Breakdown of Graças à inovação, o fundador da empresa ficou riquíssimo.
de
of / from / by (means of transport) / wearing (attire)
a empresa
the company
ficar
to become
rico
rich
graças a
thanks to
o fundador
the founder
a inovação
the innovation
Questions & Answers about Graças à inovação, o fundador da empresa ficou riquíssimo.
Why do we use graças à here instead of por causa da?
Why is there a grave accent on à in Graças à?
The expression requires the preposition a (graças a). Because the next word, inovação, is a feminine noun, it requires the feminine article a (the). When the preposition a and the article a combine, they merge into à to show the contraction.
Why does the sentence use ficou to mean 'became'?
The verb ficar normally means 'to stay' or 'to remain', but it is also one of the most common ways to express a change of state in Portuguese, similar to 'got' or 'became' in English. You could also use tornou-se (from tornar-se), but ficar is very natural and frequently used for changes in wealth, health, or emotions.
Where does the qu come from in riquíssimo?
Riquíssimo is the absolute superlative of rico (rich), meaning 'extremely rich'. When we add the -íssimo ending to a word that ends in -co, we have to change the c to qu to maintain the hard 'k' sound of the original word. If it were spelled 'ricíssimo', the 'c' would be pronounced with a soft 's' sound.
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