Adjective Agreement

Adjective agreement is a foundational pillar of Portuguese. It ensures that related words, like articles and adjectives, point clearly to the noun they describe.

1. The Rule of Two
Adjectives must agree in two ways:

• Gender: Masculine or Feminine.
• Number: Singular or Plural.

2. Common Patterns
Most adjectives end in -o for masculine and -a for feminine. For example, bonito (beautiful) becomes bonita, bonitos, or bonitas. Adjectives ending in -ão often change to -ã (alemão to alemã), but those describing personality traits or acting as augmentatives change to -ona (chorão to chorona). Less commonly, they can also change to -oa (like beirão to beiroa). Note that most adjectives ending in -m (like jovem or comum) are invariable in gender, but bom is an irregular exception that changes to boa. Another common irregular adjective is mau, which changes to má. See irregular adjective endings for more details.

3. Variable vs. Invariable Endings
Many adjectives ending in -e (like contente) or -l (like azul or leal) are gender-neutral. However, there are exceptions among consonant endings: espanhol becomes espanhola, and nationalities ending in -ês (português) change to -esa. You can explore these in nationality adjective agreement. Other common feminine vowel shifts include adjectives ending in -u adding an -a (cru to crua, though some like hindu are invariable) and those ending in -eu changing to -eia (europeu to europeia, with the notable exception of judeu which becomes judia).

Note that while adjectives ending in -or (like trabalhador) usually add an -a for the feminine (trabalhadora), comparative adjectives like melhor or pior, spatial/relative adjectives (anterior, superior), and colors like incolor are invariable in gender.

4. Plural Formation
Pluralizing adjectives isn't always as simple as adding -s. Adjectives ending in -m change to -ns (jovem to jovens, bom to bons); see plural of -m nouns. Adjectives ending in -z or -r add -es (feliz to felizes). Adjectives ending in -ês drop the circumflex accent and add -es (português to portugueses). For adjectives ending in -l, the general rule is to drop the -l and add -is (azul to azuis, leal to leais). However, for adjectives ending specifically in -il, the plural depends on the stress: oxytone words (stressed on the last syllable) change -il to -is (civil to civis), while paroxytone words (stressed on the second-to-last syllable) change -il to -eis (fácil to fáceis). See plural of consonant nouns and plural of -l nouns for these patterns. Finally, adjectives ending in -ão can form plurals in -ões, -ãos, or -ães (chorão to chorões, alemão to alemães); see plural of -ão nouns.

5. Mixed Groups
If you are describing a group that includes both masculine and feminine nouns, the adjective defaults to the masculine plural form.

6. Placement
While adjectives usually come after the noun, their agreement rules remain the same regardless of where they sit. See adjective placement for more on how position can change meaning.

7. Compound Adjectives
For compound adjectives (adjetivos compostos) made of two or more words, usually only the last word agrees with the noun in gender and number. For example, crise político-econômica (political-economic crisis) and olhos verde-claros (light green eyes). However, there are notable invariable exceptions, especially with colors, such as azul-marinho (navy blue) and azul-celeste (sky blue), which never change form.