The most common way to form the plural of a noun in Brazilian Portuguese is to add an -s at the end of the word — just like English! This general rule is very straightforward and works great for nouns that end in vowels:
But when a noun ends with a consonant, or certain special endings like -ão, you will sometimes need to change the spelling of this ending slightly. There are also some nouns with irregular plurals.
Do you want to know more? In this post, we’ll review the plural endings of nouns ending in vowels and nouns ending in consonants, as well as the plurals of compound nouns. Keep reading this post and become an expert on this topic!
How to form the plural of nouns ending in vowels ‘a,’ ‘e,’ ‘i,’ ‘o,’ ‘u’?
For nouns ending in vowels, just add an -s at the end of the word. See below:
| Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
a casa | as casas | the house(s) |
o carro | os carros | the car(s) |
o dente | os dentes | the tooth / teeth |
a lei | as leis | the law(s) |
o museu | os museus | the museum(s) |
However, this rule does not apply to most words ending in -ão. Keep reading to find out how to make the plural of words like limão meaning lemon.
How to form the plural of nouns ending in ‘-ão’?
Although they technically end in the vowel o, nouns ending in -ão in Brazilian Portuguese have a unique set of plural endings and do not just add an -s like we have seen above. For nouns ending in -ão, like irmão meaning brother or limão meaning lemon, the plural form is -ões. For example:
| Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
o limão | os limões | the lemon(s) |
o avião | os aviões | the airplane(s) |
o coração | os corações | the heart(s) |
How to form the plural of nouns ending in consonants?
For nouns ending in consonants, like mulher meaning woman, homem meaning man, and hospital meaning hospital, the plural form depends on the consonant that the singular nouns ends in. Pay attention here, because instead of adding an -s to the ending of the noun, you may need to add -es, a different ending entirely, or no new ending at all. Let's check out each of these cases now.
Plural of nouns ending in ‘-r ,’ ‘-s,’ ‘-z’
For Brazilian Portuguese nouns ending in -r, -s, or -z, just add -es at the end of the word to make the noun plural.
| Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
o cantor | os cantores | French person / people |
o francês | os franceses | French person / people |
o nariz | os narizeses | the nose(s) |
As you may have expected, there are some exceptions to this rule!
Nouns that end -s and have an accent on the first syllable will have the same form in the plural as they do in the singular:
Singular Plural English o ônibusos ônibusthe bus / busses
o lápisos lápisthe pencil(s)
o bônusos bônusthe bonus(es)
o vírusos vírusthe virus(es)
o brócolisos brócolisthe broccoli
There are a few nouns in Brazilian Portuguese that are only ever used in the plural form, like os óculos meaning the glasses.
Check out this longer list of Portuguese nouns that are always plural!
Plural of nouns ending in ‘-m’ or ‘-n’
For singular nouns in Brazilian Portuguese that end in -m or -n, the plural ending will be -ns or -s, respectively.
Nouns ending in -m:
To make the plural of nouns ending in -m, drop the -m and add -ns.
Singular Plural English o homemos homensthe man / men
a garagemas garagensthe garage(s)
Nouns ending in -n:
To form the plural of nouns ending in -n, like hífen meaning hyphen or abdômen meaning abdomen, just add -s and remove the accent:
Singular Plural English o hífenos hifensthe hyphen(s)
o abdômenos abdomensthe abdomen(s)
Plural of nouns ending in ‘-l’
To make the plural of nouns ending in -l, drop the -l and add the plural ending -is.
| Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
o azul | os azuis | the blue(s) |
o hospital | os hospitais | the hospital(s) |
Plural of nouns ending in ‘-x’
For the plural of nouns ending in -x, there is no need to change the ending at all, but you still have to make the article plural.
You can find more examples of plurals of nouns ending in -x!
Plural of compound nouns
To form the plural of compound nouns in Brazilian Portuguese, the plural ending can either be added to all parts of the compound noun or to only one of the words. But how do you know which words should be pluralized? You need to first identify the types of words making up the compound noun, and then you can refer to the following rules:
Noun + adjective or number + noun:
Both parts take the plural form.
Singular Plural English o cachorro-quenteos cachorros-quentesthe hot dog(s)
a segunda-feiraas segundas-feirasthe Monday(s)
Noun + noun:
Both nouns become plural.
Singular Plural English a couve-floras couves-florsthe cauliflower(s)
a palavra-chaveas palavras-chavesthe keyword(s)
Verb + noun:
Only the noun changes into the plural.
Singular Plural English o guarda-chuvaos guarda-chuvasthe umbrella(s)
o arranha-céuos arranha-céusthe skyscraper(s)
Prefix + noun:
You might find compound nouns formed by the prefixes pós meaning post, pré meaning pre, vice meaning vice, ex meaning ex, and contra meaning against. In cases like these, only the noun is pluralized.
Singular Plural English o vice-presidenteos vice-presidentesthe vice president(s)
o ex-gerenteos ex-gerentesthe ex-manager(s)
o contra-ataqueos contra-ataquesthe counterattack(s)
Noun + preposition + noun:
When a preposition is connecting two nouns, like in the word fim de semana meaning weekendliterally end of week, only the first noun takes the plural.
Singular Plural English o fim de semanaos fins de semanathe weekend(s)
a estrela-do-maras estrelas-do-marthe starfish(es)
o pôr do solos pores do solthe sunset(s)
a água de cocoas águas de cocothe coconut water(s)
In summary
Let’s review what we have covered about forming the plural of Brazilian Portuguese nouns. We saw that…
Adding -s is the most common way to form plurals, and this is the general rule for nouns ending in a vowel.
For nouns ending in -ão, we drop the -ão and add -ões in most cases. There are, however, a few exceptions in which the plural of these nouns ends in -ães or -ãos.
Nouns ending in consonants may have different endings:
Nouns ending in -r, -s, or -z form their plural by adding the ending -es.
If a noun ends in -m, drop the -m and add -ns.
If a noun ends in -l, drop the -l and add -is.
Nouns ending in -x remain the same, although there are very few nouns that end in -x in Brazilian Portuguese.
There are some simple, but specific, rules for the plurals of compound nouns, which depend on the combination of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and numbers in the compound word.
Ready to practice forming the plurals of nouns in Brazilian Portuguese?
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