The absolute superlative says a quality is present to an extreme degree — not more than X (that's the comparative) and not the most of a group (that's the relative superlative), but simply extremely / really / super. Brazilian Portuguese offers three routes: a synthetic suffix -íssimo, an analytic muito + adjective, and a rich set of colloquial intensifiers. The synthetic form carries flavor and emphasis; the analytic form is the neutral default.
Three ways to say "extremely"
Esse bolo está delicioso. (neutral)
This cake is delicious.
Esse bolo está muito gostoso. (analytic)
This cake is very tasty.
Esse bolo está gostosíssimo. (synthetic)
This cake is extremely tasty / super tasty.
The synthetic -íssimo form is more expressive and a little more emphatic than muito; it's common in both speech and writing. The analytic muito is always safe and never wrong.
The synthetic suffix -íssimo
The base rule: take the adjective, drop the final vowel (if there is one), and add -íssimo (masculine) / -íssima (feminine), agreeing in gender and number. The accent on the í is obligatory — -íssimo is always written with it.
| Adjective | Absolute superlative | English |
|---|---|---|
| lindo | lindíssimo | extremely beautiful |
| caro | caríssimo | extremely expensive |
| feliz | felicíssimo | extremely happy |
| elegante | elegantíssimo | extremely elegant |
A casa nova deles é lindíssima.
Their new house is extremely beautiful.
Fiquei felicíssima com a notícia.
I was extremely happy with the news.
O ingresso do show estava caríssimo.
The concert ticket was extremely expensive.
Spelling adjustments and irregular stems
Several endings trigger a consonant change to preserve the original sound, and a few words use a Latin-based irregular stem. These are the high-value forms to memorize.
| Adjective | Superlative | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| rico | riquíssimo | c → qu (keep the /k/ sound) |
| antigo | antiquíssimo | g → qu (keep the /k/ sound) |
| feliz | felicíssimo | z → c |
| simples | simplíssimo | regular drop |
| fácil | facílimo | -il words: single -limo, no double s* |
| difícil | dificílimo | same -il pattern |
| amável | amabilíssimo | -vel → -bilíssimo |
| agradável | agradabilíssimo | -vel → -bilíssimo |
Adjectives ending in *-il take the learned ending -ílimo (one l, then -imo), not -ilíssimo: fácil → facílimo, difícil → dificílimo, frágil → fragílimo. This comes straight from Latin and is one of the genuinely irregular corners — there's no shortcut beyond memorizing the -il → -ílimo pattern.
A prova foi facílima, terminei em vinte minutos.
The test was extremely easy, I finished in twenty minutes.
Esse vinho é antiquíssimo, é de 1950.
This wine is extremely old, it's from 1950.
Ela foi amabilíssima com a gente.
She was extremely kind to us.
The -érrimo forms
A handful of adjectives — mostly learned, Latin-derived words — take -érrimo instead of -íssimo. The accent falls on the é. These are more literary, but the two you'll actually meet are pobre and célebre.
| Adjective | -érrimo form | English |
|---|---|---|
| pobre | paupérrimo | extremely poor |
| célebre | celebérrimo | extremely famous |
| acre | acérrimo | extremely bitter/fierce |
A região era paupérrima antes da chegada da indústria.
The region was extremely poor before industry arrived.
Ele é um crítico acérrimo do governo. (formal)
He is a fierce critic of the government.
Note that pobre also has a regular colloquial form pobríssimo, which Brazilians use in everyday speech; paupérrimo (literary/formal) is the prestige form. Both are correct.
The analytic form: muito + adjective
The everyday, never-wrong way to intensify is simply muito (very) before the adjective. Muito as an adverb here is invariable.
O exercício foi muito difícil.
The exercise was very difficult.
Eles moram numa casa muito antiga.
They live in a very old house.
When in doubt about a tricky synthetic form, the analytic muito version is always available and natural.
Colloquial intensifiers (informal)
Spoken Brazilian Portuguese loves intensity, and there are several very common colloquial options:
- super-, mega-, ultra-, hiper- prefixes (informal): superlegal, megacaro, ultrarrápido.
- pra caramba after the adjective (informal): bom pra caramba (really good).
- demais after the adjective — can mean "really" (positive) or "too much" depending on tone.
A festa foi superlegal, todo mundo dançou. (informal)
The party was super cool, everybody danced.
Esse açaí é gostoso pra caramba. (informal)
This açaí is really tasty.
O filme foi longo demais, quase dormi. (informal)
The movie was way too long, I almost fell asleep.
Comparison with English
English has no productive synthetic intensifier suffix. We say very expensive, extremely expensive, super expensive — always with a separate word. Portuguese can fold the intensity into the adjective itself (caríssimo), which is why the synthetic form feels so expressive to learners: it's a single word doing the work of two. The closest English analogue is slangy doubling like expensive-expensive or waaay expensive — flavorful but not grammaticalized the way -íssimo is.
The other surprise is agreement: because -íssimo is part of the adjective, it agrees in gender and number (caríssimo / caríssima / caríssimos / caríssimas), unlike English very, which never changes.
Common Mistakes
❌ A casa deles é lindissima.
Incorrect — the suffix must keep its accent: -íssima.
✅ A casa deles é lindíssima.
Their house is extremely beautiful.
❌ A prova foi facilíssima.
Incorrect — '-il' adjectives take '-ílimo': facílima.
✅ A prova foi facílima.
The test was extremely easy.
❌ Esse vinho é antigíssimo.
Incorrect — keep the /k/ sound: antiquíssimo.
✅ Esse vinho é antiquíssimo.
This wine is extremely old.
❌ Ele é riquíssimo (written 'ricíssimo').
Incorrect — 'rico' becomes 'riquíssimo', not 'ricíssimo'.
✅ Ele é riquíssimo.
He is extremely rich.
❌ Ela foi muito amabilíssima com a gente.
Incorrect — don't combine 'muito' with a synthetic superlative (double marking).
✅ Ela foi amabilíssima com a gente.
She was extremely kind to us.
Key Takeaways
- Absolute superlative = "extremely"; three routes: synthetic -íssimo, analytic muito, colloquial super-/pra caramba.
- Always keep the accent: -íssimo and -érrimo.
- Memorize the irregular stems: rico→riquíssimo, antigo→antiquíssimo, fácil→facílimo, -vel→-bilíssimo, pobre→paupérrimo.
- Don't combine muito with the synthetic form — that's double marking.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Relative Superlative (O Mais ... De)A2 — The Brazilian Portuguese relative superlative — definite article + mais/menos + adjective + DE + a set — picks out the most or least of a group, with irregulars like o melhor and o pior.
- Superlative SentencesA2 — How to say 'the most', 'the best', and 'extremely' in Brazilian Portuguese — relative superlatives with 'o mais ... de', absolute superlatives in '-íssimo', and colloquial intensifiers.
- Augmentatives: -ão, -zãoA2 — How Brazilian Portuguese builds augmentatives with -ão, -zão, -ona, -aço and -arra — and why they mean far more than just 'big'.
- Adjectives: OverviewA1 — How Brazilian Portuguese adjectives work — they agree with the noun in gender and number and usually follow it, the mirror image of English's invariable pre-nominal adjective.