Descrição de duas oliveiras, uma grande e outra pequena
A1 Portuguese listening practice · European Portuguese · Curated for beginners
Why does Portuguese say “pequenina” instead of “pequena”?
Portuguese sprinkles the diminutive -inha more freely than Spanish or Italian, and it can stack onto adjectives as well as nouns. Pequena (“small”) becomes pequenina (“very small, tiny”). Erva (“grass, herb”) becomes ervinha (“little weed”). The doubled diminutive marks both physical smallness and a softer, almost protective tone. European Portuguese uses pequenina casually; Brazilian Portuguese leans even harder into stacked diminutives.
In this clip, a narrator describes two olive trees: “Uma é pequenina, muito pequenina, e a outra é grande... está aqui no meio das ervinhas” (“One is tiny, really tiny, and the other is big... it’s here among the little weeds”).
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this A1 Portuguese listening practice listening practice?
General Portuguese frequency
Spoken Portuguese frequency
Words above this video’s level
Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s A1 level.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-PT-BR 2012 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸In Portuguese family and farm-life content
- ▸In Portuguese children’s TV and audiobooks
- ▸In Brazilian bossa nova and folk lyrics (Tom Jobim, Caetano Veloso)
- ▸In Portuguese cookbook recipes about herbs and garnishes
- ▸In Portuguese gardening and houseplant blogs