a beautiful beach seen from above

How to use adjectives in Brazilian Portuguese?

By: Fabiana Dametto Oliveira Thu Sep 18 2025

Adjectives are words used to describe a . In Brazilian Portuguese, they are usually placed after the noun they describe, and they must in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) with the noun they describe:

edifício alto

tall building

masculine singular

montanhas altas

tall mountains

feminine plural

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

the cheap car

a casa barata

the cheap house

Plural

os carros baratos

the cheap cars

as casas baratas

the cheap houses

Tip

Though many nouns will also helpfully end in -o(m.) or -a(f.), some nouns like céu(sky), do not. In these cases, you’ll need to memorize the noun’s gender in order to form proper agreement. For a refresher on the gender of Brazilian Portuguese nouns, check out this post!

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

the polite boy

a menina educada

the polite girl

o céu bonito

the beautiful sky

a praia bonita

the beautiful beach

Important

Sometimes there are slight differences in the pronunciation of the masculine and feminine adjective stems that may not be obvious from the spelling. For example:

disposto

[dis-poh-sto]

disposed (m.)

sound in “no”

disposta

[dis-pau-sta]

disposed (f.)

sound in “pause”

This usually happens with adjectives ending in -oso, but if you’d like to see a fuller list, check out these adjectives whose pronunciation changes based on gender!

For more on the pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese, check out our other post!

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 , 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

Exception!

A few adjectives ending in -or have the same form in the masculine and feminine:

  • like maior(bigger)

  • The adjectives incolor(colorless) and multicor(multicolor).

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(better), have the same form for masculine and feminine.

  • O menino está contente! A menina está contente!

    The boy is content! The girl is content!

  • O menino é inteligente! A menina é inteligente!

    The boy is intelligent! The girl is intelligent!

  • O vestido é azul. A camisa é azul.

    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

the hypocritical man

a mulher hipócrita

the hypocritical woman

-e

o treinador forte

the strong trainer

a treinadora forte

the strong trainer

-l

o exercício fácil

the easy exercise

a prova fácil

the easy test

-ar

o jogador peculiar

the peculiar player

a jogadora peculiar

the peculiar player

-s

o restaurante simples

the simple restaurant

a padaria simples

the simple bakery

-z

o rapaz feliz

the happy boy

a moça feliz

the happy girl

-m

o pai jovem

the young father

a mãe jovem

the young mother

-or

comparative
adjectives only!

o livro maior

the bigger book

a revista maior

the bigger magazine

Tip

Comparative adjectives ending in -or include:

  • maior(bigger), menor(smaller)

  • melhor(better), pior(worse)

Exception!

There are two important exceptions to the -m and -l rule above:

  • Though bom(good) ends in -m, it does have a feminine form: boa

    o bom médico

    the good doctor (m.)

    a boa médica

    the good doctor (f.)

  • Though espanhol(Spanish) ends in -l, it does have a feminine form: espanhola

    o vinho espanhol

    the Spanish wine

    a comida espanhola

    the Spanish food

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
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural

-o, -u, -ão, -a, -e

+ -s (usually)

bonito

bonitos

bonita

bonitas

beautiful

*-ês

+ -es(m.)
+ -s(f.)

português

portugueses

portuguesa

portuguesas

Portuguese

-ar, -or

+ -es(m.)
+ -s(f.)

encantador

encantadores

encantadora

encantadoras

enchanting

-l

change to -is

legal

legais

legal

legais

cool

-s

no change

simples

simples

simples

simples

simple

* Don't forget to take off the accent for the masculine plural: "português → portugueses"
Exception!

The colors ending in -a: rosa(pink), laranja(orange), violeta(violet) and cinza(gray), have the same form for singular and plural, masculine and feminine. We don't need to add an -s to make the adjective plural, and don't need to change the ending between masculine and feminine.

  • a saia rosa → as saias rosa(the pink skirt → the pink skirts)

  • o portão cinza → os portões cinza(the gray gate → the gray gates)

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

dark brown hair

cabelos castanho-escuros

dark brown hairs

olho verde-claro

light green eye

olhos verde-claros

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:

nounadjective

a pessoa engraçada

the funny person

O restaurante brasileiro está cheio.

The Brazilian restaurant is full.

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:

uma velha amiga

a long-time friend

uma amiga velha

a friend who is old

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 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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