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In Portuguese grammar, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles are moderately inflected: there are two genders (masculine and feminine) and two numbers (singular and plural). The case system of the ancestor language, Latin, has been lost, but personal pronouns are still declined with three main types of forms: subject, object of verb, and object of preposition. Most nouns and many adjectives can take diminutive or augmentative derivational suffixes, and most adjectives can take a so-called "superlative" derivational suffix. Adjectives usually follow their respective nouns.

Verbs are highly inflected: there are three tenses (past, present, future), three moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), three aspects (perfective, imperfective, and progressive), three voices (active, passive, reflexive), and an inflected infinitive. Most perfect and imperfect tenses are synthetic, totaling 11 conjugational paradigms, while all progressive tenses and passive constructions are periphrastic. There is also an impersonal passive construction, with the agent replaced by an indefinite pronoun. Portuguese is generally an SVO language, although SOV syntax may occur with a few object pronouns, and word order is generally not as rigid as in English. It is a null subject language, with a tendency to drop object pronouns as well, in colloquial varieties. Like Spanish, it has two main copular verbs: ser and estar.

It has a number of grammatical features that distinguish it from most other Romance languages, such as a synthetic pluperfect, a future subjunctive tense, the inflected infinitive, and a present perfect with an iterative sense.

Sentence structure

Word classes

Like most Indo-European languages, including English, Portuguese classifies most of its lexicon into four word classes: verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. These are "open" classes, in the sense that they readily accept new members, by coinage, borrowing, or compounding. Interjections form a smaller open class.

There are also several small closed classes, such as pronouns, prepositions, articles, demonstratives, numerals, and conjunctions. A few grammatically peculiar words are difficult to categorize; these include cadê ("where is"—Braz., colloq.), tomara ("let's hope"), oxalá ("let's hope that"), and eis ("here is"; cf. Latin ecce and French voilà).

Within the four main classes there are many semi-regular mechanisms that can be used to derive new words from existing words, sometimes with change of class; for example, veloz ("fast") → velocíssimo ("very fast"), medir ("to measure") → medição ("measurement"), piloto ("pilot") → pilotar ("to pilot"). Finally, there are several phrase embedding mechanisms that allow arbitrarily complex phrases to behave like nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.

Subject, object, and complement

Following the general Indo-European pattern, the central element of almost any Portuguese clause is a verb, which may directly connect to one, two, or (rarely) three nouns (or noun-like phrases), called the subject, the object (more specifically, the direct object), and the complement (more specifically, the object complement or objective complement). The most frequent order of these elements in Portuguese is subject–verb–object (SVO, as in examples (1) and (2) below), or, when a complement is present, subject–verb–object-complement (SVOC — examples (3) and (4)):

(1) {A Maria}_S {ama}_V {o Paulo}_O, "Maria loves Paulo."

(2) {O pedreiro}_S {construiu}_V {a casa}_O, "The mason has constructed the house."

(3) {O presidente}_S {nomeou}_V o {Pedro}_O {ministro}_C, "The president appointed Pedro (as) minister."

(4) {Ela}_S {achou}_V {o livro}_O {uma chatice}_C, "She found the book a bore."

Any of the three noun elements may be omitted if it can be inferred from the context or from other syntactic clues; but many grammatical rules will still apply as if the omitted part were there.

A clause will often contain a number of adverbs (or adverbial phrases) that modify the meaning of the verb; they may be inserted between the major components of the clause. Additional nouns can be connected to the verb by means of prepositions; the resulting prepositional phrases have an adverbial function. For example:

Ele carregou {sem demora} a mala {para ela} {do carro} {até a porta}, "He carried {without delay} the bag {for her} {from the car} {to the door}."

Null subject language

Portuguese is a null subject language, meaning that it permits and sometimes mandates the omission of an explicit subject.

In Portuguese, the grammatical person of the subject is generally reflected by the inflection of the verb. Sometimes, though an explicit subject is not necessary to form a grammatically correct sentence, one may be stated in order to emphasize its importance. Some sentences, however, do not allow a subject at all and in some other cases an explicit subject would sound awkward or unnatural:

• "I'm going home" can be translated either as vou para casa or as eu vou para casa, where eu means "I".
• "It's raining" is está a chover in European Portuguese, or está chovendo in Brazilian Portuguese, neither of which occurs with an explicit subject. Some older speakers say ele está a chover "it is raining", where ele "he/it" refers to the masculine subject o tempo "the weather". Nowadays this usage is uncommon and seen as old-fashioned.
• Que horas são? "what time is it?" (literally "what hours are they?"). Some older speakers say que horas são ele?, where ele refers to o tempo "the time" (o tempo can also mean "the weather"). Nowadays this usage is uncommon and seen as old-fashioned.
• In European Portuguese, only in exceptional circumstances would "I'm going home; I'm going to watch TV" be translated as eu vou para casa; eu vou ver televisão. At least the second eu ("I") would normally be omitted, if not both. Meanwhile, in Brazilian Portuguese, the subject pronoun is more likely to be repeated.

As in other null subject language with a SVO word order, the subject is often postponed, mostly in existential sentences, in answers to partial questions and in contrast structures:

• Existem muitos ratos aqui! ("There are many mice here!") — Verb existem, subject ratos, complement aqui indicating place.
• Quem é que foi? Fui eu. ("Who was it? It was me.") — Verb fui, subject eu.
• Ela não comeu o bolo, mas comi-o eu. (European Portuguese) or ...mas eu comi (Brazilian Portuguese) ("She didn't eat the cake, but I did.") — Subject ela, negation não, verb comeu, object o bolo; the complement divides itself into: adversative conjunction mas, verb comi, object -o, subject eu.

Types of sentences

Portuguese declarative sentences, as in many languages, are the least marked ones.

Imperative sentences use the imperative mood for the second person. For other grammatical persons and for every negative imperative sentence, the subjunctive is used.

Yes/no questions have the same structure as declarative sentences, and are marked only by a different tonal pattern (mostly a raised tone near the end of the sentence), represented by a question mark in writing.

Wh-questions often start with quem ("who"), o que ("what"), qual ("which"), onde ("where"), aonde ("where... to"), quando ("when"), por que ("why"), etc. The interrogative pronouns quem, o que and qual can be preceded by any preposition, but in this case o que will usually be reduced to que. Frequently in oral language, and occasionally in writing, these words are followed by the interrogative device é que (literally, "is that"; compare French est-ce que in wh-questions).
Wh-questions sometimes occur without wh-movement, that is, wh-words can remain in situ. In this case, o que and por que are replaced by their stressed counterparts o quê and por quê (Brazilian Portuguese) or porquê (European Portuguese). ^[1] For example:

O que/Que é que ela fez? or O que/que fez ela?

"What did she do?"

Ela fez o quê?

"What did she do?" or, if emphatic, "She did what?"

Por quê? (Brazilian Portuguese) / Porquê? (European Portuguese)

"Why?"

Em que dia é que isso aconteceu?

"On what day did that happen?"

Isso aconteceu em que dia?

"On what day did that happen?"

In Brazilian Portuguese, the phrase é que is more often omitted.

Replying

Não ("no") is the natural negative answer to yes/no questions. As in Latin, positive answers are usually made with the inflected verb of the question in the appropriate person and number. Portuguese is one of the few Romance languages keeping this Latin peculiarity. The adverbs já ("already"), ainda ("yet"), and também ("too", "also") are used when one of them appears in the question.

Q: Gostaste do filme? A: Gostei. / Não.

Q: "Did you like the movie?" A: "Yes.", literally, "I liked." / "No."

Q: Eu não tinha deixado aqui uma chave? A: Tinhas!

Q: "Didn't I leave a key here?" A: "Yes, you did!", literally, " did."

Q: Já leste este livro? A: Já. / Ainda não.

