What are adjectives? Adjectives modify the nouns that they are attached to. The masculine form is usually accepted as the “default” form, from which the feminine is somehow “derived.” This is one reason that when new words enter the language they are generally masculine. Whichever the gender, the fact remains that all elements in the noun phrase must match. How do you get from the masculine to the feminine forms? If the masculine ends in — o, you should drop the — o and add — a to get the feminine form. If the masculine word ends in — u or — ês, simply add the — a to the word to create the feminine counterpart. The following are some examples of masculine and feminine descriptive adjectives, which have to agree with the nouns.

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Masculine and Feminine Adjectives

Some adjectives have the same form for feminine and masculine. This happens often with adjectives that end in — e, such as inteligente (intelligent), doente (sick), and contente (happy). There are also a good number of adjectives that end in consonants that have the same form for both masculine and feminine, such as azul (blue), capaz (able), familiar (familiar), internacional (international), marrom (brown), and virgem (virgin). It is easy to see the changes in masculine and feminine adjectives by looking at a list of common nationalities. As you learn Portuguese, you might want to communicate your citizenship, or refer to people of various nationalities. Here is a short list of adjectives of nationality:

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Masculine and Feminine Nationalities

You will notice that canadense ends in — e and therefore has the same form for both masculine and feminine. For masculine words that end in — ão, the feminine form is derived by removing the — o and leaving the nasalized vowel — ã at the end, as in the word alemão, alemã (German). There are some nationalities that do not change in form, regardless of gender.

These are hindu (Hindu) and zulu (Zulu), among others.

Additionally, words ending in — eu in the masculine change to — éia in the feminine, such as in the word hebreu, hebréia (Hebrew).

Nationalities are not written with capital letters in Portuguese, as they are in English. They follow the same rule of other adjectives and begin with lowercase letters.

Exercise: Transforming Adjectives

Now let's see what you've learned about transforming adjectives. Make the appropriate changes so that the masculine form will become the feminine one. Check your answers in Appendix C.

• francês (French):     _________________________

• indiano (Indian):     _________________________

• nu (naked):      _________________________

• ateu (Atheist):     _________________________

• jornaleiro (newspaper seller):   _________________________

• japonês (Japanese):    _________________________

• israelense (Israelite):    _________________________

• colombiano (Colombian):   _________________________