Numbers in Portuguese

There’s a reason why numbers are considered such an essential building block for language learners.

We rely on numbers to describe things, run daily errands, plan our schedules and find our way around the various places we need to go. It’s fair to say that numbers are present in every aspect of our lives.

If you’ve just started learning Portuguese or need a refresher lesson on numbers, this post will come in handy whether you’re learning Brazilian or European Portuguese. 

 

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Brazilian and European Portuguese Numbers

A note on numbers and gender agreement

If you’re new to the language, it’s important to know that some words in Portuguese are either masculine or feminine.

In some cases, that means you’ll need to make sure that a number agrees with the gender of the object/subject it’s describing.

All ordinal numbers (i.e. numbers that show a rank like first, second, third, etc.) have a masculine or feminine counterpart. You’ll find a list of all the essential ordinal numbers and their gendered forms later in this post.

In contrast, only some cardinal numbers are gendered.

Masculine/feminine gender agreement rules apply to the numbers um / uma (one), dois / duas (two) and all the hundreds from 200 onward: duzentos / duzentas (200), trezentos / trezentas (300), quatrocentos / quatrocentas (400), etc.

Again, this will become clearer as we take a closer look at the numbers you’re about to learn.

With that in mind, let’s get started on those digits.

Portuguese numbers from 0-20

There are some very subtle differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese numbers from 0-20. We’ve put them in bold below so you can compare them.

Numbers	Brazilian Portuguese	European Portuguese
0	zero	zero
1	um / uma (masculine/feminine)	um / uma (masculine/feminine)
2	dois / duas (masculine/feminine)	dois / duas (masculine/feminine)
3	três	três
4	quatro	quatro
5	cinco	cinco
6	seis ( meia when in a phone number)	seis
7	sete	sete
8	oito	oito
9	nove	nove
10	dez	dez
11	onze	onze
12	doze	doze
13	treze	treze
14	catorze	catorze
15	quinze	quinze
16	dezesseis	dezesseis
17	dezessete	dezessete
18	dezoito	dezoito
19	dezenove	dezenove
20	vinte	vinte

Basic phrases using Portuguese numbers

When you feel like you’ve learned the first 20 numbers well, try to create some sentences with them.

These don’t have to be overly complex — start with a few basic phrases that allow you to practice key grammar rules, like noun and adjective placement.

Here are some examples:

Uma casa amarela. (A yellow house.)

The above is a simple, three-word sentence that covers numbers, gendered objects (in Portuguese, “house” is feminine) and basic descriptions (the color yellow).

Duas maçãs vermelhas. (Two red apples. Same logic as above.)

When you’re ready to get more complex, add some verbs into the mix:

Ele comprou três pães. (He bought three bread rolls.)

Eu moro no apartamento número vinte. (I live in apartment number twenty.)

Some travel phrases might help you too:

Um café, por favor. (One coffee, please.)

O ônibus sai às cinco da tarde. (The bus leaves at five in the afternoon.) 

Tens, Hundreds, Thousands and Millions in Portuguese

Both Portuguese dialects follow the same rules for numbers in the tens, hundreds and thousands.

English	Tens in Portuguese
ten (10)	dez
twenty (20)	vinte
thirty (30)	trinta
forty (40)	quarenta
fifty (50)	cinquenta
sixty (60)	sessenta
seventy (70)	setenta
eighty (80)	oitenta
ninty (90)	noventa

From 20 onwards, units are linked with the word e (and):

English	Tens in Portuguese
twenty one (21)	Vinte e um
thirty two (32)	Trinta e dois
forty three (43)	Quarenta e três
fifty four (54)	Cinquenta e quatro

Remember, gender rules apply to the hundreds after 200. With that in mind, your hundreds are:

