The Great City of Belo Horizonte As the Subject of a Portuguese Lesson Plan
Belo Horizonte — Beautiful Horizon
Belo Horizonte is the third largest city in Brazil and the capital of Minas Gerais. Since this city has plenty of beautiful places to visit, let’s use these attractions to study the adjectives in Portuguese. Unlike English adjectives, Portuguese adjectives must agree with the noun they are characterising. That means that the adjective can be masculine or feminine and singular or plural. Some of the exceptions to this rule are the adjectives stable (estável), big (grande), strong (forte), easy (fácil) and difficult (difícil), which have no gender but can be used in singular or plural form.
Examples:
- Belo Horizonte is a big city. Belo Horizonte é uma cidade grande.
- a cidade grande (singular) — as cidades grandes (plural).
- The Portuguese language is difficult. A língua portuguesa é difícil.
- a língua difícil (singular) — as línguas difíceis (plural).
Cidade and língua are feminine nouns: a cidade, a língua.
The plural of an adjective that ends in a vowel is made by adding an s:
Example:
- A menina bonita (the beautiful girl). As meninas bonitas (the beautiful girls).
- Belo Horizonte possui uma bela montanha (Belo Horizonte has a beautiful mountain). Belo Horizonte possui belas montanhas (Belo Horizonte has beautiful mountains).
If the adjective ends in l, the plural is formed by:
(1) changing the l into an -is if there is a vowel before the l;
- azul — azuis (blue)
(2) changing the l into an s and adding the vowel e before -is if the vowel before the l is an i and there is a consonant before the vowel i.
- fácil — fáceis (easy)
- ágil — ágeis (agile)
Examples:
- A lição de português é fácil. As lições de português são fáceis.
- O leopardo é ágil. Leopardos são ágeis.
The plural of adjectives that end in z is formed by adding es:
- feliz — felizes (happy)
- capaz — capazes (able)
Interesting places to visit and interesting adjectives to learn
-
A Igreja da Lagoa da Pampulha é uma bela obra arquitetônica (a igreja, a lagoa, a obra). The Church of the Pampulha Pound is a beautiful architectural work.
- a bela obra arquitetônica — as belas obras arquitetônicas
-
O Palácio das Artes é um lugar excelente para se ver várias atrações (o palácio, o lugar, a atração, as atrações). The Palace of Arts is an excellent place to see several attractions.
- o lugar excelente — os lugares excelentes
-
O Parque das Mangabeiras oferece uma vista maravilhosa da cidade (o parque, a vista). The Park of Mangabeiras offers a wonderful view of the city.
- a vista maravilhosa — as vistas maravilhosas
Things to do when you visit Belo Horizonte
- Belo Horizonte é cheia de bares e restaurantes que oferecem deliciosos pratos típicos. Belo Horizonte is full of bars and restaurants that offer delicious typical dishes.
- O zoológico da cidade é um lugar muito bonito. The zoo of the city is a very beautiful place.
Homework (Dever de Casa)
After your Portuguese lesson on Belo Horizonte is done, ask the students to write a short text about the city using as many adjectives as possible to describe some characteristics of the place. Ask them to use singular, plural, masculine and feminine forms. They can take a look on images of the city to give them some ideas.
Example:
- Belo Horizonte é uma cidade grande e montanhosa. (Belo Horizonte is a big and hilly city)
and so on…
