PORTUGUESE A lesson from David Holland

Learning Portuguese 2022

1.THE (WOW,OW) ÃO FACTOR --The Augmentatives 2. THE SOFT - FOFO FACTOR zinhos and inhos -- The Diminutives By David Holland

Towards the back end of the year learning new words and grammar can become wearisome. Better to change tack and adapt words already known. This is one way to progress your Portuguese. ÃO! is a starting point. It is pronounced like the English expletive ‘OW,’ but with the characteristic Portuguese nasal sound, as at the end of Olhão. ÃO, together with its fellow nasal diphthongs, ÃE and ÕES, feature regularly in the Portuguese language. Portuguese words may be enhanced by the addition of ÃO to indicate an increase in size or affection. O meu AMIGÃO is my great/bosom buddy, not merely my friend, o meu amigo. Some more illustrations of the ‘ÃO’ effect; ‘we once had a car, um carro, and a house, uma casa. Now, not only do we have a luxury/ limousine car, um CARRÃO, but we own a mansion, um CASARÃO!’ The door, a porta, but um PORTÃO a gate. Uma sala, a room, may be upgraded to um SALÃO, a lounge, saloon or salon. A large jug, um GARRAFÃO, of wine may be preferred to its smaller version, uma garrafa, a bottle. A borra, wine-dregs, result in wine stains BORRÕES (BORRÃO) de vinho. O SEU BRASÃO, your coat-of-arms, may have derived likewise from o seu braço, your arm. Other examples include um barraco, a garden shed, but um BARRACÃO is a large building or shed. When ‘augmented,’ o choro, the crying, becomes um CHORÃO, a cry-baby, and doubles up neatly as a Weeping Willow. Uma mulher is a woman, but um MULHERÃO describes a very big woman. To catch a fish, um peixo, is fine, but better to hook a big fish, um PEIXÃO. Likewise a sausage, uma salsicha, has a larger version as um SALSICHÃO. Birds are no exception, the larger swift being um ANDARINHÃO and its smaller cousin, the swallow, um andarinho. In contrast the Portuguese language is blessed with attractive diminutive forms. These qualify size and on occasion, like their augmentative counterparts, depths of feeling. Common forms include inho/a and zinho/a. They can be attached to numerous words to vary shades of meaning. Far more so than in the English language, whose diminutives such as ‘ette,’ ‘let,’ and ‘ling’ attach in relatively few cases. In Portuguese, whether in respect of animals, food, drink or people, the diminutive may be confidently added eg. – um animalzinho, a cute little animal and um gatinho for a beloved cat. Um beijo, a kiss, may be refined to um beijinho (interestingly the augmentative form BEIJÃO is not used in practice, but UMA BEIJOCA is readily understood and has, perhaps, a fruitier flavour than a simple ‘beijo’). Um pãozinho denotes a small bit of bread, ie. a roll, and um cafezinho, a small (black) coffee. Presumably only needed on rare occasions, but you may request a small beer, uma cervejinha. Examples relating to people include-paizinho (from pai, father) meaning daddy, amiguinho from amigo (friend), and anjinha from anjo (angel). Warmth is conveyed to names in like fashion. Carlinhos from Carlos, Pedrinho from Pedro, Mariazinha from Maria, naturally Ronaldinho from Ronaldo and Ruizinho from Rui. The nuance of a number of adjectives may also be subtly varied. For example fofo, cute, may be softened to fofinha (my cutie). ‘Bonitinha’ from bonita, pretty, implies ‘oh so cute,’ but in context may well express sarcastic undertones! There are other ways of varying Portuguese words from your existing word-bank. By way of example the Portuguese superlatives impact powerfully. Here are a few to savour; Barato, cheap, becomes BARATÍSSIMO-very or extremely cheap. Likewise, FACÍLIMO from fácil, easy; FELICÍSSIMO from feliz, happy; LINDÍSSIMA from linda, beautiful; RIQUÍSSIMO from rico, rich, and finally, SENSUALÍSSIMA from sensual. In other words extremely EASY, extremely HAPPY, extremely BEAUTIFUL extremely RICH and extremely SENSUAL! So here’s to 2022. Feliz Ano Novo

David Holland

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