Adjetivos - Adjectives

In English, adjectives are placed before nouns:

a big city

In Portuguese adjectives are USUALLY placed after nouns:

uma cidade grande

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SOMETIMES adjectives will be placed before nouns, like in English. This will happen when:

1. We are using the following SUPERLATIVES melhor/pior (best/ worst) and maior/menor (biggest/ smallest):

O Brasil é o maior país da América Latina. - Brazil is the biggest country of Latin America.

"Match Point" é o melhor filme do Woody Allen.

2. With "próximo" (next) and ordinal numbers:

Até a próxima aula! - See you next class!
Este é o meu primeiro carro. - This is my first car.

3. With a poetic connotation, to stress the adjective (not so common):

triste dia/ verdes campos/ linda princesa - you could also say "dia triste" or "campos verdes" "princesa linda", but the first option is more poetic.

4. Bom/boa (good) + mau/má (bad) + bela/belo (beautiful) usually come before the noun, even colloquially:

boa idéia/ mau dia/ má hora/ bela casa

5. When you want to express the figurative use of the adjective - NOT the literal one:

uma grande mulher (a great woman - she's big in the figurative sense)
uma mulher grande (a big woman - she's big in the literal sense)

um pobre homem (an unhappy man - he's poor in the figurative sense)
um homem pobre (a poor man - he's poor in the literal sense)

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ADJECTIVES WILL usually VARY ACCORDING TO THE GENDER AND NUMBER OF THE NOUN THEY ARE QUALIFYING!

In English: fast trip / fast trips - "FAST" DOES NOT CHANGE!
In Portuguese: viagem rápida / viagens rápidas - "RÁPIDA" BECOMES "RÁPIDAS" with a plural noun.

In English: good boy / good girl - "GOOD" DOES NOT CHANGE!
In Portuguese: bom menino / boa menina - "BOM" BECOMES "BOA" with a feminine noun.

EXEMPLO: CARO (expensive) 

restaurante caro - restaurantes caros - expensive restaurant/ expensive restaurants
restaurante caro - casa cara - expensive restaurant/ expensive house
casa cara - casas caras - expensive house/ expensive houses

SOME ADJECTIVES DO NOT VARY IN GENDER:

mulher feliz - homem feliz

These adjectives end in a/e/l/m/z. Examples:

belga/ inteligente/ fácil/ jovem/ feliz

exception: espanhol - espanhola

melhor/pior (best, better/ worst, worse) and maior/menor (bigger, biggest/ smaller, smallest) also DO NOT vary in gender:

melhor aluna/ melhor aluno
maior cidade/ maior país

other words that do not vary in gender ending in OR:
anterior/posterior, incolor/multicolor, inferior/superior

SOME COLOR ADJECTIVES DO NOT VARY IN NUMBER OR GENDER (this happens when color is also a noun):

cinza = "ash" and "gray" in Portuguese
carro cinza - carros cinza
casa cinza - carro cinza

rosa = "rose" and "pink" in Portuguese
blusa rosa - sapato rosa
sapato rosa - sapatos rosa

ALL STUDENTS: To read more about Adjectives go to Sonia Portuguese.

ADVANCED STUDENTS: Read more about adjectives on Ciberdúvidas and Só Português.