A Portuguese fraction (fração) names a part of a whole; a decimal number (número decimal) writes the same idea in positional notation. The two systems work together in everyday speech: meio quilo and 0,5 kg mean the same thing, and a Portuguese cook reaches for whichever sounds more natural in the moment.
Two facts make this page essential for English speakers. First, the decimal separator is a comma (vírgula), not a period — 3,14, not 3.14. Get this wrong on a form and the bank refunds you a hundred euros instead of a hundred thousand. Second, fractions in Portuguese use ordinal forms for the denominator (um terço, um quarto, um quinto) — the same ordinals you learnt for first, second, third — and they switch to a special -avos suffix once the denominator goes above ten.
Halves and quarters: the everyday fractions
These are the fractions you will use almost daily — for time, for cooking, for dividing things up.
meio and meia (the adjective)
Meio (m) and meia (f) are adjectives meaning "half." They go before the noun and agree with it in gender. They do not take an article.
meio quilo de açúcar
half a kilo of sugar
meia hora de espera
half an hour of waiting
meio copo de água, por favor
half a glass of water, please
meia garrafa de vinho chega para os dois
half a bottle of wine is enough for the two of us
Esperei meia hora pelo autocarro.
I waited half an hour for the bus.
Junta meio litro de leite à massa.
Add half a litre of milk to the batter.
In numerical expressions, meio/meia combines with cardinals: uma hora e meia (one and a half hours), três e meio (three and a half), dois quilos e meio (two and a half kilos). The form agrees with the noun being measured, not with the cardinal.
O filme dura uma hora e meia.
The film lasts an hour and a half.
Comprei dois quilos e meio de batatas.
I bought two and a half kilos of potatoes.
A criança tem três anos e meio.
The child is three and a half.
metade (the noun)
Metade is a feminine noun meaning "half." Unlike meio, it takes an article and is followed by de + the thing being halved.
a metade do bolo
half (of) the cake
a metade dos alunos
half (of) the students
Comi metade do bolo sozinho — não me orgulho.
I ate half the cake by myself — I'm not proud.
Metade dos meus colegas chegou atrasada à reunião.
Half of my colleagues arrived late to the meeting.
Na primeira metade do filme não percebi nada.
In the first half of the film I didn't understand a thing.
Quarters
Um quarto (1/4) and três quartos (3/4) are the standard forms. They use the masculine ordinal quarto. With de, they introduce the thing being divided.
um quarto de hora
a quarter of an hour (15 minutes)
três quartos de hora
three quarters of an hour (45 minutes)
um quarto da população portuguesa
a quarter of the Portuguese population
Esperei três quartos de hora e ainda não tinha chegado.
I waited three quarters of an hour and he still hadn't arrived.
Cerca de um quarto dos votos foi para o partido novo.
About a quarter of the votes went to the new party.
The general rule: cardinal + ordinal
For fractions where the denominator is between 2 and 10, the rule is simple:
Cardinal numerator + ordinal denominator (um terço, três quintos, cinco oitavos).
The ordinal is the same form you already know — terceiro, quarto, quinto — but used as a noun. When the numerator is greater than one, the ordinal goes plural.
| Fraction | Portuguese | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| 1/2 | um meio / metade | a half |
| 1/3 | um terço | a third |
| 2/3 | dois terços | two thirds |
| 1/4 | um quarto | a quarter |
| 3/4 | três quartos | three quarters |
| 1/5 | um quinto | a fifth |
| 2/5 | dois quintos | two fifths |
| 1/6 | um sexto | a sixth |
| 1/7 | um sétimo | a seventh |
| 1/8 | um oitavo | an eighth |
| 5/8 | cinco oitavos | five eighths |
| 1/9 | um nono | a ninth |
| 1/10 | um décimo | a tenth |
| 7/10 | sete décimos | seven tenths |
Um terço dos meus rendimentos vai para a renda.
A third of my income goes to rent.
Bebi dois terços da garrafa antes de adormecer.
I drank two thirds of the bottle before falling asleep.
Cerca de três quintos dos eleitores votaram nesta proposta.
About three fifths of voters voted for this proposal.
Sete décimos dos jovens portugueses falam inglês.
Seven tenths of young Portuguese speak English.
When the noun parte (part) is added, the fraction becomes feminine and agrees:
três quartas partes da população
three quarters of the population
duas terças partes do território
two thirds of the territory
This partes construction is more formal and more emphatic — you'll hear it in news reports and academic writing.
Denominators above ten: the -avos suffix
Once the denominator is larger than ten, Portuguese has no productive ordinal series, so it falls back on the suffix -avos added to the cardinal stem.
| Fraction | Portuguese | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| 1/11 | um onze avos | one eleventh |
| 1/12 | um doze avos | one twelfth |
| 1/13 | um treze avos | one thirteenth |
| 3/15 | três quinze avos | three fifteenths |
| 5/20 | cinco vinte avos | five twentieths |
| 7/100 | sete cem avos | seven hundredths |
Um doze avos do bolo é uma fatia muito fina.
