Gender and number agreement: nationalities

1. Agreeing one’s nationality in a sentence may already be intuitive to you. If not, you can follow 3 steps. These steps work across the language for words that describe someone / something. Let’s use the prompt below. We need to replace the flag by its nationality.

(1) Who is the subject? Answer: eles.

(2) Is the subject feminine or masculine? Answer: masculine. Masculine for British is: britânico.

(3) Is the subject singular or plural? Answer: plural. So we need to make britânico plural: britânicos.

Final sentence: Eles são britânicos. Listen BP — Listen EP

Let’s do one more example:

(1) Who is the subject? Answer: ela.

(2) Is the subject feminine or masculine? Answer: feminine. Feminine for British is: britânica.

(3) Is the subject singular or plural? Answer: singular. So we don’t need to add anything else: britânica.

Final sentence: Ela é britânica. Listen BP — Listen EP

2. Where would não go in the sentences above to turn them into negative sentences as in: They are not British / She is not British?

Answer: Eles não são britânicos. Listen BP — Listen EP

Answer: Ela não é britânica. Listen BP — Listen EP

3. How would you agree the country’s nationality in both sentences below? Before you scroll down for the answer, try to figure it out. If you need a clue, listen to the answers: Listen BP — Listen EP

ANSWER:

Elas são chinesas.

Ele não é chinês.

4. Take the content above into account and go a couple of steps back where there is the sentence builder table. Then here in the comments write a few positive and negative sentences. Example:

Vocês são mexicanas.

Vocês não são mexicanas.