I am having trouble with the derivative processes and wonder if there’s an easy trick to these or am I just doomed to memorization.
Is there a rule to nominalization such as:
conversar → conversA (instead of conversação)
responder → respoSTA
criar → criaÇÃO
pagar → pagaMENTO
Matar → morTO
etc.
Same with adjectification such as
cultura → culturAL
história → histórICO
perigo → perigoSO
matar → morTAL
I know for some words it’s actually very similar to english (eg. mortal, cultural) but I’m not a native English speaker so sometimes these still eludes me. I can’t seem to find a pattern and I wonder if there is any at all!
As far as I know, there is no pattern; you just have to know them. However, neither is there any sort of pattern in English, and, further, as you say, many of the Portuguese nominalizations are very similar to those in English, so hopefully little memorization would be necessary.
@achro934, even though some patterns emerge, they’re limited As far as I know, you’ll mostly have to memorize.
By some patterns, this is what I mean, for example:
For nominalization, a number of -AR verbs will result in -ÇÃO nouns, such as:
– respirar → respiração
– derivar → derivação
– frustrar → frustração
For adjectivization, a number of -AR verbs will result in -ÁVEL adjectives, while -ER verbs will result in -ÍVEL adjectives, such as:
– amar → amável
– tolerar → tolerável
– suportar → suportável
– apetecer → apetecível
– sofrer → sofrível
– comer → comestível
(^ It doesn’t help to start from the respective nouns in the cases above)
May you have seen this unit already (but just in case it) maybe worth looking at the unit called Cognates in A2 section. which explains some basic patterns between Latin based words we have in English/ Portuguese.
Its hows you these sort of tips and tricks as well which false cognates to look out for
As far as I know, you’ll mostly have to memorize.