Adjectives are words used to describe a noun. In Brazilian Portuguese, they are usually placed after the noun they describe, and they must agree in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) with the noun they describe:
As you can see, the ending of an adjective changes depending on the gender and number of the noun it describes. Most of the time, feminine adjectives will end in -a and you can add an -s to an adjective to make it plural, though there are some exceptions to both of these rules.
Are you curious to know more about the rules of using adjectives in Brazilian Portuguese? Let me explain!
How does adjective agreement work in Brazilian Portuguese?
In Brazilian Portuguese, adjectives agree with the gender and number of the noun they describe. This means that they take on a form that reflects whether the noun is masculine or feminine, singular or plural. For example:
| Masculine | Feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | o carro barato Translation: the cheap car | a casa barata Translation: the cheap house |
| Plural | os carros baratos Translation: the cheap cars | as casas baratas Translation: the cheap houses |
In the next sections, we’ll review how to modify the gender and number of adjectives to agree with the nouns they describe, starting with gender agreement!
Gender of adjectives: masculine vs. feminine
Gender in Brazilian Portuguese is marked on the adjective according to three main patterns. You can usually tell which pattern an adjective follows by looking at the ending of the masculine singular form (which is the form you will find in the dictionary). Let’s have a look at each pattern!
Adjectives ending in ‘-o’
If a masculine singular adjective ends in -o, then you’ll replace that -o with an -a to make it feminine.
| Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|
o menino educado Translation: the polite boy | a menina educada Translation: the polite girl |
o céu bonito Translation: the beautiful sky | a praia bonita Translation: the beautiful beach |
An exception: Adjectives ending in ‘-ão’
There are a few adjectives that end in -ão in Brazilian Portuguese. For these nouns, you will usually create the feminine form just reducing the ending to -ã, but with adjectives that function as intensifiers, you’ll replace -ão with -ona.
| Masculine | Feminine | English |
|---|---|---|
são | sã | sane |
cristão | cristã | Christian |
chorão | chorona | whiny |
See more examples of the feminine form of adjectives ending in -ão in our list!
Adjectives ending in ‘-u,’ ‘-ês,’ and ‘-or’
When a masculine singular adjective ends in -u, -ês, and -or in Brazilian Portuguese, we usually form the feminine by adding an -a to the masculine form.
| Ending | Masculine | Feminine | English |
|---|---|---|---|
-u | cru | crua | raw |
-ês | português | portuguesa | Portuguese |
-or (see Exception! below) | encantador | encantadora | enchanting |
Adjectives with no variation in gender
Some adjectives, especially those ending in -a, -e, -l, -ar, -s, -z and -m, as well as adjectives ending in -or, like melhor meaning better, have the same form for masculine and feminine.
- O menino está contente! A menina está contente!Translation: The boy is content! The girl is content!
- O menino é inteligente! A menina é inteligente!Translation: The boy is intelligent! The girl is intelligent!
- O vestido é azul. A camisa é azul.Translation: The dress is blue. The shirt is blue.
Let’s see some more examples of all these cases below:
| Ending | Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|---|
-a | o homem hipócrita Translation: the hypocritical man | a mulher hipócrita Translation: the hypocritical woman |
-e | o treinador forte Translation: the strong trainer | a treinadora forte Translation: the strong trainer |
-l | o exercício fácil Translation: the easy exercise | a prova fácil Translation: the easy test |
-ar | o jogador peculiar Translation: the peculiar player | a jogadora peculiar Translation: the peculiar player |
-s | o restaurante simples Translation: the simple restaurant | a padaria simples Translation: the simple bakery |
-z | o rapaz feliz Translation: the happy boy | a moça feliz Translation: the happy girl |
-m | o pai jovem Translation: the young father | a mãe jovem Translation: the young mother |
-or | o livro maior Translation: the bigger book | a revista maior Translation: the bigger magazine |
Number of adjectives: singular vs. plural
In Brazilian Portuguese, the number (singular or plural) of an adjective will match the number of the noun it describes or modifies. Luckily, the rules for forming plural adjectives are the same ones you’ll follow to form the plural of nouns in Brazilian Portuguese. So, if you know how to make the plural form of nouns in Brazilian Portuguese, you basically already know how to make the plural of adjectives. Take a look at the examples below:
| Ending (Dictionary) | Rule | Masculine | Feminine | English | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
-o, -u, -ão, -a, -e | + -s (usually) | bonito | bonitos | bonita | bonitas | beautiful |
*-ês | + -es meaning m. | português | portugueses | portuguesa | portuguesas | Portuguese |
-ar, -or | + -es meaning m. | encantador | encantadores | encantadora | encantadoras | enchanting |
-l | change to -is | legal | legais | legal | legais | cool |
-s | no change | simples | simples | simples | simples | simple |
Compound adjectives
Brazilian Portuguese compound adjectives — adjectives made up of more than one word — all follow one simple rule: only the last word within the compound adjective must agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies. For example:
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
cabelo castanho-escuro Translation: dark brown hair | cabelos castanho-escuros Translation: dark brown hairs |
olho verde-claro Translation: light green eye | olhos verde-claros Translation: light green eyes |
Pretty simple, right? Now, we’ll take a quick look at where to place adjectives in Brazilian Portuguese — and then you’ll be ready for some practice!
Adjective placement: Where to put them in a sentence?
Unlike in English, adjectives in Brazilian Portuguese usually come after the noun:
However, the adjective will sometimes come before the noun instead. Certain types of adjectives (e.g. possessive adjectives or demonstrative adjectives) will generally come before the noun, but with others, the placement will depend on your intended meaning or the emphasis you want to place. For example:
Isn’t that interesting? If you’d like to know more, take a look at our other post on how to place adjectives in Brazilian Portuguese!
In summary
Let’s review what we’ve learned about adjectives in Brazilian Portuguese:
Adjectives must agree in gender and number with the nouns they are describing.
Gender agreement: most of the masculine adjectives end in -o and most of the feminine adjectives end in -a. Rules for creating feminine forms:
-u, -ês, and -or → add -a
-ão → change the ending to -ã or -ona
-a, -e, -l, -ar, -s, -z, -m, -or (comparatives) → usually no change
Number agreement: the rules for number agreement of adjectives are the same as the rules for Brazilian Portuguese nouns.
Compound adjectives: we change only the last word in compound adjectives according to the number and gender of the noun.
Adjective placement: Brazilian Portuguese adjectives are typically placed after the noun. However, sometimes it is possible to place adjectives before the noun, depending on the meaning you want to give to the accompanied noun.
Ready to practice? Now you can check your understanding by practicing with these exercises on adjectives in Brazilian Portuguese!
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