Articles, gender and plural in Portuguese

Level A1

Articles, gender and plural in Portuguese

English has one "the" and one "a", but Portuguese has four of each, because every noun is either masculine or feminine and the article changes with it: o livro, a mesa, um carro, uma cadeira. In the plural the article, the noun and any adjective all take the plural together: as mesas são novas. The café dialogue is polite, the way you'd talk to a stranger, and the moving-day dialogue is relaxed talk between friends.

Six everyday nouns: livro, mesa, cadeira, cama, maçã, carro

Um, uma, uns, umas and o, a, os, as with each noun

a / anthesomethe (plural)
um livroo livrouns livrosos livros
uma mesaa mesaumas mesasas mesas
uma cadeiraa cadeiraumas cadeirasas cadeiras
uma camaa camaumas camasas camas
uma maçãa maçãumas maçãsas maçãs
um carroo carrouns carrosos carros

"A" and "the": um livro, o livro

Um and uma work like "a" or "an", and o and a like "the": Eu tenho um livro, O livro está em cima da mesa. Unlike English, the choice depends on the noun's gender, not on its first sound, so it's uma maçã where English says "an apple". The plural uns and umas mean "some" (uns livros, umas maçãs), but just as in English you often leave them out: Eu tenho livros, "I have books".

The definite article joins with em ("in, on") and de ("of, from"): em + a gives na, as in na rua, and de + a gives da, as in em cima da mesa. Watch for these short forms, because you'll hear them in almost every sentence.

Every noun is masculine or feminine: o carro, a cadeira

English nouns have no gender, but in Portuguese every noun is masculine or feminine, even things like a cama (bed) or o carro (car). Most nouns ending in -o are masculine and most ending in -a are feminine, but there are exceptions such as o dia (day) and a mão (hand), so learn each noun together with its article. Words ending in other letters just have to be learned: o papel, a flor, a maçã.

Gender matters because the words around the noun change to match it: um carro novo, but uma cadeira nova. Even when the noun is left out, the adjective still agrees with it, so when someone answers about a chair, it's Está ocupada, with -a.

Singular and plural, from livros to homens

SingularPlural
livrolivros
mesamesas
aviãoaviões
pãopães
mãomãos
animalanimais
papelpapéis
florflores
luzluzes
homemhomens

Making the plural: -s, -es, -is, -ões

Most nouns ending in a vowel just add -s, as in English: livro, livros; mesa, mesas. Nouns ending in -r or -z add -es (flor, flores; luz, luzes), and nouns ending in -m change it to -ns (homem, homens). An -l ending turns into -is: animal, animais; papel, papéis.

Nouns in -ão are the tricky ones, because they have three plurals and you have to learn each word: avião, aviões; pão, pães; mão, mãos. The big difference from English is that everything in the phrase becomes plural, the article and the adjective too: As mesas são novas, Nós precisamos de quatro cadeiras.

At a café, politely: Esta cadeira está livre?

Moving in, between friends: Onde eu coloco os livros?

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