Reinsurance

The twentieth entry is a época de renovações, and English calls it « the renewal season », with the first noun in the singular although the season handles thousands of renewals. That is the rule, and it is worth holding on to, because Portuguese gives no warning of it: a noun placed in front of another noun drops its plural and becomes a label. A shop that sells shoes is « a shoe shop », an agreement lasting three years is « a three-year contract », a rise in premiums is « a premium rise ». Against that stands a small closed group which keeps the plural because the singular would say something else, and this trade uses one of them constantly: « a claims department » and « the claims control clause » of this page. « A claim department » would be a department devoted to one claim. The same handful covers « a sales team » and « a savings account ». Outside that slot the bare noun is plural again, which is why the market meets na época de renovações at « the renewals » and says that « the January renewals were hard ».