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Comment by lbebber | Hacker News Reader

Interesting. In (Brazilian) Portuguese, "isso" and "isso aí" ("this", "this there") is used to confirm or agree with something, so it seems the expression survived the times.

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Curious coincidence how that sounds like 'it's so' and 'itsso, eh'!

> "isso aí"

> 'itsso, eh'

Trivia: notice 'isso aí' has an acute accent on í which indicates the syllable is stressed. Doesn't sound much like 'eh' https://translate.google.com/#pt/en/a%C3%AD similar to 'itsso ah-E'.

I always thought it was some kind of contraction of "isso e certo". The same expression also exist in Spanish.

Same with the "this" reply that's so in vogue online in English: "this [is the correct answer]".

Technically, “isso” translates to “that”, whereas “isto” translates to “this”. Good point, anyway.

Both translate to 'this'. Isso is a coloquial form of isto. Aquilo translate to 'that'.

That sounds similar to spanish' esto, eso, aquello so I guess their usage is similar?

Esto (isto) = this (at hand's reach)

Eso (isso) = that (close but out of reach)

Aquello (aquilo) = that (far away)

Isto and isso are both "close" but they're still different degrees of closeness. I would still translate 'eso' as 'that'.

EDIT: But I guess you speak Brazilian Portuguese:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/isto#Portuguese

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/isso#Portuguese

> isso: (demonstrative, informal, Brazil) this

Yes I speak brazilian portuguese. I think the usage is different from spanish, and probably 'isto' and 'aquilo' is the same for both in Brazil and Portugal, while 'isso' usage exists only in Brazil.

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