the national language.

The creation of the hotline was published yesterday in the Rio state assembly's gazette.

Rio is not the first Brazilian city to provide linguistically inquisitive residents with free answers. The city of Fortaleza started such a service three decades ago.