Question 1

I know mais means "more", so why don't we say mais grande and mais pequeno?

Accepted Answer

Just like in English where we say "bigger" instead of "more big", Portuguese has irregular forms for these common adjectives. maior means "bigger" (from grande) and menor means "smaller" (from pequeno). Saying mais grande is grammatically incorrect in Portuguese, though you might sometimes hear mais pequeno used in casual conversation.

Question 2

Do maior and menor change depending on the gender of the noun?

Accepted Answer

No, they are gender-neutral! Both masculine and feminine nouns use the exact same words. For example, if we were talking about a house (a casa), we would still say a casa é maior. However, they do change for plurals: if we were talking about multiple keyboards, you would add an -es to make it maiores.

Question 3

ecrã ends with an -ã - shouldn't it be a feminine word?

Accepted Answer

It looks like it should be, but ecrã is actually a masculine noun, which is why we use o before it. Words imported from other languages often have irregular genders. ecrã comes from the French word "écran", and it was assigned a masculine gender when it adapted into Portuguese.

Question 4

Why do we use é (from the verb ser) here instead of está (from estar)?

Accepted Answer

We use ser because the size of a keyboard or a screen is a permanent physical characteristic. You use ser for permanent traits, and estar for temporary states (for example, if the screen were simply dirty, you would say o ecrã está sujo).

O teclado é maior, mas o ecrã é menor.

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