I came across this paragraph in an article in Visão:
“Num artigo publicado no site da BBC, Tim Benton, Diretor do Programa de Riscos Emergentes da organização não governamental Chatham House, prevê que estes fenómenos venham a ser cada vez mais frequentes nao próximos tempos.”
I am wondering about the “nao” in bold! Is this a combination of the words “em” and “ao”? If so, I have never encountered this before and was surprised to see it!
In case anyone wants to see for themselves, here is the article. The “nao” in question is at the end of the second paragraph.
I can’t say for sure but I am guessing this is a typo for ‘nos’ but it is frustrating when you are trying to grapple with a new language and you come across a mistake that throws everything you know into question. I have suffered this a few times now.
Could very well be “nos”, as you suggest, @michael.pearce. That would then be “em os próximos tempos”, which makes more sense than “em ao”, but I would hope that Visão would know what they are talking about. I think we will have to wait for @Joseph to chime in here.
Yes you are misinterpreting… I was empathising how annoying it is when the ‘occasional’ misprint or even mistake can easily throw you when, in fact, in your own native language you are more likely to accept it as you realise how easy the error is and you can more quickly assimiliate thet actual meaning whereas when you are learning a language you tend to analise every word to try understand how it is being used.
I didn’t specify in my comment how frequently or infrequently I might come across ‘misprints’ (and yes you are right it is not that often). I am rather afraid you assumed too much.
They should’ve written “nos próximos tempos” (em+os).