O incumprimento aumentou o endividamento.

Incumprimento is a formal word meaning failure to comply, non-fulfilment, breach, or in some contexts default.

Which English word fits best depends on context:

• legal/contract context: breach or non-compliance
• financial context: default
• general obligation context: failure to fulfil

So this sentence sounds formal and could easily appear in legal, administrative, or financial writing.

Yes. In Portugal, incumprimento is a normal formal word, especially in:

• contracts
• banking
• legal texts
• public administration

A learner may notice other words in other varieties:

• In Brazilian Portuguese, you may often see descumprimento for breach/non-compliance
• In finance, Brazilian Portuguese also often uses inadimplência for default/non-payment

For Portuguese from Portugal, incumprimento is absolutely natural.

Because both are masculine singular nouns:

• o incumprimento
• o endividamento

In Portuguese, articles are used very often, including with abstract nouns. English often drops the in similar cases, but Portuguese usually keeps it.

So Portuguese prefers:

• O incumprimento aumentou o endividamento.

where English might say something like:

• Non-compliance increased indebtedness
• Default increased debt

without articles.

In this sentence, the usual Portuguese word order helps:

• O incumprimento = subject
• aumentou = verb
• o endividamento = direct object

So the structure is:

• [subject] + [verb] + [object]

Portuguese normally follows this same pattern as English.

Even though both noun phrases begin with o, position tells you their role here:

• the noun phrase before the verb is the subject
• the noun phrase after the verb is the object

Aumentou is the pretérito perfeito do indicativo in Portuguese, usually called the simple past in English explanations.

It is the 3rd person singular form of aumentar:

• eu aumentei
• tu aumentaste
• ele/ela/você aumentou

Here it means that the increase happened as a completed event:

• it increased
• it made ... increase

So O incumprimento aumentou o endividamento presents the increase as a finished fact.

Not exactly.

• dívida = debt
• endividamento = indebtedness, level of debt, or state/process of being in debt

So endividamento is a little more abstract and technical.

Compare:

• a dívida da empresa = the company’s debt
• o endividamento da empresa = the company’s indebtedness / debt level

In formal economic writing, endividamento is very common.

Yes, both are nouns formed from verbs.

• incumprimento comes from incumprir = to fail to comply / to fail to fulfil
• endividamento comes from endividar = to put into debt / to get into debt

The ending -mento is a very common noun-forming ending in Portuguese. It often creates nouns meaning:

• the act
• the process
• the result

Examples:

• pagamento = payment
• crescimento = growth
• cumprimento = fulfilment
• endividamento = indebtedness

This is a useful pattern to recognize when reading formal Portuguese.

They are close, but not always identical in tone.

• incumprimento is more compact and often sounds more technical, legal, or institutional
• não cumprimento is more transparent and sometimes slightly more explanatory

So in formal writing, incumprimento is often preferred.

For example:

• o incumprimento do contrato = breach of the contract
• o não cumprimento das regras = non-observance of the rules

Both can work, but incumprimento feels especially natural in formal Portuguese from Portugal.

Sometimes yes, but the meaning becomes a little less technical.

• O incumprimento aumentou a dívida.
  This means the breach/default increased the debt.

• O incumprimento aumentou o endividamento.
  This means the breach/default increased indebtedness / the debt burden / the level of debt.

So dívida is simpler and more concrete, while endividamento sounds broader and more formal.

Because the subject is singular:

• O incumprimento = singular

So the verb must also be singular:

• aumentou

If the subject were plural, the verb would change:

• Os incumprimentos aumentaram o endividamento.

This is standard subject-verb agreement.

Yes, definitely. The whole sentence has a formal, technical register.

Words that make it sound formal include:

• incumprimento
• endividamento

This kind of sentence would fit well in:

• a bank report
• a legal document
• an economic analysis
• an official statement

In everyday speech, people might use simpler wording, depending on context.

A simpler version could be:

• O não cumprimento aumentou a dívida.
• A falta de pagamento aumentou a dívida.
• O incumprimento fez aumentar a dívida.

The best choice depends on what kind of incumprimento is meant:

• if it is specifically non-payment, then falta de pagamento may be clearer
• if it is a broader breach/failure to comply, then incumprimento is better

So the original sentence is not wrong at all; it is just more formal and abstract.

A rough learner-friendly pronunciation is:

u in-kum-pri-MEN-tu aw-men-TOU u en-di-vi-du-MEN-tu

A few important pronunciation notes for European Portuguese:

• unstressed o often sounds closer to u
• unstressed vowels are often reduced
• ou in aumentou is pronounced like a closed o sound, not like English ow
• the final -mento is usually not pronounced as clearly as an English speaker might expect

So in natural European Portuguese, the sentence may sound more compressed than the spelling suggests.