Breakdown of O meu chefe tem mau feitio.
o chefe
the boss (m)
mau
bad / ill, unwell
o feitio
the temperament, the disposition
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Questions & Answers about O meu chefe tem mau feitio.
Why does this sentence use tem instead of a form of ser for a personality trait?
In Portuguese, you 'have' a bad temper rather than 'being' bad-tempered. The word feitio translates to 'disposition', 'make', or 'character'. So the phrase tem mau feitio literally means 'has a bad disposition'.
Why is the word mau used here instead of mal?
Usually adjectives come after the noun. Why does mau come before feitio here?
While most descriptive adjectives follow the noun in Portuguese, a handful of short, common adjectives that express basic evaluations—like bom (good), mau (bad), and grande (big)—usually come before the noun.
Is the O before meu chefe mandatory?
In European Portuguese, yes. Unless addressing someone directly, you generally must use the definite article (o or a) before a possessive word like meu when it precedes a noun. It feels unnatural to English speakers at first because it translates literally as 'The my boss'.