Unit A2 about cognates. There is an exercise that goes as follows:
Eram fáceis de identificar.
OK, I just wonder why fáceis is considered an adjective to (they) eram, and not adverb to identificar.
In the latter case would it also be fáceis or just fácil?
@witgwde Well, fáceis just is an adjective - it cannot be an adverb. The default adverbial form of this adjective would be facilmente and if this sentence were rephrased, we could then use it:
- Eram facilmente identificáveis
Exceptionally, some adjectives might also be used as adverbs in European Portuguese, e.g. rápido (= rapidamente). However, in such cases, since adverbs are invariable words by default, the ‘adjective’ (now also an adverb) also can’t vary in gender or number. Note how rápido is invariable in all the following examples:
- Ele corre rápido
- Ela corre rápido
- Nós corremos rápido
- Elas correm rápido
Fácil is not an adjective to which this exception would normally apply in European Portuguese.