You know what it is synthetic absolute superlative grade? Sounds complicated, doesn't it? Well know that, despite its big and difficult name, the synthetic absolute superlative degree is not as complicated as it sounds. Want to see it?
Our Portuguese language is very interesting! And we Brazilians are somewhat exaggerated and expressive in the way we speak, that's why we abuse superlatives. As the name says, SUPERlatives convey the idea of augmentation, and may be related to adjectives, that class of words that delimits and qualifies the noun. They can be of two types: analytic absolute superlative degree and synthetic absolute superlative degree.
The analytic superlative is formed by adding words like super, very, extremely and extraordinarily. See just a few examples:
Mariana is super smart.
Eighth grade students are much hardworking!
Miguel is a boy extremely clever.
already the synthetic superlative grade it is formed in another way. It is not added with a word, but with a suffix. There is the erudite form, which is of Latin origin, and another popular form, which originates in the vernacular itself, that is, the native language of a country, in our case, Portuguese. The erudite form is constituted by the radical of the Latin adjective plus suffixes, which can be -great, imo or very bad. Take a look at some examples:
The population of that country is very poor!
John proved to be a friend most faithful.
The exercise list was very easy!
The popular form is formed by the root of the adjective plus the suffix -very. Look at the examples:
The population of that country is very poor!
The yellowish pages denounce the book very old.
Carolina is a mother very careful with your children.
So that you stay on top of the rules, look at the table with some adjectives inflected in the synthetic absolute superlative degree and... Good studies!
Adjectives ending in -a, -and, -o: |
cautious - very cautious |
Finished in – vel will present the final -bil: |
lovely - most lovely |
Finished in -m and -to the will pass to -n and -an: |
young - very young christian - most christian |
Finished in -z will receive according to -ç: |
happy - very happy |
Finished in -u, -l (except -vel) and -r: |
bad - very bad fragile – fragile regular - very regular |
Finished in yo, the vowel -O falls to receive the suffix: |
full - very full |
Superlatives attached to Latin forms: |
cruel - very crude poor – very poor humble – very humble old - very old |
