When knowing about the grammatical contents in general, an extremely relevant aspect is to understand about the denotative sense with regard to the concept of a given term.
To do so, we will start the related subject emphasizing the way in which flexion takes place:
As well as the nouns,the adjectives are changeable as to gender, number and degree, such terms refer us to the idea of singular/plural, male/female, augmentative/diminutive.
As for gender, they are subdivided into:
uniforms – They have only one form, being applied to both masculine and feminine nouns:
Examples:
happy boy - happy girl
sad woman - sad man
previous time - previous time
biforms – They have two distinct forms of applicability, one for males and one for females:
Examples:
dynamic teacher - dynamic teacher
restless students - restless students
furious cat - furious cat
As for the number:
Simple adjectives generally agree with the noun they refer to:
Examples:
lovely child - lovely children
young worker - young workers
animated audience - animated audiences
Already the compound adjectives, obey some specific rules, in which only the last element is inflected:
Examples:
light brown eyes
Greco-Roman sculptures
civic-religious celebrations
There are some exceptions, such as:
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navy blue and sky blue, both are invariable, note:
navy blue suits
sky blue lingerie
deaf-mute - the two elements are variable:
Examples:
deaf and dumb students
deaf mute girls
*When the second element represents a noun, it also remains unchanged:
Examples:
lemon yellow dresses
ice-white refrigerators
olive fabrics
As for the degree:
They are presented in two degrees: comparative and superlative:
comparative degree- subdivided into:
comparison of equality – Paulo is as tall as his brother
inferiority comparison – Paul is less tall than (or than) his brother.
superiority comparison – Paul is taller than (or than) his brother.
superlative degree – subdivides into:
Relative Inferiority Superlative – Mariana is the least industrious of the sisters.
Relative superlative of superiority – Marcos is the calmest of the whole family.
Absolute superlative – this is when quality is expressed in an intensified way.
Analytical absolute superlative – The employee is extremely (or very, very) hardworking.
Synthetic absolute superlative – the receptionist isvery pleasant.
Note that the synthetic absolute superlative is formed by adding the suffix - very,
-laughter, -imo.
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
DUARTE, Vânia Maria do Nascimento. "The inflection of adjectives"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/a-flexao-dos-adjetivos.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.