Breakdown of O chefe declarou o funcionário irresponsável.
o chefe
the boss (m)
o funcionário
the employee
declarar
to declare
irresponsável
irresponsible
Questions & Answers about O chefe declarou o funcionário irresponsável.
Is irresponsável just a normal adjective describing the employee here, or does it have a special function?
It has a special function. It acts as the object complement (predicativo do complemento direto). It does not just mean 'the irresponsible employee'; rather, 'irresponsible' is the specific attribute the boss is assigning to the employee through the verb declarou. If it were just a normal noun modifier, the sentence would feel incomplete, as if saying 'The boss declared the irresponsible employee [to be something else].'
If I replace o funcionário with a direct object pronoun, where does it go and what happens to the sentence?
Does the object complement irresponsável have to agree with the direct object?
Yes, it must agree in gender and number with the direct object (o funcionário). Since irresponsável ends in -l, it is gender-neutral and works for both masculine and feminine nouns. However, if the boss were talking about multiple employees (os funcionários), the object complement would have to be pluralized to match: O chefe declarou os funcionários irresponsáveis.
Why isn't there a word like como (as) before irresponsável? In English, we might say 'declared him as irresponsible.'