Breakdown of Eles comiam um patezinho com o pãozinho quente.
eles
they (m)
um
a / an / some (all forms)
com
with
o pão
the bread
comer
to eat
quente
warm
o paté
the pâté
Questions & Answers about Eles comiam um patezinho com o pãozinho quente.
The word for pâté is patê with an accent. Why does patezinho lose this accent mark?
When you add the suffix -zinho, the main stress of the word shifts to the zi syllable. In Portuguese, written accents like the circumflex indicate the stressed syllable. Since the stress moved, the original accent on the 'e' is dropped.
Wait, if accents are dropped when adding -zinho, why does pãozinho keep its tilde (~)?
Does the -zinho suffix mean the bread and pâté were literally miniature?
Not necessarily! While diminutives can mean something is small in size, Portuguese speakers frequently use them with food to express affection, coziness, or that something is particularly tasty and enjoyable.
Why use the imperfect tense comiam instead of the simple past comeram here?
Comiam shows that this was a habitual or repeated action in the past, which is why it translates to 'used to eat'. If you used comeram, it would mean they ate it just once on a specific, completed occasion.
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