The employer’s reference

The last entry is a fórmula-tipo, and the hyphen inside it is a whole rule of Portuguese word-building. The language makes a great many compound nouns by putting the thing first and its qualifier second, tied together by that hyphen: a fórmula-tipo is a formula of the standard kind, a palavra-chave a word that is the key, o projeto-piloto a project that is the trial, o navio-escola a ship that teaches. The head stands on the left, and the reader knows what sort of noun it is before he reaches the hyphen. English runs the other way without exception, qualifier first and head last, so those same four come out as « standard wording », « keyword », « pilot project » and « training ship ». The consequence is the plural, which catches people out. Portuguese puts the ending on the head, the element on the left, and usually leaves the qualifier untouched: as fórmulas-tipo, as palavras-chave. English adds it to the end of the whole thing. The only English nouns that behave in the Portuguese way are old borrowings from French, and they still look odd: « courts martial », « attorneys general », « notaries public ».