In Brazilian Portuguese, you can use comparatives to compare two elements of a sentence, expressing that they have the same amount of a quality, or that one has more or less of a quality. For example:
In this post, we’ll cover the two main types of comparatives in Brazilian Portuguese: comparatives of inequality (e.g. “more / less X”) and comparatives of equality (e.g. “as X as…”). We’ll go over how to use each type in sentences, and we’ll discuss some irregular comparative words.
The good news is that you can use the same structures to make comparative adjectives, comparative adverbs, and even to compare two nouns! Curious to know more? Keep reading!
Comparatives of inequality: How to make comparisons with “more” and “less”?
In Brazilian Portuguese, we most often make comparisons using “more” or “less” by using the expressions mais…(do) que meaning more…than and menos…(do) que meaning less…than.
- Hoje está mais quente do que ontem.Translation: Today is warmer than yesterday.
- O inverno do Brasil é menos frio do que o inverno da Inglaterra.Translation: The winter in Brazil is less cold than the winter in England.
We call expressions that use these phrases comparatives of inequality because they mark two elements of a sentence as “unequal.”
You can use the same structure to compare qualities, quantities, frequencies, intensities, and more. It just depends on what word you put between mais/menos and (do) que.
adjective / adverb / noun
A few notes about the structure above:
The use of the word do is optional in both writing and speaking. There is no real difference in meaning or formality, it’s just a matter of preference.
If you are comparing the frequency or intensity of two actions, you don’t always need to include any word between mais/menos and (do) que:
- Você limpa mais (do) que eu.Translation: You clean more than me.
- Rafa come menos (do) que seu pai.Translation: Rafa eats less than his father.
When the element that follows the comparative begins with a number, we must replace (do) que with de meaning of, from. As below:
- Essa casa tem mais de 70 anos.Translation: This house is more than 70 years old.
- Eles moram aqui há menos de um ano.Translation: They have lived here for less than one year.
Read our post about Brazilian Portuguese numbers to learn more about this topic!
Now let’s talk about how to use comparatives in sentences!
How to use comparatives of inequality in sentences?
Here is the most basic way to use comparatives of inequality in a sentence:
element 1
verb
comparative
element 2
You can leave out the second element, with enough context:
In the examples above, the second element was a noun, but, in less basic comparisons, the second element may also be a clause or a verb. For example:
What are the irregular comparatives in Brazilian Portuguese?
In Brazilian Portuguese, the words grande meaning big, pequeno meaning small, bom/bem meaning good, and mau/mal/ruim meaning bad have irregular comparative forms. This means that they do not use the basic mais/menos meaning more/less + adjective/adverb structure, but instead have a comparative form that must be memorized. Let’s take a look:
| Adjective / adverb | Comparative form | |
|---|---|---|
grande Translation: big | maior Translation: bigger | maiores Translation: bigger |
pequeno Translation: small | menor Translation: smaller | menores Translation: smaller |
bom / bem Translation: good | melhor Translation: better | melhores Translation: better |
mau / mal / ruim Translation: bad | pior Translation: worse | piores Translation: worse |
Notice that each of the irregular comparatives has a singular and a plural form, which must match the number of the noun being described.
These comparatives are still used before (do) que. Let’s see a few examples in a sentence!
element 1
verb
irregular comparative
element 2
As we saw for the regular comparatives above, these irregular comparatives can also be used with a second element that is a clause.
Just like how, in English, you almost always use “better” instead of “more good,” In Brazilian Portuguese, you will almost always use the irregular comparative forms of the words above. The forms with mais / menos are generally considered wrong.
Now that you understand how to form comparisons with “more” and “less” in Brazilian Portuguese, let’s move on to forming comparisons of equality (as…as comparisons).
How to form comparisons of equality in Brazilian Portuguese?
To form comparisons of equality in Brazilian Portuguese, you can use the expressions tão…quanto/como meaning as…as…, for adjectives and adverbs, or tanto…quanto/como meaning as much…as…, with verbs and nouns.
Comparatives of equality use the same general sentence structures that we saw for comparatives of inequality above:
element 1
verb
comparative of equality
element 2 / clause
What makes these tricky is choosing between the two expressions: tão…quanto/como and tanto…quanto/como. Let’s look at when to use each one!
Tão…quanto/como meaning as…as… is used to compare the qualities of two elements when you are using an adjective or an adverb. Use the structure below:
tão meaning asadjective / adverb
quanto/como meaning asEle é tão alto quanto o pai.Translation: He is as tall as his father.O campo não é tão estressante como a cidade.Translation: The countryside is not as stressful as the city.Ela anda tão alto depressa a sua amiga.Translation: She walks as fast as her friend.O restaurante não é tão bom como costumava ser.Translation: The restaurant is not as good as it used to be.Tanto…quanto/como meaning as much/many…as… is used to compare elements in terms of quantity, intensity, or frequency. There are two main ways to use this expression:
When comparing the intensity or frequency of two actions, use tanto…quanto/como as one unit:
- Julia viaja tanto como Carla.Translation: Julia travels as much as Carla.
- Eles dormem tanto quanto eu.Translation: They sleep as much as I do.
In this use, tanto quanto is invariable (does not change forms).
When comparing the quantity of two nouns, use the structure below:
tanto/a/os/as meaning as much/manynoun
quanto/como meaning asEu bebo tanto café quanto meu irmão.Translation: I drink as much coffee as my brother.Esta rua tem tantas lojas como a outra.Translation: This street has as many stores as the other.Notice that in this use, tanto changes forms to agree with the noun that follows it: tanto café vs. tantas lojas.
If you want to know more about noun gender in Brazilian Portuguese, check out our post about this subject!
To sum up
In this post, we reviewed how to use comparisons or inequality and of equality in Brazilian Portuguese.
We saw that there are two types of comparatives of inequality:
Regular comparatives use the structure mais/menos… (do) que most of the time.
Irregular comparatives exist in Brazilian Portuguese just as they do in English, but there are only four: maior, menor meaning bigger, smaller and melhor, pior meaning better, worse.
When making comparisons of equality:
We use the structure tão… como/quanto with adjectives and adverbs.
We use the structure tanto… como/quanto with verbs or nouns.
Are you ready to put your skills to the test? Check out these activities to practice forming and using comparatives in Brazilian Portuguese?
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