Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Eles comiam um patezinho com o pãozinho quente. - They used to eat a little pâté with the hot little bread.

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 (~)?

The tilde (~) is an exception because it is technically a nasality mark, not a stress accent. It tells you to pronounce the vowels through your nose. Since the ão sound stays nasal even when the stress moves to the zi syllable, the tilde stays.

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.