When we study thePortuguese language,we come across a multitude of rules and also some exceptions. Our language may seem complicated, but those who are interested and curious about Grammar are also much more likely to know all its singularities. Among the various phenomena reported by Linguistics, a science that studies languages, is the paronymy. Do you know what paronymy is?
Paronymy is a phenomenon explained by Semantics, branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words. Paronyms are “twin words”, that is, they have several similarities, but they are actually different. They are similar in their phonological structure, that is, they have an approximate pronunciation, but they differ in their meanings. Want to see some examples? Look at the chart:
| Teacher (related to teacher) | Student (related to student) |
| Ratify (confirm, validate) | Rectify (correct, align) |
| Description (describing) | Discretion (what is discreet) |
| Traffic (transit) | Traffic (trade) |
| Imminent (pending, next to happen) | Eminent (illustrious) |
| Intimidate (fearless, fearless) | Intermerate (pure, immaculate) |
| Proscribe (condemn, abolish) | Prescribe (indicate, order) |
| Unnoticed (not noticed, not observed) | Unnoticed (unnoticed, unprepared) |
| Measure (compare, appreciate) | earn (take, steal) |
| Pack (group of dogs) | Headdress (small blanket) |
| Deferred (defer, procrastinate) | Deferred (grant, assign) |
| Infringing (transgressing, disrespecting) | Inflict (penalize, impose) |
| Discriminate (absolve) | Discriminate (distinguish, differentiate) |
| Precursor (pioneer, progon) | Pathfinder (what runs) |
| Greeting (greeting) | Length (size, magnitude) |
| Fluvial (relating to river) | Pluvial (relative to rain) |
| Immerse (immerse) | Emerge (come to the surface) |
| report (report) | Dilate (widen, extend) |
| absorb (soak) | Absolve (exempt) |
| Manager (who directs, manages) | Diligent (applied, efficient) |
The words above are examples of paronyms. However, there are many other words that exemplify this language phenomenon
Paronym words can differ on the basis of prefixes to the same stem, as in the example below:
proswrite and preswrite
And they can also differ in their radicals. Watch:
badtile and mantile
In addition to the twenty words we list in the table, there are many others that exemplify the paronymy. This similarity between the words causes many grammatical mistakes, as many people end up confusing and exchanging one word for another, which can cause comprehension problems in the oral modality and in the modality writing. This semantic change is very common, but not everyone knows how and when to use the correct word at the ideal time. To avoid mistakes, whenever there are doubts, consult a good dictionary and good studies!
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters