Portuguese Adjectives: Agreement, Gender and Word Order

English adjectives are the easiest part of the language: one form, one position, in front of the noun, done. A red car, red cars, a red house. Portuguese asks two things English never does. The adjective has to agree with its noun, changing its ending to match gender and number, and it usually goes after the noun rather than before it.

Neither is hard. Both are relentless, because they apply to every noun you describe, and getting them right is the difference between a sentence that sounds assembled and one that sounds said.

Agreement: the four endings

Every Portuguese noun is masculine or feminine, and singular or plural. An adjective describing it copies both. For the most common kind of adjective, the one ending in -o in the dictionary, that gives four forms:

The pattern is exactly what it looks like: -o for masculine, -a for feminine, -s for the plural. Novo, velho, pequeno, lindo, alto, baixo, cansado, sozinho, vermelho, branco: all behave the same way.

The adjective takes its gender from the noun, not from anyone in the conversation. A woman describing her car says o carro é novo, because carro is masculine; a man describing his house says a casa é nova. And agreement holds wherever the adjective sits, including after ser and estar, which is where learners forget it most:

A menina está cansada. - The girl is tired.

Os filmes são bons. - The films are good.

Adjectives with one form for both genders

Adjectives ending in -e, or in a consonant, do not change for gender. They only change for number:

So um homem feliz and uma mulher feliz, um livro importante and uma pergunta importante. That is a genuine saving: a large share of the adjectives you meet only have two forms to learn, not four.

The plural is where the care goes, and the rules are short:

1. After a vowel, add -s. Grande, grandes.
2. After -r, -s or -z, add -es. Feliz, felizes. Words already ending in an unstressed -s, like simples, do not change at all.
3. -l becomes -is. Azul, azuis. After an unstressed -i-, -il becomes -eis: fácil, fáceis; difícil, difíceis. The accent on the plural keeps the stress where it was.
4. -m becomes -ns. Jovem, jovens. This is a spelling rule, not a new sound: Portuguese never writes m before s.

The irregular feminines

A small group changes more than the last letter in the feminine, and two of them are among the most common words in the language:

Bom is the one to nail first, because you say it every day: bom dia in the morning, boa noite at night. Nationalities ending in -ês all follow inglês: add -a for the feminine and drop the accent, because the stress no longer needs marking.

In everyday Brazilian speech, mau is less common than it looks in a textbook. For bad in the sense of poor quality, people say ruim: um filme ruim, uma ideia ruim. It ends in a consonant, so it has one form for both genders and only one extra letter to learn: ruins.

Mixed groups go masculine

When one adjective describes a group containing both masculine and feminine nouns, it takes the masculine plural:

O pai e a mãe são altos. - The father and mother are tall.

One masculine noun is enough to tip it, however many feminine ones stand alongside. This is identical to the rule in Spanish, French and Italian, and it is grammar rather than a comment on anyone; the only question is which ending the adjective takes.

Numbers that agree: um and dois

Most numbers are invariable, but two of them behave like adjectives and agree with the noun:

um amigo, uma amiga - one friend

dois livros, duas casas - two books, two houses

From três onwards, the number stays the same whatever follows it: três carros, três casas. It is worth being precise here, because dois in front of a feminine noun is one of the most common slips a learner makes and one of the most audible.

Where the adjective goes

The default position is after the noun, the reverse of English:

um carro vermelho - a red car

uma cidade grande - a big city

um filme interessante - an interesting film

Colours, nationalities and shapes go after in ordinary use. So do long adjectives and anything that sorts one kind of thing from another. If you are not sure, put it after; you will be right far more often than wrong.

A small set goes before. Numbers always do (dois amigos), and primeiro, último and próximo normally do: o primeiro dia, a última vez, a próxima semana. (After the noun, próximo means close: um amigo próximo, a close friend.) Beyond those, a handful of short, very common adjectives, like bom, novo and grande, can go in front, and when they do they sound warmer or more subjective: uma boa ideia is more natural than uma ideia boa, and um lindo dia is the way a person gushes about the weather.

When moving the adjective changes the meaning

With a few adjectives, position is not a matter of style at all. In front of the noun they take a figurative or emotional sense; after it, the literal one:

The logic is consistent: after the noun, the adjective describes a fact about it; in front, it describes how the speaker sees it. A friend of twenty years may be twenty-five years old, and a pitiable man may be very rich.

Novo is the softest of the four. In adverts and headlines, um novo carro often just means a new model, fresh from the factory, so do not lean on the difference too hard when reading. The split above is the textbook guide, but everyday Brazilian speech blurs it too: meu carro novo often just means my new car, bought second-hand or not, and a Brazilian who wants to stress brand new says zero quilômetro, or just zero.

Comparing: mais, menos and the four irregulars

English has two ways to compare, taller and more interesting, and picks by the length of the word. Portuguese has one: put mais (more) or menos (less) in front of the adjective, and do que (than) after it. The adjective still agrees with its noun:

A casa é mais bonita do que o apartamento. - The house is prettier than the flat.

Este livro é menos difícil. - This book is less difficult.

For the most, add the article in front of mais: a cidade mais bonita is the most beautiful city. There is no separate ending to learn, which puts Portuguese ahead of English on this point.

Four very common adjectives refuse the pattern and have their own comparative forms, exactly as good, bad, big and small do in English:

Mais bom and mais grande are the Portuguese equivalent of gooder: every child says them once, and everyone else says melhor and maior. These four have one form for both genders, so they only change in the plural: melhores, piores, maiores, menores.

Mistakes English speakers make with adjectives

Forgetting agreement after ser and estar. A casa é bonita, not bonito. This is by far the most common error, because the adjective is a long way from the noun and English habit says it never changes anyway.

Putting colours first. A red car is um carro vermelho. Vermelho carro is not Portuguese.

Making muito agree when it means very. Muito as very never changes: ela é muito bonita, not muita bonita. As many or a lot of, it agrees like any adjective: muitas casas, muitos amigos.

Using bom for well. Bom describes a noun; bem describes how something is done. Ele fala bem is he speaks well. Ele fala bom is a mistake.

Missing the feminine of dois. Two houses is duas casas. It is the smallest error on this page and the one Brazilians notice first.

What to do next

Start with agreement, because it applies to every sentence with a description in it. Say each new adjective with a masculine and a feminine noun until the ending comes without deciding: o carro novo, a casa nova. Position can wait; if you put everything after the noun, you will be right almost every time.

Adjectives live alongside the verbs that link them to nouns, so if ser, estar and ficar are still fuzzy, the ser and estar and ficar pages are the ones to revisit. When you want to point at the thing you are describing, the next step is the three-way system of este, esse and aquele. Chapter 2 of the Portuguese course drills agreement with the adjectives you already know.