Miss you or miss you?
Have you ever stopped to think about this question? Which of the two ways do you use it? If you were in doubt, don't worry, because the answer to this question is not a consensus even among linguists. Still, it is possible to make some observations that may clarify the case. Come on?
In addition to the noun "saudades", spelled like this, in the plural, you may have also heard "jealousy" and "happiness", all classified as abstract nouns. It is precisely this classification that would make the inflection of numbers impossible, given that abstract nouns, a priori, cannot be formed in the plural because they are not countable. Is it possible to count the longing? Is it possible to count jealousy and happiness? It depends, after all, who said I can't miss a lot? I miss childhood, family, school, girlfriend... When I say "cheers" for someone i'm doing "wows of happiness".It is a semantic expansion of words, which end up having their core meaning altered, and that's not bad, it's just the language evolving and changing. That's what happened to the words
for good and condolences, nowadays used only in the plural, and woe to those who prefer the singular, will probably be labeled as uneducated, ignorant...
Words such as “saudade” and “jealousy” are used in Brazilian Portuguese both in the singular and in the plural
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
According to this perspective defended by linguists more attentive to the new uses of the Portuguese language, there would be, therefore, no problem in flexing the abstract nouns for the plural: homesickness, jealousy, happiness, memories, loves etc. It turns out that traditionalists do not admit this “deviation” from the rule, sticking to the argument that there is no efficient way to separate abstraction and concreteness. Is nostalgia or is it not a concrete feeling? For Bilac, “saudade was the presence of those who were absent” (can you see the concreteness?). And love? Hard to answer, isn't it? Our suggestion is that you use these nouns in the plural and singular, there is no problem with that, since that you do not change the main meaning transmitted by them and respect the agreement with the other terms of the prayer. Watch:
My miss you are sincere.
My memories they are tender.
My loves they are my children and my friends.
I wish many cheers to you.
So feel free to employ these abstract nouns with numerical inflection. But it is important to note that some abstract nouns are not usually used in the plural (at least not yet), as anger, hate and laziness. These you should keep singular, right? Good studies!
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PEREZ, Luana Castro Alves. "Missing or missing?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/saudade-ou-saudades.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.
