A challenging part of learning Portuguese is realizing that many words need to be adjusted to agree with the gender and number of the people or objects we are talking about. To help us understand the rules for making words plural in Portuguese, first let’s see a quick overview of which types of words stay the same, and which ones have to change.
Invariable Words
The invariable classes of words (that don’t change to match gender and/or number) are:
- advérbios – Adverbs generally modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs, clarifying or intensifying their meaning. E.g. mais – more
- preposições – Prepositions connect different words in a sentence. E.g. para – to, for
- conjunções – Conjunctions connect different clauses of a sentence. E.g. e – and
- interjeições – Interjections are filler words or words that express a strong, abrupt feeling E.g. Ufa! – Phew!
Variable Words
The variable classes of words (that do change to match gender and/or number) are:
- nomes / substantivos – Nouns represent people, places, things, or ideas. E.g. gatos – cats
- pronomes – Pronouns replace nouns in a sentence. E.g. meus – mine(pl.,masc.)
- determinantes – Determiners precede a noun and help clarify the context. Includes articles, quantifiers, etc. E.g. estes – these (pl.,masc.,near speaker)
- adjetivos – Adjectives indicate the attributes of a noun. E.g. pequenas – small(pl.,fem.)
- verbos – Verbs describe actions and states and locate them in time. E.g. vão – you (pl.) go
- numerais – Numerals express quantities and orders. Some are variable and others are invariable. E.g. duas – two(fem.)
Forming Plurals in Portuguese
With so many variable classes of words, it’s important to learn how to change a word from singular to plural in Portuguese. There are many different plural endings, so to know which one to use, you have to pay attention to the last letter(s) at the end of the word.
Here are some general rules and examples:
Add -s after a vowel*
- Words that end in a vowel become plural by simply adding an -s to the end.
carro ~ carroscar ~ cars
casa ~ casashouse ~ houses
Replace -ão with -ões, -ãos, or -ães
- *Here’s an exception to the previous rule. Words that end in -ão are tricky because there are 3 different possible plural endings: –ões, –ãos, or –ães. When in doubt, the -ões ending is much more common. There is not a straightforward rule to know when to choose the other 2 options, so it’s one of those things you’ll pick up over time. Here are some examples of the variations:
situação ~ situaçõessituation ~ situations
leão ~ leõeslion ~ lions
avião ~ aviõesplane ~ planes
mão ~ mãoshand ~ hands
irmão ~ irmãosbrother ~ brothers
cão ~ cãesdog ~ dogs
pão ~ pãesbread ~ loaves of bread
Add -es after -n, -r, -s, and -z
- Words that end in -n, -r, -s and -z become plural by adding -es at the end:
hífen ~ hífeneshyphen ~ hyphens
país ~ paísescountry ~ countries
feliz ~ felizeshappy (sing.) ~ happy (pl.)
- See exceptions*
Replace -m with -ns
- Words that end in -m become plural by replacing the -m with -ns:
homem ~ homensman ~ men
nuvem ~ nuvenscloud ~ clouds
álbum ~ álbunsalbum ~ albums
Replace -L with -is
- Words ending in -L become plural by replacing the -l with -is. Additionally, if the last syllable is stressed and has an E or O vowel, an acute accent (´) is added:
plural ~ pluraisplural ~ plurals
animal ~ animaisanimal ~ animals
papel ~ papéispaper sheet ~ paper sheets
farol ~ faróislighthouse ~ lighthouses
*Exceptions
It’s less common, but certain words that end in -s do not change. In other words, they are the same in both the singular and plural forms (similar to the word sheep in English: one sheep, many sheep). The only part that changes in Portuguese would be any variable words that go with it, such as definite articles (e.g. o vs. os). Examples:
- o oásisthe oasis | os oásisthe oases
- o lápisthe pencil | os lápisthe pencils | os lápis amarelosthe yellow pencils
- o vírusthe virus | os vírusthe viruses | estes vírusthese viruses
Similarly, some words do not have a singular form, so you will always hear them as plural, such as:
- as costasthe back(body part)
- as calçasthe pants (trousers)
- parabénscongratulations
Regarding the words that end in a vowel how can I know when it should end in an ‘es’ instead of ‘s’? Mão and cão both end in nasal vowels.