A twelfth of the cake is a very thin slice.
Cinco vinte avos é o mesmo que um quarto.
Five twentieths is the same as a quarter.
The -avos suffix is invariable
Avos never changes form. It does not agree.
dois quinze avos (not *dois quinze avas*)
two fifteenths
cinco doze avos da turma faltaram
five twelfths of the class were absent
Reading fractions as percentages or paraphrases
Most of the time, especially in conversation, Portuguese avoids the formal fraction in favour of a paraphrase:
| Fraction | Formal | Everyday paraphrase |
|---|---|---|
| 1/2 | um meio | metade, meio |
| 1/3 | um terço | cerca de trinta e três por cento |
| 1/4 | um quarto | vinte e cinco por cento, um em cada quatro |
| 3/4 | três quartos | setenta e cinco por cento |
| 1/10 | um décimo | dez por cento |
| 9/10 | nove décimos | noventa por cento, quase todos |
Cerca de vinte e cinco por cento dos portugueses vivem em Lisboa.
About twenty-five percent of Portuguese people live in Lisbon.
Um em cada quatro alunos repetiu o ano.
One in four students repeated the year.
Quase metade da turma faltou.
Almost half the class was absent.
For more on percentages and how to combine them with de, see the percentages and math page.
Decimals: the comma is king
Here is the single most important orthographic point in this whole page:
Portuguese uses a comma as the decimal separator and a period (or space) as the thousands separator. This is the opposite of English.
| English | Portuguese |
|---|---|
| 3.14 | 3,14 |
| 0.5 | 0,5 |
| 1,000 | 1.000 or 1 000 |
| 1,000,000 | 1.000.000 or 1 000 000 |
| 1,234.56 | 1.234,56 or 1 234,56 |
The European Union officially recommends a non-breaking space as the thousands separator (1 000, 1 000 000). Portuguese banks, statistics offices, and newspapers increasingly follow this. The traditional period (1.000) is still everywhere in handwritten contexts and older documents. Both are correct in PT-PT.
A população de Portugal é de cerca de 10,3 milhões de habitantes.
The population of Portugal is around 10.3 million.
O preço do café subiu para 1,20 €.
The price of coffee went up to €1.20.
A distância entre Lisboa e Porto é de cerca de 313 km.
The distance between Lisbon and Porto is about 313 km.
Reading decimals aloud
The decimal separator is read aloud as vírgula. There are two conventions for the digits after the comma:
- Read each digit individually (most common for technical contexts): 3,14 = três vírgula um quatro.
- Read the post-comma digits as a single number (common when the decimal is a recognizable quantity, especially for money or measurements): 3,14 = três vírgula catorze.
| Number | Reading 1 (digit-by-digit) | Reading 2 (as a number) |
|---|---|---|
| 3,14 | três vírgula um quatro | três vírgula catorze |
| 0,5 | zero vírgula cinco | (same) |
| 1,75 | um vírgula sete cinco | um vírgula setenta e cinco |
| 2,50 | dois vírgula cinco zero | dois vírgula cinquenta |
| 0,001 | zero vírgula zero zero um | (rare; would say um milésimo) |
Pi é aproximadamente três vírgula catorze.
Pi is approximately three point one four.
A temperatura está em vinte e dois vírgula cinco graus.
The temperature is at twenty-two point five degrees.
O bebé pesou três vírgula sete quilos à nascença.
The baby weighed three point seven kilos at birth.
A taxa de juro é de dois vírgula vinte e cinco por cento.
The interest rate is two point two five percent.
Money: a special case
For prices, the cleanest reading puts the currency between the euros and the cents: €3,50 = três euros e cinquenta cêntimos (literally, "three euros and fifty cents"). The vírgula is not normally read aloud in this context — the e (and) replaces it.
O bilhete custa dois euros e dez cêntimos.
The ticket costs two euros and ten cents.
O café fica a um euro e vinte.
The coffee comes to one euro twenty.
Pague-me cinquenta cêntimos quando puder.
Pay me fifty cents when you can.
O total dá doze euros e cinco cêntimos.
The total comes to twelve euros and five cents.
Common decimal-fraction equivalences
Useful to memorize. They come up in cooking, time, percentages, and casual estimates.
| Decimal | Fraction | Common Portuguese |
|---|---|---|
| 0,5 | 1/2 | meio / metade |
| 0,25 | 1/4 | um quarto |
| 0,75 | 3/4 | três quartos |
| 0,33... | 1/3 | um terço |
| 0,1 | 1/10 | um décimo |
| 1,5 | 1 1/2 | um e meio |
| 2,5 | 2 1/2 | dois e meio |
| 0,1% | 1/1000 | um milésimo |
Compra um quilo e meio de cebolas.