Q: "Have you already read this book?" A: "Yes", literally, "Already." / "Not yet."

The word sim ("yes") may be used for a positive answer, but, if used alone, it may in certain cases sound unnatural or impolite. In Brazilian Portuguese, sim can be used after the verb for emphasis. In European Portuguese, emphasis in answers is added with the duplication of the verb. In both versions of Portuguese, emphasis can also result from syntactical processes that are not restricted to answers, such as the addition of adverbs like muito ("much") or muitíssimo ("very much").

It is also acceptable, though sometimes formal, to use yes before the verb of the question, separated by a pause or, in writing, a comma. The use of sim before the verb does not add emphasis, and may on the contrary be less assertive.

Q: Gostou do filme? A: Gostei, sim!

Q: "Did you like the movie?" A:"Yes, I did!"

Q: Gostaste do filme? A: Gostei, gostei!

Q: "Did you like the movie?" A:"I did, I did!"

Q: Há comboios a esta hora? A: Há, há!

Q: "Are there any trains at this time?" A:"Yes, there are!"

Q: Ele gostou do filme? A: Sim, gostou...

Q:"Did he like the movie?" A: "He did, yes..."

Articles

Portuguese has definite and indefinite articles, with different forms according to the gender and number of the noun to which they refer:

	singular		plural		meaning
	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine
definite article	o, el[a]	a	os	as	the
indefinite article	um	uma[b]	uns	umas[c]	a, an; some

The noun after the indefinite article may be elided, in which case the article is equivalent to English "one" (if singular) or "some" (if plural): quero um também ("I want one too"), quero uns também ("I want some too").

Nouns

Nouns are classified into two grammatical genders ("masculine" and "feminine") and are inflected for grammatical number (singular or plural). Adjectives and determiners (articles, demonstratives, possessives, and quantifiers) must be inflected to agree with the noun in gender and number. Many nouns can take diminutive or augmentative suffixes to express size, endearment, or deprecation.

Portuguese does not inflect nouns to indicate their grammatical function or case, relying instead on the use of prepositions (simple and phrasal), on pleonastic objects, or on the context or word order. Personal pronouns, on the other hand, still maintain some vestiges of declension from the ancestor language, Latin.

Gender and number

Most adjectives and demonstratives, and all articles must be inflected according to the gender and number of the noun they reference:

esta linda casa branca ("this lovely white house")

este lindo carro branco ("this lovely white car")

estas lindas aves brancas ("these lovely white birds")

estes lindos gatos brancos ("these lovely white cats")

The agreement rules apply also to adjectives used with copulas, e.g. o carro é branco ("the car is white") vs. a casa é branca ("the house is white").

Plural formation

Portuguese nouns form their plurals by adding -s if the singular ends in a vowel, and -es if the singular ends in n, r or z. If the singular ends in s, then if the last syllable is stressed, the plural adds -es, and otherwise the plural is the same as the singular. Words ending in m change that m into ns, and words ending in l change that l into -is (e.g. animal > animais). Before 1943, the plural of words that ended in l, was -es, so: Crystal -> Crystaes, Papel -> Papees. Words ending in ão vary in how they form their plurals: some replace the ão with ães, others with ões, and others just add an -s like the other nouns ending in a vowel.

Gender determination

Grammatical gender of inanimate entities is sometimes different from that used in sister languages: thus, for example, Portuguese árvore ("tree") and flor ("flower") are feminine, while Spanish árbol and Italian fiore are masculine; Portuguese mar ("sea") and mapa ("map") are masculine, while French mer and mappe are feminine.

In many cases, the gender and number of a noun can be deduced from its ending: the basic pattern is "-o" / "-os" for masculine singular and plural, "-a" / "-as" for feminine. So, casa ("house"), mala ("suitcase"), pedra ("stone"), and inteligência ("intelligence") are feminine, while carro ("car"), saco ("bag"), tijolo ("brick"), and aborrecimento ("annoyance") are masculine. However, the complete rules are quite complex: for instance, nouns ending in -ção are usually feminine, except for augmentatives like bração ("big arm"). And there are many irregular exceptions. For words ending in other letters, there are few rules: flor ("flower"), gente ("folk"), nau ("ship"), maré ("tide") are feminine, while amor ("love"), pente ("comb"), pau ("stick"), café ("coffee") are masculine.