Olá, Sheridan. I wish I had a great answer for you, but I only have a terrible one: you can’t know, you’ll have to memorize it! 🙂 Mão -> mãos, but cão -> cães. Irmão -> irmãos, but pão -> pães. You’d have to go all the way back to the Latin roots of each of these words to understand why they have different plural forms. Portuguese is crazy, isn’t it?
If you happen to speak Spanish, the pattern seems very simple to me:
– If the word ends in -ción (-ção in Portuguese), then the ending will be -ções.
– If the word ends in -ano in Spanish (hermano/irmão or mano/mão), then the ending will be -ãos.
– And if the Spanish plural ends in -anes (panes/pães), then the ending will be -ães. Likewise, if the Spanish plural ends in -ones (leones/leões), then the ending will be -ões.
Great observation!
Is it just my ears or does the “e” sound dubble somehow in the spoken plural of the next lesson?: cafés (hear: café-es), têm (hear tai-ains),ect.
It’s not your ears, that’s correct. Not in ‘cafés’, where the E is a single sound; but in ‘têm”, we do tend to pronounce it as a double E 🙂
Is it always the case that êm is pronounced like a double e? Do we hear this in the verb vir (vêm)? How do we distinguish the sound in the verb ver (vêem)?
Pretty much! Between “vêm” and “veem”, the difference is that the double E in “vêm” sounds like a repeated medium A sound (using this pronunciation guide as reference), while in “veem”, the first E should be pronounced with a clear medium E sound. This is easier to understand by listening to audio examples.
Hi, I seem to think that I have read somewhere that if a word ends -al, -el, -ol, or -ul then the L is changed to IS but if the word ends -il the L is changed to S if the stress is on the last syllable OR to EIS if stress is on the last but one syllable. egs. funil = funis, reptil = repteis (I apologise because the e in both of the last words should have an accent, but not sure how to do that with my keyboard}
Sounds right 🙂
ello,
I’m confused about the word “bad” as singular and plural, both masculine and feminine
Oh no, let’s end that confusion 😀 Here’s a quick reference for you:
– Masculine, singular: mau
– Masculine, plural: maus
– Feminine, singular: má
– Feminine, plural: más
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I guess this is one that must be memorized as the rules presented don’t apply.
PS while we’re on the subject… do “quanto” and “muito” change masculine/feminine and singular/plural? I’ve only heard them in conversation at different times so I can’t seem to compare.
Thanks again
You’re welcome! And yes, “quanto” and “muito” also have multiple forms depending on gender and number. However, in cases where “muito” is used as an adverb, it is invariable. It’s only as a quantifier that it varies.
Muito as an adverb:
– A casa é muito bonita. (The house is very beautiful)
– Tu trabalhas muito. (You work a lot)
Muito as a quantifier:
– Eu tenho muito tempo e muita paciência. (I have a lot of time and a lot of patience)
– Ela tem muitas tarefas. (She has many tasks)
Here are some relevant Learning Notes:
Quantifiers – Interrogative Quantifiers
Expressing Quantities – Muito, Pouco, Algum
Thanks! It’s that quantifier/adverb thing that was confusing me.
Hello, in the examples of the last case, the stress is on the last syllable when we utter the word. So, what makes the difference in “papel” for instance so that in the plural the acute accent is added? ‘Plural” is also stressed in the last syllable and it does not have the acute accent. Thank you in advance
Hi! Good question. With “papéis” and some other words whose plural is formed with “-éis“, there are two good reasons for the accent:
1) For visual differentiation of these words vs. other similar words. Without the accent, you wouldn’t be able to tell, in a glance, if you were reading the noun “papéis” (paper) or the verb form “papeis” (a conjugation of the verb papar – to eat). Same for “fiéis” (faithful) vs. “fieis” (verb conjugation of the verb fiar – to trust, to spin), for example.
