Augmentatives & evaluative suffixes

What it is

Portuguese suffixes don't just measure size. A carrão is a big, flashy car; a golaço is a stunning goal; a cabeludo is a long-haired guy; a livreco is a trashy book. These evaluative suffixes (sufixos avaliativos) carry an attitude — admiration, affection, irony or contempt — and the right reading depends on context and tone of voice. At A2 you met the diminutive -inho; this topic covers the rest of the family.

How to form it

Gender: -ão augmentatives are masculine even when the base noun is feminine: a casa → o casarão, a parede → o paredão, a mulher → o mulherão. Plural: -ão becomes -ões (carrões, casarões); -aço becomes -aços (golaços).

Prefixes and intensifying words: super-, mega-, hiper-, ultra- (superlegal, megafesta, hiperativo, ultrarrápido). Super- and hiper- take a hyphen only before h and r: super-rápido, super-humano. Um baita + noun is very common and baita doesn't change for gender: um baita susto, uma baita festa. Um senhor / uma senhora before a noun also intensifies: um senhor apartamento (a seriously impressive flat).

When to use it

• Praise: Que golaço! Esse filme é um filmaço. Ela é uma mãezona.
• Size with an attitude: Ele chegou num carrão — not just big, flashy. Ganhou um dinheirão.
• Physical description, often teasing: cabeludo, barrigudo, narigudo. Among friends it is affectionate; with strangers it is rude.
• Contempt: um livreco, um jornaleco, aquela gentinha (offensive).
• Irony: Que festinha animada, hein? can mean the party was dead.

Words that are no longer augmentatives

Some forms became ordinary words: portão (gate), cartão (card), colchão (mattress), fogão (cooker), salão (hall; beauty salon), papelão (cardboard; fazer um papelão = to make a fool of yourself), caixão (coffin), bolão (betting pool). Read them as plain nouns.

Contrasts and traps

• The same family can praise or mock: filmão (a great film) vs filminho (a lame little film); amigão (a great friend) vs amiguinho (which can sound patronising).
• Body words are risky: comments like barrigudo or mulherão are personal; keep them for people you know well, or for describing characters.
• Contempt is strong: gentinha and jornaleco insult, so use them only when you mean it.
• Spelling: carrões, not carrãos; golaços, not golaçoes.

Reading it in context

A fan posts after the final: Que jogaço! O timaço do Bahia virou o placar com um golaço no último minuto, e a torcida fez uma festaça na Fonte Nova. Four suffixes, all of them praise. Now a grumpy critic: O tal filmão do ano é um filminho previsível, baseado num livreco de aeroporto. The same tools turn against the target: o tal filmão is sarcastic, filminho and livreco are contempt.

If you speak Spanish

Spanish has close relatives: -ón / -ona ≈ -ão / -ona, and the "great" -azo ≈ -aço: golazo → golaço, cuerpazo → corpão, cochazo → carrão. But Spanish -azo also names a blow (portazo, codazo, cabezazo, balazo), and Portuguese uses -ada for that: cotovelada, cabeçada, facada, or a verb: bateu a porta, levou um tiro. Watch the lexicalised false friends: Spanish cartón is papelão (Portuguese cartão = card), and cajón (drawer) is gaveta (Portuguese caixão = coffin). Casona doesn't exist: say casarão. The good news: hacer un papelón is exactly fazer um papelão.