Good explanation! On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 3:23 PM, Cheri Mello <gfsche...@gmail.com> wrote:
> As a kid, I was told something about De vs de being royalty. That's not > the way Portuguese grammar works. > > "de" basically means "of." > "da" would be the equivalent of the English contraction "of the" (with the > next word ending in "a" signifying feminine). "da musica" (of the music - > music ends in "a" so you use da). > "do" would be the equivalent of the English contraction "of the" (with the > next word ending in "o" signifying masculine). "do carro" (of the car - car > ends in "o" so you use do). > > d' is one of those things where you put the apostrophe when you're missing > a letter. In English, that would be in words such as "don't." The d' in > Portuguese is either de da or do, depending on the next word. > > "di" I think is Italian. I've had a couple of Italian kids in my class and > I seem to remember their names being Di Whatever. > > de, da, do in Portuguese isn't capitalized. We don't capitalize > prepositions in English and they don't seem to do it in Portuguese. > However, when someone who is not born in the U.S. (and possibly Canada) > comes into the new country and says that their last name is "da Costa" the > person (who was schooled English to capital last names) writes Da Costa > because they were taught to capitalize last names. > > I don't have my Portuguese grammar books handy, so I'm remembering this off > the top of my head. The native speakers will be able to correct what I'm > not remembering correctly. > > Cheri Mello > Listowner, Azores-Gen > Researching: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, > Achada > > -- > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<azores%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. > Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. > For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail > (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right > that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." > -- To unsubscribe from this group, send email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership."
