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Romance · Brasil

Numbers in
Português (BR)

Conte de zero a um bilhão
10 minread
7sections
4regional splits with PT
219
duzentos e dezenove
00

The big picture

Brazilian Portuguese builds numbers a lot like English, with three twists: an e ("and") between groups, gender agreement on dois/duas and the hundreds, and a different word for "billion" than European Portuguese.

i
If you only remember one thing: Portuguese inserts an e between digit groups. Mil novecentos e oitenta e quatro = 1984.
01

Zero to twenty

Memorize these. The rest of the system bolts onto them.

0
zero
gender
1
um / uma
gender
2
dois / duas
3
três
4
quatro
5
cinco
6
seis
7
sete
8
oito
9
nove
10
dez
11
onze
12
doze
13
treze
14
catorze / quatorze
15
quinze
PT-BR
16
dezesseis
PT-BR
17
dezessete
18
dezoito
PT-BR
19
dezenove
20
vinte
!
PT-BR vs PT-PT. Brazil writes dezesseis, dezessete, dezenove (with a single e). Portugal writes dezasseis, dezassete, dezanove. Both are understood; the local form makes you sound less like a tourist.
02

The tens (20 – 90)

Mostly regular. Cinquenta, sessenta, setenta all start the same — slow down and listen for the second syllable.

20
vinte
30
trinta
40
quarenta
50
cinquenta
60
sessenta
70
setenta
80
oitenta
90
noventa
03

Compound numbers — the "e"

From 21 onwards, Portuguese stitches the tens and units with e ("and"). This is the single biggest difference from English.

21
vinte e um
35
trinta e cinco
52
cinquenta e dois
76
setenta e seis
99
noventa e nove
42
quarenta e dois
!
Brazilian colloquial: meia for 6. When reading phone numbers, addresses, or sports scores aloud, Brazilians often substitute meia (short for meia dúzia, "half-dozen") for seis — to avoid confusion with três over a noisy line. So 3306 might be read três · três · zero · meia.
04

The hundreds

Cem becomes cento the second any other digit follows. And the hundreds agree in gender — duzentas pessoas, not duzentos pessoas.

exact 100
100
cem
cem → cento
101
cento e um
gender
200
duzentos / duzentas
300
trezentos
400
quatrocentos
irregular
500
quinhentos
600
seiscentos
700
setecentos
800
oitocentos
900
novecentos

In the wild

127
cento e vinte e sete
316
trezentos e dezesseis
598
quinhentos e noventa e oito
763
setecentos e sessenta e três
992
novecentos e noventa e dois
05

Thousands

Mil means a thousand. Unlike Spanish, you don't say um mil — just mil. Multiples take the cardinal.

1.000
mil
2.000
dois mil
5.000
cinco mil
10.000
dez mil
100.000
cem mil
1.984
mil novecentos e oitenta e quatro
42.158
quarenta e dois mil cento e cinquenta e oito
123.567
cento e vinte e três mil quinhentos e sessenta e sete
i
Dots and commas, flipped. Brazilian Portuguese writes thousands with a period (1.000) and decimals with a comma (2,5 = dois vírgula cinco) — the opposite of US English.
06

Millions & billions

Both Brazil and Portugal call 10⁶ a milhão. But 10⁹ is where they part ways.

PT-BR · Brasil
1.000.000.000
um bilhão

Same scale as English "billion." 10¹² is um trilhão.

PT-PT · Portugal
1.000.000.000
mil milhões

Literally "a thousand millions." In PT, bilião means 10¹² — confusion guaranteed in cross-border conversations.

1 M
um milhão
2 M
dois milhões
55 M
cinquenta e cinco milhões
PT-BR
1 B
um bilhão
PT-BR
1 T
um trilhão
07

Things to remember

The five rules that will save you from the most common mistakes.

1.
There's always an e ("and") between groups. Setecentos e sessenta e três.
2.
Um and dois agree in gender. So do the hundreds: duzentas pessoas, not duzentos.
3.
Cem only stands alone for exactly 100. The moment you go to 101, it becomes cento.
4.
Brazil writes dezesseis, dezessete, dezenove. Portugal uses the -ass- / -an- forms.
5.
A billion in Brazil is um bilhão, the same scale as English. In Portugal that same number is mil milhões.
Drill it

Reading is one thing.
Hearing it at speed is another.

The companion iOS app generates random numbers in your chosen range and reads them aloud in PT-BR. Five minutes a day.

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