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O cão é mau.

O cão é mau.
The dog is bad.
From Lesson 21:Adjective agreement and placement·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about O cão é mau.

Why is it mau and not má?
Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because cão (dog) is a masculine word, we use the masculine form mau. If we were talking about a female dog (cadela), we would say A cadela é má.
If I wanted to say 'the bad dog' instead of 'the dog is bad', where does the adjective go?
In Portuguese, describing words (adjectives) usually come right after the noun. So 'the bad dog' translates to o cão mau. This is a great example of post-nominal adjective placement, which simply means the adjective follows the noun it describes.
Why use é instead of está for 'is'?
The verb ser (which becomes é here) is used for permanent traits. Saying O cão é mau means the dog has a bad or aggressive personality in general. If you used está (from the verb estar), it would mean the dog is just temporarily in a bad mood or feeling sick today.
How would I change this sentence to say 'The dogs are bad'?
Every word must change to match the plural form. O becomes Os, the irregular plural of cão is cães, the verb é becomes são, and the adjective mau becomes maus to agree with the plural noun. The complete plural sentence is Os cães são maus.

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