%0 Journal Article %T An¨¢lise da diversidade de verbos enunciados na fala espontanea de pr¨¦-escolares brasileiros %A Befi-Lopes %A Debora Maria %A C¨¢ceres %A Ana Manhani %J Pr¨®-Fono Revista de Atualiza£¿£¿o Cient¨ªfica %D 2010 %I Scientific Electronic Library Online %R 10.1590/S0104-56872010000100002 %X background: verb acquisition. aim: to verify quantitative and qualitative verb diversity in the spontaneous speech of brazilian portuguese-speaking preschoolers and verb acquisition from 2 to 4 years of age. method: participants were sixty preschoolers equally matched on gender and age, divided into three groups: gi (2-year-old children), gii (3-year-old children) and giii (4-year-old children). spontaneous speech samples obtained through playing interactions, in educational contexts, were collected, and verb productions were listed. results: children used 167 different verbs. the quantitative analysis indicated significant statistical differences between all groups (p< .001), with gradual increase of verb usage from 2 to 4 years of age. however, no statistical difference (p= .956) was observed between genders. conclusion: preschoolers improved their use of verbs during the initial stages of language acquisition, irrespective of their gender. %K language development %K child language %K vocabulary %K preschool. %U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0104-56872010000100002&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en