Why doesn’t “rosa” change in the plural in Portuguese?

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A2 Portuguese listening practice · Brazilian Portuguese · Picked for people who know a little

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rosa
Portuguese colour rule
“pink” — a colour that usually stays invariable: blusas rosa

Rosa means both the flower and the colour pink, and that origin has a grammatical consequence: colours borrowed from things tend not to agree with their noun, so the safest standard form is often invariable — um carro rosa, duas blusas rosa. You may also see rosas in usage, but rosa is the clean, learner-safe choice. Behind it sits an invisible cor de, “(the colour of) rose,” which freezes the word in place.

The same rule covers laranja (orange), cinza (ash-grey), vinho (wine-red) and creme: sapatos laranja, paredes cinza, calças vinho. Ordinary colour adjectives do agree — calças vermelhas, olhos azuis. Casual usage does drift for rosa specifically, but the invariable standard form stays the safest choice for learners.

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this A2 Portuguese listening practice video?

93.4%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Portuguese words
Most of the words in this video are common Portuguese words.

How common in written Portuguese

68.9%
Top 1,000
93.4%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Portuguese

88.5%
Top 1,000
96.7%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000

Harder words in this video

These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.

mochila
1×
Top 5,000People say this a lot
backpack
garrafa
1×
Top 5,000People say this a lot
bottle
amarelo
1×
Top 5,000People say this a lot
yellow
cirurgia
1×
Top 5,000People say this a lot
surgery

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-PT-BR 2012 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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