2) For aural (sound) differentiation of these words vs. other similar words. The accent helps guarantee that the last syllable of ‘papéis‘ sounds noticeably open, with a wide E. Without the accent, the E could be made to sound more closed, especially if the speaker’s regional accent already encourages it or if the language just gradually evolves in that direction. This would make ‘papéis‘ sound the same as the aforementioned ‘papeis‘ (of the verb papar).
Great lesson ! I can not thank you enough! However, I have a small doubt. What do you do with words that end with two vowels like lingua or sereia for example? Do you simply add -s to it as well? Also I read in one of your replies in the comments above that in order to understand more about why ao is replaced with oes,aes,aos one can go back to latin roots. I’m terribly sorry if i am being greedy but there is a source i can find reliable latin roots(you dont really have to provide me with a source if its too much trouble 🙂 🙂 ), since learning origins will not only aide in learning portuguese but also help with my english. Apologies for not using accents, my keyboard does not allow it! Thank you once again !!
Hi! Yes, for those words with 2 vowels you would just add -s. As for -ões, ães, and ãos, unfortunately I don’t know of a good source for Latin roots, but I will let you know if I come across something. In terms of using Latin to help you with these plurals, I think it would probably come down to researching the roots of each individual word, rather than being able to study a set pattern.
This Wikipedia page could be a starting point: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-%C3%A3o (see the sections titled Etymology 1 and Usage Notes at the bottom). And if it helps at all, -ões is the most common ending, followed by ãos, followed by -ães.
Also check out this guide to typing accents that we put together: https://help.practiceportuguese.com/article/42-typing-portuguese-accents. Hopefully there’s something in there that works for your computer!
Hi Molly and Batul. I did some research into typing Portuguese characters on a Windows PC keyboard without using character codes. I found out you can do it quite easily using the English United States – International keyboard. Once installed as an additional keyboard you can press the tilde shift+ ~ and then the letter n, you will create ñ or the caret key shift+ ^ and e to get ê. This web page explains all and even shows a keyboard layout to help. https://community.windows.com/en-us/stories/keyboard-shortcuts-for-typing-accent-marks-over-letters-in-windows-10
Might be worth adding to your typing portuguese accents page. Aí o tem!
Sorry wrong web link first time!
Thank you so so much! Its truly amazing how quickly you respond, I am such a big fan of your work.
Oh yes I want to learn the origins of the words itself, thank you for sharing the link! And thank you for the typing guide !!
Yes, Portuguese is a very crazy language. It makes knots into my tongue :)))))) I learned Indonesian a while ago, and plurals are formed by just repeating the word. Banana – pisang / more than one banana: pisang-pisang. Soooooo easy, hahahahaha.
Why in cinza not pluralized
The word cinza is pluralized when it’s used as a noun and means ash. When it’s used as an adjective and means ‘gray’ (the colour), it isn’t. This is usually the case for names of colours that derive from nouns, rather than being “pure” adjectives – the same happens with rosa (pink) or laranja (orange), for example.
Under “Replace -L with -is,” the following is stated: “Additionally, if the last syllable is stressed, an acute accent (´) is added:” This seems to hold true unless the singular form ends in “al”. If that’s right perhaps this exception should be noted.
Thanks, Tony! Just made the amendment.
This is the exact moment that I become hysterically happy about the Latin we had in High School…
Ahah!
I see a lot of comments from students who are unable to type Portuguese characters on their keyboards. I have found this site useful: https://portuguese.typeit.org/
When determining the plural of a Portuguese words (maybe only nouns) that ends in -ão, you have to know cognates in languages from Latin (not necessarily Romance languages). Words ending in “-ão” you simply add an “s” to when pluralizing also include “irmão” and “verão” (because of “hermano” and “verano” in Spanish). Words ending in “-ão” you drop that “o” from and add “-es” to when pluralizing also include “capitão” (because of “captain”). Words ending in “-ão” you drop that “a” from and transfer the tilde to the “o” and then add “-es” to when pluralizing are based on cognates in any European language that end in “-on” or “-one” (and that is usually the case for that type of Portuguese words). Think of the tilde that nasalizes an “a” or “o” in a Portuguese word as a replacement for the letter “n” that is supposed to surround those letters in other languages. The letter “n” probably never comes between vowels in words native to Portuguese!