On the other hand, the gender of some nouns, as well as of first- and second-person pronouns, is determined semantically by the sex or gender of the referent: aquela estudante é nova, mas aquele estudante é velho ("this (female) student is new, but that (male) student is old"; or eu sou brasileiro ("I am Brazilian", said by a man) and eu sou brasileira (the same, said by a woman). Honorific forms of address such as Vossa Excelência ("Your Excellency") exhibit noun/adjective agreement internally, but require agreement according to the gender of the referent for other modifiers, as in Vossa Excelência está atarefado ("Your Excellency is busy").^[2]

Also, many animate masculine nouns have specific feminine derivative forms to indicate female sex or social gender: lobo ("wolf" or "male wolf", masculine gender) → loba ("she-wolf", feminine), conde ("count", m.) → condessa ("countess", f.), doutor ("doctor" or "male doctor", m.) → doutora ("female doctor", f.), ator ("actor", m.) → atriz ("actress", f.), etc. The feminine noun derivations should not be confused with the adjectival gender inflections, which use different (and more regular) rules.

Diminutives and augmentatives

The Portuguese language makes abundant use of diminutives, which connote small size, endearment or insignificance. Diminutives are very commonly used in informal language. On the other hand, most uses of diminutives are avoided in written and otherwise formal language.

The most common diminutive endings are -inho and -inha, replacing -o and -a, respectively. Words with the stress on the last syllable generally have -zinho or -zinha added, such as café "coffee" and cafezinho "coffee served as a show of hospitality". In writing, a c (but not a ç) becomes qu in some words, like pouco ("few") and pouquinho ("very few"), in order to preserve the pronunciation.

Possible endings other than -inho(a) are:

It is also possible to form a diminutive of a diminutive, e.g. "burriquito" (burro + -ico + -ito).

Portuguese diminutive endings are often used not only with nouns but also with adjectives, e.g. tonto/tontinho ("silly" / "a bit silly"), or verde/verdinho ("green" / "nicely green") and occasionally with adverbs, e.g. depressa/depressinha ("quickly") and some other word classes, e.g. obrigadinho—diminutive for the interjection obrigado "thanks". Even the numeral um (one) can informally become unzinho.

The most common augmentatives are the masculine -ão and the feminine -ona, although there are others, like -aço(a) e.g. mulher/mulheraça ("woman"); or -eirão, e.g. voz/vozeirão ("voice"), less frequently used. Sometimes the masculine augmentative can be applied to a feminine noun, which then becomes grammatically masculine, but with a feminine meaning, e.g. a mulher / o mulherão ("the woman" / "the big woman").

Adjectives

Adjectives normally follow the nouns that they modify. Thus "white house" is casa branca, and "green fields" is campos verdes; the reverse order (branca casa, verdes campos) is generally limited to poetic language.

However, some adjectives—such as bom ("good"), belo ("nice"), and grande ("great", "big")—often precede the noun. Indeed, some of these have rather different meanings depending on position: compare um grande homem "a great man", vs. um homem grande "a big man".

Adjectives are routinely inflected for gender and number, according to a few basic patterns, much like those for nouns, as in the following table:

masc. sing.	fem. sing.	masc. pl.	fem. pl.	meaning
branco	branca	brancos	brancas	"white"
francês	francesa	franceses	francesas	"French"
motor	motriz	motores	motrizes	"motorised"
grandão	grandona	grandões	grandonas	"rather big"
conservador	conservadora	conservadores	conservadoras	"conservative"
europeu	europeia	europeus	europeias	"European"
verde		verdes		"green"
superior		superiores		"superior"
feliz		felizes		"happy"
central		centrais		"central"
civil		civis		"futile"
fácil		fáceis		"easy"
azul		azuis		"blue"

A feminine adjective ending in -eia may correspond either to a masculine adjective ending in -eu (e.g. europeu, europeia) or to one ending in -eio (e.g. feio, feia).

