Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Olha, escondi uns caracoizinhos debaixo do musgo e do cascalho! - Look, I hid some little snails under the moss and the gravel!

First, turn the base word into its regular plural: caracol becomes caracóis. Then, drop the final -s to get the root caracói-. Finally, add the plural diminutive ending -zinhos to get caracoizinhos.

Why does the accent mark disappear when caracóis becomes caracoizinhos?

In caracóis, the stress is on the ó, so it requires an acute accent mark. When you add the suffix -zinhos, the primary stress of the word shifts to the syllable zi. Because the o is no longer the stressed syllable, it loses its accent mark.

Why is the word 'do' repeated before cascalho?

The phrase uses the compound preposition debaixo de (under). In Portuguese, when a preposition applies to multiple nouns connected by e (and), it is standard and natural to repeat the preposition along with any definite article for each noun. Therefore, we say do musgo e do cascalho.

Is olha always a literal command to look at something?

Not necessarily. While it is the informal singular imperative for 'look', olha is heavily used as a conversational interjection to grab someone's attention or introduce a statement, exactly like saying 'Look, I hid...' or 'Hey, ...' in English.