Adjectives vs Adverbs: What’s the Difference?

When learning Portuguese, a common source of confusion is understanding the difference between adjectives and adverbs. Both play crucial roles in the language, but they serve distinct purposes. This article will help you grasp these differences, with sentence examples to illustrate each point.

What Are Adjectives?

Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns and pronouns. They provide more information about a person, place, thing, or idea. Here are a few examples (adjectives in bold):

O céu azul.
The blue sky.
Um vestido comprido.
A long dress.

In these examples, the adjectives azul, comprido, and brilhante are adjectives describing the nouns céu, vestido, and aluno.

Another thing to notice is that, in Portuguese, nouns tend to precede adjectives (as opposed to what happens in English).

Most importantly, adjectives don’t always appear directly before or after the noun. They often follow linking verbs (such as ser, estar, ficar, permanecer, tornar-se, andar, continuar), yet they still refer to the noun or person in question.

O Pedro ficou doente.
Pedro got sick.
Esta casa continua bonita.
This house is still beautiful.

What Are Adverbs?

Adverbs are words that modify (or qualify) verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They provide more information about how, when, where, and to what extent something happens. Here are a few examples (adverbs in bold):

Ela conduz devagar.
She drives slowly.
Ela conduz extremamente devagar.
She drives extremely slowly.
O carro dela é bastante antigo.
Her car is quite old.

In these examples, devagar modifies the verb conduzir; extremamente modifies the adverb devagar; and bastante modifies the adjective antigo.

Other Key Differences

By default, adjectives change form to conform to the nouns’ number and gender they are referring to:

Um carro branco. (A white car.)
Carros brancos. (White cars.)
Uma casa branca. (A white house.)
Casas brancas. (White houses.)

In these examples, the adjectives “branco,” “brancos,” “branca,” and “brancas” have different endings agreeing in gender and number with the nouns they are referring to: “carro” (masculine, singular); “carros” (masculine, plural); “casa” (feminine, singular); and “casas” (feminine, plural).

Adverbs, on the other hand, stay always the same. As we saw before, adverbs qualify adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs, none of which vary in gender or number.

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