How to form and use different kinds of numbers in Brazilian Portuguese?

Let’s now take a look at the list below with cardinal numbers from 0 to 99 in Brazilian Portuguese, and then we’ll discuss some of their particularities.

• Notice in the table above that the numbers one and two, as well as the larger numbers ending in one or two, have a masculine and feminine form. They change to match the gender of the nouns they quantify:

  masculinefeminine

  Catarina tem quarenta e um anos.

  Translation: Catarina is forty one years old.

  Na fazenda de Márcia há quarenta e duas vacas.

  Translation: In Márcia’s farm there are forty-two cows.

  In the examples above, the cardinal number quarenta e um agrees in gender with the masculine noun anos (meaning years), whereas quarenta e duas agrees with the feminine noun vacas (meaning cows).

• When written with letters, the numbers from 16 to 19 (which are the result of combining 10 and 6, 7, 8, and 9) are written as one word:

  • 10 + 6: dez + seis =

    16: dezesseis

  • 10 + 7: dez + sete =

    17: dezessete

  • 10 + 8: dez + oito =

    18: dezoito

  • 10 + 9: dez + nove =

    19: dezenove

• From 21 on, cardinal numbers are written as two separate words with the connector e (meaning and) between them:

  • 21: vinte e um

  • 65: sessenta e cinco

Now, let's see how to say the numbers above 99. Here is how to say the hundreds from one hundred to 900, along with one thousand:

• Notice that the number 100 (exactly) is one word: cem (meaning hundred). But when referring to the numbers between 100 and 200, we use cento instead. The numbers here can be made of two or three words connected by the conjunction e (meaning and), as in:

  • 101: cento e um

  • 110: cento e dez

  • 123: cento e vinte e três

  This same rule applies for all numbers between 100 and 999. When connecting numbers in the hundreds and tens positions, again you’ll use the conjunction e, just like you do between the tens and ones places.

  • 221: duzentos/as e vinte e um/a

  • 999: novecentos/as e noventa e nove

• Did you notice in the table and examples above that the multiples of 100 (200-900) each have two different forms? The hundreds from 200 to 900 agree in gender with the nouns they quantify:

  masculinefeminine

  Esta igreja tem duzentos anos.

  Translation: This church is two hundred years old.

  Há duzentas pessoas nesta igreja.

  Translation: There are two hundred people in this church.

  In the examples above, duzentos agrees with the masculine noun anos (meaning years), and duzentas agrees with the feminine word pessoas (meaning people).

In addition to giving the quantity of a noun, cardinal numbers have a few other uses. We use them, for example, to refer to the date or time and to talk about a series of numbers. Let’s look closer.

• Cardinal numbers are used to refer to years and dates, as in:

  Speaker A:

  Que dia é hoje?

  Translation: Which day is today?

  Speaker B:

  Hoje é dia vinte e três de maio de dois mil e vinte e três.

  Translation: Today is May 23, 2023.

  Literally: lit. Today is the day twenty and three of May of two thousand and twenty and three.

• Cardinal numbers are also used for referring to hours or time, as in:

  Speaker A:

  Que horas são?

  Translation: What time is it?

  Speaker B:

  Agora são onze e trinta da manhã.

  Translation: It is now eleven-thirty in the morning.

• Cardinal numbers are used to talk about a series of numbers, such as passwords, house numbers, flight codes, and phone numbers. There is no need to use the conjunction e (meaning and) to connect the numbers here.

  O número da minha casa é cinco seis cinco.

  Translation: The number of my house is five six five.

Let’s now take a look at the list below and talk about some characteristics of the ordinal numbers from one to 1000 in Brazilian Portuguese.

Have a look at this longer list or ordinal numbers in Brazilian Portuguese!

• Ordinal numbers agree in number and gender with the noun they describe or replace.

  ordinal number (feminine plural)

  Maria e Isabela foram as primeiras a chegarem na escola.

  Translation: Maria and Isabela were the first ones to arrive in the school.

  In this case, the ordinal number primeiras (meaning first ones) is in its feminine and plural form agreeing with the subject of the sentence Maria e Isabela.

• As for the values above 10th, we write the tenth plus the unit in ordinal numbers, as in:

  Eu moro no décimo primeiro andar.

  Translation: I live on the eleventh floor.

As mentioned above, ordinal numbers are used to indicate the position of something in an ordered group. Here are a couple of special cases where we use ordinal numbers in Brazilian Portuguese:

• In Brazilian Portuguese, ordinal numbers have been used to name the weekdays.

  Hoje é segunda-feira.

  Translation: Today is Monday.

  Literally: lit. Today is second day-of-rest

  In this case, Monday refers to the second day of the week. Similar to the other days of the week, it is always written with lowercase letters, unless it starts a phrase.

• Ordinal numbers are also always used to indicate the position of someone in a competition:

  O Palmeiras ficou em primeiro lugar no campeonato.

  Translation: Palmeiras took first place in the championship.

In Brazilian Portuguese, like in English, when you read a fraction, the numerator (top number) is read as a cardinal number and the denominator (bottom number) is read as an ordinal number:

The ordinal number will agree in number with the numerator:

Here is how to say some of the most common fractional numbers in Brazilian Portuguese:

• ½: meio / metade (meaning half)

• ⅓: um terço (meaning one third)

• ¼: um quarto (meaning one fourth)

• ⅖: dois quintos (meaning two fifths)

Take a look here at our list of fractional numbers in Brazilian Portuguese.