At home in Portuguese

Near the end of the list stands adormecer, and the sentence under it, adormeci no sofá, needs three English words where Portuguese uses one. That is not a quirk of a single verb but a pattern, and once it is visible it turns up all over the language. Portuguese takes a noun or an adjective, puts a small prefix in front of it and -ecer behind, and the result means to pass into that state: dormir is to sleep and adormecer is to go into sleep; noite sits inside anoitecer, to grow dark; manhã inside amanhecer, to grow light; velho inside envelhecer, to grow old. English has a suffix of its own, the « -en » of « darken » and « harden », but it fastens only to adjectives and is barely made afresh any more, so for the everyday cases it reaches for a phrase instead — « fall asleep », « get dark », « grow old ». One more thing the single verb buys: it works in both directions. Adormeci no sofá is I fell asleep, and adormecer o bebé is to get the baby off to sleep.