Breakdown of O primeiro guerreiro tem um escudo pesado.
ter
to have
um
a / an / some (all forms)
pesado
heavy
primeiro
first
Questions & Answers about O primeiro guerreiro tem um escudo pesado.
Why does primeiro come before the noun, but pesado comes after?
In Portuguese, descriptive adjectives that give objective physical traits (like pesado describing the shield's weight) usually go after the noun. However, ordinal numbers like primeiro (first), segundo (second), etc., belong to a special class of adjectives that always precede the noun they modify.
How does this sentence tie into the current lesson on adjective prepositions (Regência nominal)?
While this specific sentence doesn't use a preposition, you can easily add one to specify who the shield is heavy for. The adjective pesado takes the preposition para. For example, you would say O escudo é pesado para o guerreiro (The shield is heavy for the warrior).
Does pesado only mean physically heavy?
No, much like in English, pesado is highly versatile. At the B2 level, you will often see it used figuratively to mean difficult, intense, or oppressive. For example, um ambiente pesado means a tense or heavy atmosphere, and uma piada pesada is an offensive or dark joke.
What is the grammatical function of the suffix in guerreiro?