When more than one person has to say thank you, how do you say
Obrigado/Obrigada is singular and applied individually, so either each person says their own thanks or you have to phrase it differently. You could say, for example, “Eu e [the other person] agradecemos”.
Hello, and thank you for this amazing resource! This is the first section I’m having a lot of difficulty with because these types of words weren’t easy for me learning English. Is there any chance you could add examples of each of these categories next to the description? For instance, with prepositions, maybe add the words “to”, “at”, etc. I had to look each of these up since a few of them were never taught in my school, like substantives, and I’m still not sure I understand. Thanks kindly! 🙂
Added! And for additional information, there is a link at the beginning for everything except substantivos. Substantivos are nouns, which can be most simply described as “things”, such as dogs, trees, people, towns, chairs, pillows, etc.
Thank you so much Molly, that was quick! I really appreciate your help and happy holidays! 🙂
When is que pronounced “kee” and when “Kuh”?
The word “que” is always pronounced the same way: “kuh”. Maybe when next to other words may sound differently… like in “Como é que é?”. Here, it may sound like “kee”, but that’s just a way of oral transitioning. The official sound is always “kuh”!
Olá! Is it possible to have a ‘mark all as mastered’ button just like you have a ‘mark all as smart review’ button?
Obrigada!
Ana
Olá Ana.
No, unfortunately they can only be marked as Mastered individually. But I’ll pass along your feedback to our team. 🙂
This page is a really useful resource. Is there a way to save specific pages as ‘favourites’ so that I can easily reference them when I need to recap something?
Many thanks
JO
Of course! You can click ‘Bookmark’ to the right of the title. Then any bookmarks can be found under Account > Bookmarks (website) or just under Bookmarks in the menu (app).
Ola, in Lesson One, before the clip for “Eu gosto de carros” there is a snap which was likely meant to be edited out. It was actually more fun this way!
Great explanation. Thank you.
One thing I am struggling to make sense is ‘muito obrogada’ – spoken by a female. In this case, why ‘muito’ is not variable? Is ‘obrigada’ a verb here?
Thanks for your comment!
‘Muito’ is invariable here because it’s used as an adverb (= very). It only varies in number or gender when it’s used as a quantifier (= many). Some examples:
– Eles são muito simpáticos (They are very nice) – adverb, invariable
– Eles têm muitas histórias (They have many stories) – quantifier, variable
That’s what confuses me. If ‘muito’ is an adverb, and ‘obrigada’ is not a verb or adjetive, then what does the ‘muito’ define? If ‘obrigada’ is a verb, should it always be ‘obrigado’ (I thank you)?
I don’t think I understand the structure of this sentence 🤔 🥲 and tobe perfectly honest, it is driving me crazy.
‘Muito obrigado(a)’ is usually treated as a fixed expression, bending the typical rules for adverbs. It is still ‘obrigado’ that’s being modified, even if it’s predominantly classified as an interjection when used as a thank you. In any case, it does have verb roots (past participle of ‘obrigar’) 🙂
Thank you. Have to love the rule bending expressions. 🙂
Olá !
In listening to the playback of the last few examples, I’ve noticed a different pronunciation for “os” – I thought it was always an “sh” sound but for “os oasis” it sounds like an “s” .
Does the “os” or “as” pronunciation change depending if the noun starts with a vowel or consonant?
Obrigada pela ajuda 🙂
Yes! Actually, “os” and “as” pronunciation – as well as other words ending with an S – does vary depending if the next word starts with a vowel or a consonant.
If it’s a consonant, the S has a “sh” sound, as in “shelter”: as casas (the houses); as pessoas (the people), os bolsos (the pockets), os tesouros (the treasures).
