Breakdown of O gato tem orelhas grandes.
o gato
the cat
ter
to have
grande
big / large
a orelha
the ear (outer)
Questions & Answers about O gato tem orelhas grandes.
Why does this sentence use orelhas for ears instead of ouvidos?
In Portuguese, there are two words for ears. Orelhas refers to the physical outer ear, which is what we are describing here. Ouvidos refers to the inner ear or the sense of hearing (like when you have an earache or are listening to music).
Since orelhas is a feminine word, shouldn't the adjective change to match its gender?
Adjectives that end in -e in their singular form, like grande, are neutral. This means they use the exact same form for both masculine and feminine nouns. Because orelhas is plural, we only need to add an -s to make the adjective plural, giving us grandes.
Why is grandes placed after the noun instead of before it?
In Portuguese, adjectives describing physical traits like size, color, or shape usually come right after the noun. While putting grande before a noun is sometimes possible, it often changes the meaning to "great" rather than physically "big".
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