By Thalita Alves Last updated: May 8, 2023

Portuguese Numbers: How to Count In Brazilian and European 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. 

Contents

• Brazilian and European Portuguese Numbers
• • A note on numbers and gender agreement
  • Portuguese numbers from 0-20
• Basic phrases using Portuguese numbers
• Tens, Hundreds, Thousands and Millions in Portuguese
• Ordinal numbers in Portuguese
• Dealing with Portuguese decimals
• Tips for learning and practicing your Portuguese numbers
• • Practice your number pronunciation with YouTube videos
  • Memorize the digits using flashcards
  • Test your Portuguese number skills with online games

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

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.

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.

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

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

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:

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:

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

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:

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:

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

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.

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)