Adjectives


Adjective Placement

In Portuguese, adjectives are usually placed after the noun.

uma casa branca - a white house


Some adjectives can be placed before the noun to alter the meaning of the phrase.
um grande homem - a great man
um homem grande - a large man

Adjective Forms

Adjectives change forms in order to agree with the gender and number of the noun.

Masculine and Feminine Forms


  • Masculine adjectives that end in -o have a corresponding feminine form ending in-a.
    cansado → cansada; rico → rica
  • Adjectives that end in -ão change to -ã.
    vão → vã
  • Adjectives that end in -u add -a.
    cru → crua
  • Adjectives that end in -e or a consonantusually have the same form for masculine and feminine.
    doente → doente; azul → azul

Plural Forms


Adjectives form the plural in the same way as nouns.

Adjective Ending
Plural Alteration
Example
-vowels
add -s
grande → grandes
-s with stress on the final syllable
add -es
português → portugueses
-s with stress NOT on the final syllable
no change
simples → simples
-r, or -z
add -es
feliz → felizes
-m
changes to -ns
comum → comuns
-ão
changes to -ões, -ãos, or -ães
alemão → alemães
-al, -ol,-ul
changes to -is
azul → azuis
-el
changes to -eis
fiel → fiéis
-il stressed
changes to -is
civil → civis
-il unstressed
changes to -eis
fácil → fáceis

Irregular Forms

The common adjectives bom (good) and mau(bad) have irregular forms.

Masc.
Singular
Fem.
Singular
Masc.
Plural
Fem.
Plural
bom
boa
bons
boas
mau
ma
maus
mas



Comparatives

When comparing two nouns, you can indicate whether an adjective is more, less, or equal by adding comparative words.

Comparison
Translation
Example
mais ... que
more ... than
mais rico que - richer than
menos ... que
less ... than
menos rico que - less rich than
tão ... como
as ... as
tão rico como - as rich as

Notes:

The word que is short for do que meaning than. There are some irregular comparison words:

Comparison
Translation
melhor que
better than
pior que
worse than
maior que
bigger than
menor que
smaller than



Superlatives

These are words used when more than two nouns are compared.

Superlative
Translation
o mais ...
the most ...
o menos ...
the least ...
o melhor
the best
o pior
the worst
o maior
the largest
o menor
the smallest

You can indicate that an adjective is extreme by:

  • changing the ending to -íssimo, or -íssima.
    bela → belíssima - very beautiful
  • using muito before the adjective.
    muito fácil - very easy

Demonstrative Adjectives

These have the same forms as the demonstrative pronouns.

Masc.
Fem.
Translation
este(s)
esta(s)
this, these (something near to the speaker)
esse(s)
essa(s)
that, those (something near to the listener)
aquele(s)
aquela(s)
that, those (something far from both)



Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives agree in number and gender of the thing possessed.

Masculine
Feminine
Translation
meu
meus
minha
minhas
my
teu
teus
tua
tuas
your
nosso
nossos
nossa
nossas
our
vosso
vossos
vossa
vossas
your
seu
seus
sua
suas
his, her, its, your, their

Notes:

To avoid the ambiguity of seu(s) and sua(s), you can use the prepositional pronouns dele(s)and dela(s).

Você normally uses seu(s) or sua(s), but it is acceptable to use teu(s) or tua(s).