Adjectives are words that describe or qualify nouns. They can be adjetivos simplessimple adjectives if they’re just one word, or adjetivos compostoscompound adjectives if formed by two or more elements, usually (but not always) connected by a hyphen (-).
Simple Portuguese Adjectives
O carro vermelhoThe red car
Um carro bonitoA beautiful car
Compound Portuguese Adjectives
Camisola rosa-choqueBright pink sweatshirt
Homem surdo-mudoDeaf-mute man
More compound adjectives:
- bem-dispostocheerful, happy mal-humoradoill-tempered, grumpy
- bem-educadopolite mal-educadorude
- bem-parecidogood-looking, elegant bem-vindowelcome, appreciated bem-intencionadowell-intentioned
- mal-acabadopoorly done
- castanho-escurodark brown verde-alfacelettuce green
- vice-campeãorunner-up
- afro-americanoAfrican American anglo-americanoAnglo-American hispano-americanaHispanic American
- indo-europeuIndo-European greco-romanaGreco-Roman
Gender and Number Agreement
Although there are some that only have one gender form, for the most part, simple adjectives must match the gender and number of the noun they’re describing:
- Masculine, singular: Rapaz bonitoPretty boy
- Feminine, plural: Flores bonitasPretty flowers
Compound adjectives, however, are a bit more complicated. Only the second element changes according to number and gender:
- Masculine, plural: Os jogadores latino-americanosThe Latin American players
- Feminine, singular: Literatura latino-americanaLatin American literature
Notice that in both sentences, only the -americano element of the compound adjective is adjusted to match the gender and number (americanos, americana). The latino- element remains unchanged.
Exceptions
As always, there are a few exceptions:
- Adjectives that end with a noun, which are mainly colours, don’t change at all. For example, the adjectives verde-azeitonaolive green and amarelo-douradogolden yellow stay as they are.
- A few compound adjectives, despite not having a noun as its second element, are also invariable. Two examples are azul-marinhonavy blue and azul-celestesky-blue
- Both elements change in the expression surdo-mudodeaf mute , so that it becomes surdos-mudos (masculine, plural) and surdas-mudas (feminine, plural).
Compound Adjectives with no Hyphen (-)
There are many adjectives that combine two words or elements without needing to be hyphenated. Examples include:
- maldispostomoody, grumpy
- socioeconómicosocioeconomic
- socioculturalsociocultural
- psicoterapêuticopsychotherapeutic
Even though these are considered compound, they each form just one word, so they usually follow the same rules as simple adjectives, matching the noun in gender and number. One exception would be the adjective ultravioletaultraviolet , which is invariable.
Does “latino-americano” reference Mexico and the countries in Central America and South America, and “hispano-americano” reference the citizens and/or culture of the United States with roots in these countries? In the United States, we typically use “Hispanic American” or just simply “hispanic” for the latter, while reserving “Latin American” for the former.
“Latino-americano” and “hispano-americano” are both very similar in meaning for us, I’d say. “Latino-americano” references all of Latin America (so, what you said) and “hispano-americano” references Latin-American countries where Spanish is spoken, which leaves out very few countries, such as Brazil or French Guyana.
You missed out Guyana, english-speaking, and Suriname which is dutch- speaking making them not latin American at all.