Cardinal Numbers 1-100 | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

Cardinal numbers are the counting numbers — one, two, three — and in Brazilian Portuguese the range from zero to one hundred is reassuringly regular once you learn three small irregularities. The biggest surprise for English speakers is that two of these numbers change form depending on gender: um/uma (one) and dois/duas (two). Everything else is fixed. This page covers 0–100; once a number passes 100, see Cardinal Numbers 100+.

Zero to fifteen

The first sixteen numbers (0–15) are simply memorized — they don't follow a pattern you can derive.

Number	Portuguese	Number	Portuguese
0	zero	8	oito
1	um / uma	9	nove
2	dois / duas	10	dez
3	três	11	onze
4	quatro	12	doze
5	cinco	13	treze
6	seis	14	quatorze / catorze
7	sete	15	quinze

Note that 14 has two accepted spellings: quatorze (more common in Brazil) and catorze (the older form, still correct). Note also the circumflex on três — without it the word would be read with the wrong stress and vowel quality.

Tenho três irmãos e duas irmãs.

I have three brothers and two sisters.

São seis e quinze, a gente já pode ir?

It's six fifteen, can we go now?

The gender of "one" and "two"

This is the single most important point on this page. English one and two never change. In Portuguese, um/uma and dois/duas agree with the gender of the noun they count, exactly like articles do.

English	Masculine	Feminine
one	um livro (one book)	uma casa (one house)
two	dois livros (two books)	duas casas (two houses)

Crucially, this agreement persists inside compound numbers. Twenty-one books is vinte e um livros, but twenty-one houses is vinte e uma casas. The same goes for two: trinta e dois homens but trinta e duas mulheres. The last word carries the gender.

Vinte e uma pessoas confirmaram presença na festa.

Twenty-one people confirmed they're coming to the party.

O prédio tem trinta e duas casas e dois elevadores.

The building has thirty-two apartments and two elevators.

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Only um/uma and dois/duas inflect for gender among numbers up to 100. Três through cem never change. So the only thing to watch for is whether a compound number ends in 1 or 2.

Sixteen to nineteen — the Brazilian forms

Here Brazilian Portuguese diverges noticeably from European Portuguese. Brazilians say dezesseis, dezessete, dezoito, dezenove — literally "ten-and-six," "ten-and-seven," etc. (from dez e seis). In Portugal you'll see dezasseis, dezassete, dezanove with an a. For a Brazilian course, always use the e forms.

Number	Brazilian	(European, for contrast)
16	dezesseis	dezasseis
17	dezessete	dezassete
18	dezoito	dezoito
19	dezenove	dezanove

Note that dezesseis and dezessete are written as one word with a double s (the z of dez plus the s of seis/sete). A common spelling error is writing dezeseis with a single s.

Minha filha faz dezesseis anos no mês que vem.

My daughter turns sixteen next month.

O ônibus das dezenove horas está sempre lotado.

The seven p.m. bus is always packed.

The tens

The multiples of ten are mostly regular, but each must be learned. Watch the spelling of cinquenta especially.

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

A spelling note that trips up everyone: cinquenta is written qu with no diaeresis. Before the 1990 Orthographic Agreement (AO90), the u in qü was marked with a trema: cinqüenta. That trema no longer exists in modern Brazilian spelling — write cinquenta, frequente, tranquilo, all without the dots. Note also sessenta with double s, and setenta with a single one.

Meu avô tem oitenta e cinco anos e ainda dirige.

My grandfather is eighty-five and still drives.

Joining tens and units with "e"

To form numbers like 21, 45, or 99, you connect the ten and the unit with e (and). This is obligatory and never dropped within the 1–100 range.

ten + e + unit → vinte e um, quarenta e cinco, noventa e nove

A conta deu noventa e nove reais e oitenta centavos.

The bill came to ninety-nine reais and eighty cents.

Ele mora no apartamento quarenta e cinco.

He lives in apartment forty-five.

English uses a hyphen (forty-five) and no word for "and." Portuguese uses the spoken word e with no hyphen: quarenta e cinco. This is one of the most reliable patterns in the whole number system.

Cem — exactly one hundred

The number 100 is cem, but only when it means exactly 100 (or when it precedes a noun directly, as in cem reais). The moment you go above 100 — 101, 150, 199 — the form changes to cento: cento e um, cento e cinquenta, cento e noventa e nove. This shift is covered in detail in Cardinal Numbers 100+, but it's worth previewing here so the transition isn't a surprise.

Comprei cem gramas de presunto.

I bought a hundred grams of ham.

A camiseta custa cento e vinte reais.

The T-shirt costs a hundred and twenty reais.

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Think of it this way: cem is the "closed" hundred (nothing follows). As soon as anything follows, it opens up into cento e.... There is no um cem — unlike English "one hundred," Portuguese never puts um before cem.

Common Mistakes

❌ Tenho dois irmãs.

Incorrect — 'irmãs' is feminine, so 'two' must be 'duas'.

✅ Tenho duas irmãs.

I have two sisters.

English speakers forget that dois and um change for gender, because their own language never does this.

❌ Vinte e um casas.

Incorrect — 'casas' is feminine, so it must be 'uma' even inside a compound number.

✅ Vinte e uma casas.

Twenty-one houses.

The gender of the unit carries all the way to the end of a compound number — a detail learners routinely miss.

❌ A blusa custa cinqüenta reais.

Incorrect — the trema was abolished by AO90; never write 'cinqüenta'.

✅ A blusa custa cinquenta reais.

The blouse costs fifty reais.

❌ O número é quarenta cinco.

Incorrect — tens and units must be joined by 'e'.

✅ O número é quarenta e cinco.

The number is forty-five.

English drops the "and"; Portuguese requires the e.

❌ Ela tem um cem reais.

Incorrect — never place 'um' before 'cem'.

✅ Ela tem cem reais.

She has a hundred reais.

Key Takeaways

0–15 and the tens (20, 30, … 90) are memorized; dezesseis through dezenove are Brazilian e-forms.
Only um/uma and dois/duas change for gender — and they do so even at the end of compound numbers (trinta e uma, vinte e dois).
Join tens and units with e: quarenta e cinco, never a hyphen and never silence.
Spell cinquenta without a trema (AO90). Use cem for exactly 100 and cento e... above it.

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