Town, Region and Country

The ending that is not really about size

Portuguese loves an ending you have probably already heard: -inho and -inha. Books call it the diminutive and translate it as "little", which is right about a third of the time. The rest of the time it is doing something English has no ending for at all: making a word warmer. A cafezinho is not a measured-out small coffee. It is a coffee offered to you kindly. Learn the form, then learn what it is really doing.

Where you live

Four words to learn, plus two that are nearly free: a cidade (the city) and o centro (the centre).

Match each word to its meaning

How the ending is made

For a word ending in an unstressed -o or -a, take the vowel off and add -inho or -inha, matching the word: casa becomes casinha, a little house. livro becomes livrinho, a little book. gato becomes gatinho, a kitten. Some words take -zinho or -zinha instead: café gives cafezinho, and cidade gives cidadezinha. Recognise those when you meet them; this module does not ask you to work out which words take which, because that is a second rule and one is enough for now. And the useful part: when you meet a long word you do not know, look for -inho or -inha on the end and take it off. What is left is usually a word you can look up.

What is a cafezinho?

A Portuguese host offers you um cafezinho. What are they most likely offering?

• A coffee, offered warmly: the ending is being friendly rather than measuring
• A coffee that is definitely smaller than a normal one
• A cheaper coffee
• A coffee for a child

The rule

Portuguese makes a word smaller by taking off the final unstressed vowel and adding an ending. casa becomes _____ and livro becomes _____. The ending matches the _____ of the word. But it does not always mean literally small: very often it adds _____ or informality, which is why a cafezinho is offered rather than measured. So when you meet an unfamiliar long word, look for _____ on the end and take it off.

Find the ending

Here are three Portuguese words. Tap the one that has been built with the diminutive ending.

• bairro
• casinha
• jardim

Order them by size

Put these four places in order, smallest first.

• a rua - street
• o bairro - neighbourhood
• a cidade - city
• o país - country

Which are true of the diminutive?

Select the TWO correct statements.

• The ending matches the word: -inha for a feminine one, -inho for a masculine one
• It often adds warmth or informality rather than saying anything about size
• It always means the thing is physically smaller
• It makes the word plural

Use it

Three moments where the ending matters.

• You meet the unfamiliar word "casinha" in a reading passage. What do you do?
• You want to write about the small village you come from. Which is the safer choice?
• Someone offers you "um bocadinho" of cake. What is the ending doing?

Two jobs, one ending

The same ending, doing two quite different things. Reading which one is meant comes from the situation, not from the word.

Village, city and country in Portuguese

A village is _____ and a city is _____. A country is _____ and a street is _____. And the ending _____ makes a word smaller, or friendlier, and often both at once.

A tua vez

Escreve em português: como é o teu bairro? Write a short description in Portuguese of the area where you live.

• Say whether you live in uma aldeia, uma cidade or um bairro
• Describe two things that are in your area, using words you know
• Use one diminutive that you have actually met, rather than inventing one
• Finish by saying what you like about where you live, and what you would change