English	Hundreds in Portuguese
100	Cem centos (plural)
200	Duzentos / duzentas (masc/fem)
300	Trezentos / trezentas (masc/fem)
400	Quatrocentos / quatrocentas (masc/fem)
500	Quinhentos / quinhentas (masc/fem)
600	Seiscentos / seiscentas (masc/fem)
700	Setecentos / setecentas (masc/fem)
800	Oitocentos / oitocentas (masc/fem)
900	Novecentos / novecentas (masc/fem)

When it comes to connecting hundreds with tens and units, the same rule applies:

cento e dez (110)

duzentos e vinte e dois (222)

trezentos e cinquenta e nove (359)

quatrocentos e quatro (404)

Thousands are quite straightforward:

Number	Thousands in Portuguese
1,000	mil
2,000	dois mil
3,000	três mil
4,000	quatro mil
5,000	cinco mil
10,000	dez mil
20,000	vinte mil
100,000	cem mil

The main difference is in the usage of e when linking thousands and hundreds:

• The word e only follows hundreds digits that contain two zeros.

mil e cem (1,100)

dois mil e duzentos (2,200)

três mil e trezentos (3,300)

• When the hundred is followed by other units, only the tens and ones will have the e connector.

mil cento e um (1,101)

quatro mil quinhentos e dez (4,510)

nove mil oitocentos e trinta e sete (9,837)

Millions are treated differently by Brazilian and European Portuguese speakers.

Like American English, Brazilian Portuguese uses a short scale system to name its largest numbers:

English	Brazilian Portuguese
million	milhão (singular) or milhões (plural)
billion	bilhão , bilhões
trillion	trilhão , trilhões
quadrillion	quatrilhão , quatrilhões
quintillion	quintilhão , quintilhões
sextillion	sextilhão , sextilhões

European Portuguese, on the other hand, uses a long scale numbering system:

English	European Portuguese
million	milhão
milliard/thousand million	mil milhões
billion	bilião
billiard/thousand billion	mil biliões
trillion	trilião
trilliard/thousand trillion	mil triliões

Ordinal numbers in Portuguese

As previously mentioned, all ordinal numbers are gendered. When you’re writing these in numeric form, a ° symbol will follow masculine digits while ª is placed after feminine ones. Check out how this works with the first 10 ordinal numbers:

Ordinal number in English	Portuguese notation (masculine/feminine)	Written in full (Portuguese; masculine/feminine)
1st	1°/1ª	primeiro / primeira
2nd	2°/2ª	segundo / segunda
3rd	3°/3ª	terceiro / terceira
4th	4°/4ª	quarto / quarta
5th	5°/5ª	quinto / quinta
6th	6°/6ª	sexto / sexta
7th	7°/7ª	sétimo / sétima
8th	8°/8ª	oitavo / oitava
9th	9°/9ª	nono / nona
10th	10°/10ª	décimo / décima

From 11th onward, ordinal numbers follow the same ordered pattern—the tenth is followed by the first/second/third/fourth units we’ve just seen above. Take a look:

Ordinal number in English	Portuguese notation (masculine/feminine)	Written in full (Portuguese; masculine/feminine)
11th	11°/11ª	décimo primeiro / décima primeira
12th	12°/12ª	décimo segundo / décima segunda
13th	13°/13ª	décimo terceiro / décima terceira
14th	14°/14ª	décimo quarto / décima quarta
15th	15°/15ª	décimo quinto / décima quinta
16th	16°/16ª	décimo sexto / décima sexta
17th	17°/17ª	décimo sétimo / décima sétima
18th	18°/18ª	décimo oitavo / décima oitava
19th	19°/19ª	décimo nono / décima nona
20th	20°/20ª	vigésimo / vigésima
21st	21°/21ª	vigésimo primeiro / vigésima primeira

Use this same ordering when dealing with the numbers listed below:

