Why do Brazilians say…

“It’s more cold today than yesterday.”

Because in Portuguese you say: “É mais frio hoje do que ontem.”

Thus:

É mais frio hoje do que ontem. It’s more cold today than yesterday.

This sounds perfectly correct if you translate it literally.

But the correct way is: “ It is colder today than yesterday.”

 WHY? Let’s see!

In English, like in Portuguese, adjectives normally have three degrees;

The Positive – non-comparative and also known as the base-adjective.- Frank is tall.

The Comparative – comparing two nouns = adj. + “than” – Frank is taller than Mary.

The Superlative – compare more than two nouns = “the” + adj – Frank is the tallest of them all.

And we generally follow the structure as set out above.

But of course we have exceptions like – beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful, or bad, worse, worst, and a few others.

But in most cases we follow the above patterns, adjective + “than”, and “the” + adjective.

Unfortunately/Infelizmente – the exception in English becomes the rule in Portuguese.

I know you also have your exceptions in Portuguese, like:

bom melhor o melhor means good better the best

mau pior o pior means bad worse the worst

But in Portuguese – generally – comparative and superlative phrases mostly rely on the word – mais/more.

Unlike English adjectives, which have special comparative (the -er of bigger) and superlative (the -est of biggest) endings, Portuguese adjectives do not have special forms.

A comparative phrase in Portuguese is basically formed as: mais + adjective + (do) que – means  ___-er than.

Thus, Roberto é mais alto do que João or Roberto é mais alto que João = Robert is taller than John.

A superlative phrase also relies on the word mais/more.

Roberto é o mais grande. –  Robert is the biggest.

Ana é a mais alta. –  Anna is the tallest.

Esses homens são os mais altos. –  Those men are the tallest.

Hopefully you understand now why we translate:

“É mais frio hoje do que ontem.” as “It is colder today than yesterday.”

Do JOIN our English classes and enjoy the professional guidance of our highly qualified and experienced English teachers. They are also specifically trained to understand the ESL needs of Brazilian speakers.