If it’s a vowel, the S has a “zz” sound, as in “zoo”: as abelhas (the bees), as igrejas (the churches), os estores (the window blinds), os outros (the others).
These Learning Notes can help you to best understand this:
https://www.practiceportuguese.com/learning-notes/pronunciation-guide-for-european-portuguese-consonants/
https://www.practiceportuguese.com/learning-notes/how-to-pronounce-s-in-portuguese/
https://www.practiceportuguese.com/learning-notes/pronunciation-variations/
Hello! Super useful lesson.
I am just confused as I don’t know what you guys mean when you say “stress” when talking about replacing the word ending with -L with -is, and the vowel becoming an accent. How do you know which words have a stress in it’s vowels?
Additionally, I was wondering if there’s a resource on accents. How to say them, where they belong etc.
Thanks!!
Olá! By stress, we mean the emphasis put on each syllable. A stressed syllable will be pronounced with more emphasis than the remaining syllables of a word, and the vowel in that syllable ends up being longer / more fully articulated, which affects the rhythm of the language. All words have one particular stressed syllable, and sometimes, stress is the only thing that helps us distinguish between otherwise identical words. Here’s an example in English with the word “perfect”:
– Your work is perfect. – When perfect is an adjective, we stress the first syllable.
– We need to perfect the design. – When perfect is a verb, we stress the second syllable.
For the most part, native speakers will intuitively know which syllables to stress in their languages, and language learners will have to rely partly or greatly on memorization to catch up. In Portuguese, accents will indicate where is the stressed syllable. Otherwise, in unaccented words, it’s usually the second to last syllable (with exceptions!). For unaccented words ending in -L, there’s an exception and the stress actually falls on the last syllable. So, for example, instead of saying PLU-ral (as people do in English), we’ll say plu-RAL.
Hope this helps! You can read more about how letters with accents are pronounced here: Pronunciation Guide for European Portuguese Vowels | Practice Portuguese.
Accentuation rules themselves have not been covered in detail so far, but we’re always available to clarify any specific questions on that subject.
In lesson 1 for plurals, why is the phrase “Eu gosto de carros” instead of “Eu gosto DOS carros”? Referring back to the learnings notes from likes and dislikes, it says combining de+os should give you dos. Confused, can you please explain?
Good question! One is just more specific than the other.
Eu gosto de carros – I like cars
Eu gosto dos carros – I like the cars
The 2nd one is referring to the cars (os carros), referring to a specific set of cars, as opposed to cars in general. So that’s the only one where you need to combine de + os.
These lesson about plurals made me think of city names as “Cascais” and “Leixões”. Are these plurals of the words “cascal” and “leixão (?)”. I think cascal means “heap of shells”, but what about leixão (if this is the correct word)?
That’s actually a really interesting question! For me, as a native, that’s something I wouldn’t even think about! Cascais and Leixões would be just the names of those locations. But indeed, they had to come from somewhere! “Cascal” and “leixão” are real words, even though they aren’t common at all. Most people don’t even know them.
You’re correct that “Cascais” is derived from “cascal”, which means a heap of shells. This is due to the town’s history as a fishing village.
As for “Leixões”, the word “leixão” in Portuguese refers to a large rock in the sea. For that, the name “Leixões” is believed to have been derived from “Leixão”, which was the name of a large rock that existed near the port area. 🙂
Excellent if slightly terryfiying ….
Can someone clarify??
All words ending in –ção form their plural by substituting –ções??
Is this true?
Ta!
Olá! Yes, the pair “-ção/-ções” is very consistent. I can only think of one exception right now: bênção/bênçãos (blessing/s).
Obrigado!
In the lessons we came across the adjective bela. What is the difference between bela and bonita? When do you use bela instead of bonita and vice versa?
Thanks!
Great question. Both mean beautiful, but ‘bonito’ is the most widely used term, since it sounds natural in everyday contexts, while ‘belo’ sounds more formal and poetic. ‘Belo’ is also the preferred option for more subjective uses, such as when we say “Que bela ideia!” (What a good idea).