-ão

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• -aõ (obsolete), -zão

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɐ̃w̃/

Etymology 1

From Old Galician-Portuguese -on, from Vulgar Latin *-ōne, from Latin -ōnem. Akin to Spanish -ón, Italian -one and French -on, compare Romanian -oi.

Suffix

-ão m (feminine -ona, plural -ões, feminine plural -onas)

1. forms the augmentative of nouns
   1. forms nouns, from nouns denoting things, meaning “big thing,” usually but not necessarily with the same gender

      ‎livro (“book”) + ‎-ão → ‎livrão (“big book”)

      ‎janela (“window”) + ‎-ão → ‎janelona (“big window”)

   2. used to refer to things affectionately

      ‎filho (“son”) + ‎-ão → ‎filhão (“used by a father to address his son, when he is proud of the son”)

      ‎amigo (“friend”) + ‎-ão → ‎amigão (“a good friend; a true friend”)

   3. forms nouns, from nouns, implying that the suffixed noun is powerful or good

      ‎carro (“car”) + ‎-ão → ‎carrão (“high-performance car”)

      ‎calor (“heat”) + ‎-ão → ‎calorão (“intense heat”)

      ‎soco (“punch”) + ‎-ão → ‎socão (“powerful punch”)

   4. in nouns that are formed from, or homonymous with, an adjective, it augments the quality expressed by the adjective

      ‎cabeludo (“long-haired (adjective); long-haired person (noun)”) + ‎-ão → ‎cabeludão (“person with very long hair”)

2. forms the masculine of animal names (whether the animal refers to females or to males and females)

   ‎abelha (“bee (any sex)”) + ‎-ão → ‎abelhão (“drone”)

   ‎cabra (“she-goat”) + ‎-ão → ‎cabrão (“billy goat”)

3. forms nouns, from nouns, denoting an item of the same class as the suffixed noun, or which shares a characteristic with the suffixed noun

   ‎calça (“pants”) + ‎-ão → ‎calção (“shorts”)

   ‎agulha (“needle”) + ‎-ão → ‎agulhão (“sharp rock on a riverbed”)

   ‎fogo (“fire”) + ‎-ão → ‎fogão (“stove”)

4. (slang) forms nouns, from a numeral X divisible by ten and greater than thirty, meaning “someone in his Xs”

   ‎quarenta (“forty”) + ‎-ão → ‎quarentão (“someone in his forties”)

5. (Brazil, slang) forms nouns, from a numeral X, meaning “X amount of money” or “a bill worth X”

   ‎cinco (“five”) + ‎-ão → ‎cincão (“five bucks”)

   ‎mil (“thousand”) + ‎-ão → ‎milão (“a thousand bucks”)

6. (somewhat informal) forms the augmentative of adjectives, roughly equivalent to English quite

   ‎grande (“big”) + ‎-ão → ‎grandão (“quite big”)

7. forms nouns, from a verb X, meaning a strong or violent instance of doing X

   ‎arrastar (“to drag”) + ‎-ão → ‎arrastão (“an instance of violently dragging something”)

   ‎puxar (“to pull”) + ‎-ão → ‎puxão (“a strong or violent pull”)

   ‎pisar (“to step”) + ‎-ão → ‎pisão (“a strong or violent step”)

Synonyms

• (augmentative marker): -ácio, -aço, -alhão, -arrão, -ázio, -eirão
• (amount of money): pila

Antonyms

• (augmentative marker): -inho, -ito, -culo, -ete

Etymology 2

From Old Galician-Portuguese -ão, from Latin -ānus (“-ian”). Compare -ano.

Suffix

-ão m (feminine -ã, plural -ãos, feminine plural -ãs)

1. (no longer productive) forms adjectives, nouns and proper nouns referring to a location or type of location, meaning “of or pertaining to that location” and nouns meaning “someone from that location”

   ‎vila (“village”) + ‎-ão → ‎vilão (“villager”)

   ‎cidade (“city”) + ‎-ão → ‎cidadão (“citizen”)

   ‎Alentejo (“a region in Portugal”) + ‎-ão → ‎alentejão (“relating to Alentejo”, “someone from Alentejo”)

Synonyms

• -ano, -ense

Etymology 3

From Old Galician-Portuguese -an, from an, from Latin habent, third-person plural present indicative of habeō (“I have”).

Suffix

-ão

1. forms the third-person plural future indicative, from the infinitive of verbs

   ‎falar (“to speak”) + ‎-ão → ‎falarão (“(they) will speak”)

   ‎comer (“to eat”) + ‎-ão → ‎comerão (“(they) will eat”)

   ‎sorrir (“to smile”) + ‎-ão → ‎sorrirão (“(they) will smile”)

Etymology 4

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɐ̃w̃/ (paroxytone)

Suffix

-ão

1. Obsolete form of -am.

Usage notes

Some words ending in -ão pluralise as -ães. However, in these cases the -ão is not a suffix and derives from Old Portuguese -an, from Latin -ānem, -anēs.

• cão (“dog”) → cães (“dogs”), from Latin canem, canēs
• pão (“bread”) → pães (“breads”), from Latin pānem, pānēs

mão derives from Latin manus and is pluralised with -s:

• mão (“hand”) → mãos (“hands”)

See also

• -aço