Ordinal number in English	English Portuguese notation (masculine/feminine)	Written in full (Portuguese; masculine/feminine)
30th	30°/30ª	trigésimo / trigésima
40th	40°/40ª	quadragésimo / quadragésima
50th	50°/50ª	quinquagésimo / quinquagésima
60th	60°/60ª	sexagésimo / sexagésima
70th	70°/70ª	septuagésimo / septuagésima
80th	80°/80ª	octagésimo / octagésima
90th	90°/90ª	nonagésimo / nonagésima

If you want to extend yourself, the hundredths listed below follow the same pattern (the ordinal hundredth + tenths + single units). For example, 42nd would be quadragésimo segundo (42°), 75th would be septuagésimo quinto (75°), the feminine 96th would be nonagésima sexta (96ª) and so forth.

Ordinal number in English	Portuguese notation (masculine/feminine)	Written in full (Portuguese; masculine/feminine)
100th	100°/100ª	centésimo / centésima
200th	200°/200ª	ducentésimo / ducentésima
300th	300°/300ª	trecentésimo / trecentésima
400th	400°/400ª	quadringentésimo / quadringentésima
500th	500°/500ª	quingentésimo / quingentésima
600th	600°/600ª	sexcentésimo / sexcentésima
700th	700°/700ª	septingentésimo / septingentésima
800th	800°/800ª	octingentésimo / octingentésima
900th	900°/900ª	noningentésimo / noningentésima
1,000th	1000°/1000ª	milésimo / milésima

Examples:

1,001st — milésimo primeiro (1001°)

642nd — sexcentésimo quadragésimo segundo (642°)

120th — centésimo vigésimo  (120°)

Dealing with Portuguese decimals

In English, a comma is used to separate numbers into thousands while a dot is used for decimals. In Portuguese, the order is reversed.

While English speakers would write 10,000 (ten thousand) with commas, our Lusophone friends would express it as 10.000 (dez mil).

This also applies to currency.

Let’s illustrate it with a few examples:

You’re talking to a friend who’s traveling around Brazil. They just came back from lunch at a buffet restaurant where you pay by the kilo and they paid R$20,50:

Vinte reais e cinquenta centavos — twenty Brazilian reais and fifty cents.

Or, perhaps you went to Portugal recently and desperately needed to replace some torn jeans. Lucky for you, a shopping mall nearby had a pair on sale at a discounted price €49,99:

Quarenta e nove euros e noventa e nove cêntimos — forty-nine euros and ninety-nine cents.

Tips for learning and practicing your Portuguese numbers

With number-crunching, you’ve got a lot of different methods that’ll help you make those digits stick. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Practice your number pronunciation with YouTube videos

A search for “European Portuguese numbers” or “Brazilian Portuguese numbers” will unearth a massive trove of content.

You can watch this video covering European Portuguese numbers or this one that focuses on Brazilian Portuguese numbers. From there, all you have to do is listen to how each number is pronounced and repeat it back to yourself a few times so you can nail your chosen dialect.

Memorize the digits using flashcards

Flashcards are quite an effective study tool. Not only can you use them to learn just about anything, but their compact size allows you to focus on the smallest details so you can quickly memorize whatever you’re learning.

If you want to give it a shot, you could scour popular flashcard apps like AnkiApp to find some user-generated study aids, or you could create your own sets using a customizable digital flashcard platform like Brainscape.

Test your Portuguese number skills with online games

Learning a language should be fun! You’ll find a ton of different games for Portuguese online.

If you want to practice your numbers from 1-20, SurfaceLanguages has a few options for Brazilian and European Portuguese learners alike. Alternatively, for numbers from 0-100, the Digital Dialects website is a good source—check out their selection of Brazilian and European Portuguese online games.

Três, dois, um… and blast off! 

We’ve given you all the tools, and now it’s up to you to put them to good use.

Practice your numbers as often as you can and before you know it, you’ll be a pro at using them. Whether you’re traveling to your dream Portuguese-speaking destination or simply talking to someone from that part of the world, numbers will guide you on your journey to speaking Portuguese like a native.
 

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)