Although, some adjectives are invariable, usually the ones whose singular form ending is -s, and a few colour adjectives, generally the compound ones, as in the table below:

masc. sing.	fem. sing.	masc. pl.	fem. pl.	meaning
simples				"simple"
reles				"lousy"
azul-claro				"light blue"
laranja				"orange"
verde-oliva				"olive green"
ultravioleta				"ultraviolet"

The adjectives for "good" and "bad" are irregular:

masc. sing.	fem. sing.	masc. pl.	fem. pl.	meaning
bom	boa	bons	boas	"good"
mau	má	maus	más	"bad"

Comparison of adjectives is regularly expressed in analytic form using the adverb mais: mais alto (do) que = "higher than", o mais alto "the highest". Most adjectives have—in addition to their positive, comparative, and superlative forms—a so-called "absolute superlative" form (sometimes called "elative"), which enhances the meaning of the adjective without explicitly comparing it (lindo, "beautiful"; muito lindo or lindíssimo, "very beautiful"), it can appear in both analytic or synthetic form.^[3]

Positive	Comparative	Superlative	Analytic absolute superlative	Synthetic absolute superlative
belo "pretty"	mais belo "prettier"	o mais belo "the prettiest"	muito belo "very pretty"	belíssimo "very pretty"
caro "expensive"	mais caro "more expensive"	o mais caro "the most expensive"	muito caro "very expensive"	caríssimo "very expensive"

A few adjectives (besides mais itself) have suppletive comparative/superlative forms:

Positive	Comparative	Absolute superlative	Superlative
bom "good"	melhor "better"	ótimo "very good"	o melhor "the best"
mau "bad"	pior "worse"	péssimo "very bad"	o pior "the worst"
pequeno "small"	menor "smaller"	mínimo "very small"	o menor "the smallest"
grande "big"	maior "bigger"	máximo "very big"	o maior "the biggest"

Adverbs

Portuguese adverbs work much like their English counterparts, e.g. muito ("very"), pouco ("not much"), longe ("far"), muito ("much, a lot"), quase ("almost"), etc. To form adverbs from adjectives, the adverbial suffix -mente is generally added to the feminine singular of the adjective, whether or not it differs from the masculine singular. Thus:

• claro ("clear", m. sg.) → clara (f. sg.) → claramente ("clearly")
• natural ("natural", m. & f. sg.) → naturalmente ("naturally")

Unlike Spanish, an orthographic accent on the adjective is not retained on the adverb; thus for example rápido → rapidamente ("fast, quickly").

As with adjectives, the comparative of adverbs is almost always formed by placing mais ("more") or menos ("less") before the adverb. Thus mais cedo ("earlier"), mais rapidamente ("faster, more quickly"), etc.

The adjectives bom ("good") and mau ("bad") have irregular adverbial forms: bem ("well") and mal ("badly"), respectively. And, like their corresponding adjectival forms, bem and mal have irregular comparative forms: melhor ("better") and pior ("worse"), respectively.

Adverbs of place show a three-way distinction between close to the speaker, close to the listener, and far from both:

aqui, cá = "here"

aí, lá = "there" (near you)

ali, acolá = "over there" (far from both of us)

These adverbs (except by cá and lá) get contracted with de (from).

preposition	adverb
	aqui	aí	ali	acolá
de	daqui	daí	dali	dacolá

The English concept of phrasal verb—a verb-and-adverb sequence that forms a single semantic unit, such as "set up", "get by", "pick out", etc.—is rare in Portuguese. There are, however, some exceptions, such as ir embora ("to go away / to leave") and jogar fora ("to throw away").

Prepositions

Simple prepositions consist of a single word, while compound prepositions are formed by a phrase.