Buy one and a half kilos of onions.
A receita pede dois copos e meio de farinha.
The recipe asks for two and a half cups of flour.
Vivo aqui há três anos e meio.
I've been living here for three and a half years.
Dates, years, and decimals are not friends
A small but useful note: years in Portuguese are never written with a thousands separator. 2026, not 2.026. The same applies to chapter numbers, page numbers, and code numbers. The thousands separator is reserved for quantities (1.000 euros, 5.000 pessoas), not identifiers.
Estamos no ano 2026, não 2.026.
We're in the year 2026, not 2,026.
O capítulo 12 começa na página 234.
Chapter 12 begins on page 234.
In recipes, time, and measurements
Real Portuguese cooking and conversational measurement uses fractions and decimals interchangeably. Here are the patterns to internalize:
Adiciona meio quilo de tomate maduro.
Add half a kilo of ripe tomato.
Aqueça o forno a 180 graus durante meia hora.
Heat the oven to 180 degrees for half an hour.
O bolo precisa de três quartos de hora no forno.
The cake needs three quarters of an hour in the oven.
Junte um terço de um copo de azeite.
Add a third of a cup of olive oil.
A correr, faço o percurso em uma hora e meia.
Running, I do the route in an hour and a half.
Ela mede um vírgula sessenta e cinco.
She's one metre sixty-five.
Common mistakes
❌ 3.14
The period is a thousands separator in PT, not a decimal one. This would be read as 'three thousand one hundred and four', not 'three point one four'.
✅ 3,14
three point one four
❌ meio do bolo
*Meio* (adjective) cannot take *de* before a definite noun. Use *metade* (noun) instead.
✅ metade do bolo
half of the cake
❌ metade hora
*Metade* always takes an article and *de*. For 'half an hour' as a quantity, use *meia hora*.
✅ meia hora
half an hour
❌ um décimo terceiro
For a fraction with a denominator above ten, use *-avos*, not the ordinal.
✅ um treze avos
one thirteenth
❌ dois terço
When the numerator is greater than one, the denominator goes plural.
✅ dois terços
two thirds
❌ 1,000 euros (meaning one thousand)
In PT, this would read as one euro (1 with three decimal zeros). One thousand euros is *1.000 euros* or *1 000 euros*.
✅ 1.000 euros
one thousand euros
❌ um meia hora
*Meia* is the adjective form for 'half'; *meia hora* means 'half an hour'. You don't add *um*.
✅ meia hora
half an hour
Key takeaways
- Decimal separator: comma (vírgula). Thousands separator: period or space. This is the opposite of English and the most common mistake on forms.
- Meio/meia is an adjective that goes before the noun and agrees in gender (meio quilo, meia hora).
- Metade is a feminine noun that takes an article and de (metade do bolo).
- For fractions with denominators 2-10, use cardinal numerator + ordinal denominator: um terço, três quartos, cinco oitavos. The denominator goes plural when the numerator is greater than one.
- For denominators above 10, use the suffix -avos on the cardinal: um doze avos, cinco vinte avos. Avos is invariable.
- When possible, simplify the fraction or paraphrase as a percentage: vinte e cinco por cento is more natural than cinco vinte avos.
- Read decimals as vírgula
- digits, either digit-by-digit (três vírgula um quatro) or as a number (três vírgula catorze). Both are correct.
- For money, drop the vírgula in speech and use e: €3,50 = três euros e cinquenta cêntimos.
- Years and identifiers never take a thousands separator: 2026, not 2.026.
Related Topics
- Numbers OverviewA1 — An orienting tour of the Portuguese number system — cardinals, ordinals, fractions, decimals, percentages, dates, and the quirks of agreement, formatting, and PT-PT vs PT-BR usage.
- Cardinal Numbers 1-100A1 — How to count from um to cem in European Portuguese — gender agreement, the e conjunction, PT-PT spellings (dezasseis, dezassete, dezanove), and the cem-vs-cento boundary at one hundred.
- Ordinal NumbersA2 — Primeiro, segundo, terceiro and the rest of the Portuguese ordinal series — how they form, how they agree in gender and number, and where everyday speech replaces them with cardinals.
- Percentages and Mathematical ExpressionsA2 — How European Portuguese reads percentages, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, powers, and roots — including verb agreement with percentage subjects and the difference between vezes and multiplicado por.
- Dates and Telling TimeA1 — Days of the week, months, years, and the clock — the practical vocabulary and constructions you need to ask 'what day is it?' and 'what time is it?' in European Portuguese.
- Collective Numerals and ApproximationsB1 — Uma dúzia de ovos, uma centena de pessoas, uns vinte alunos — the Portuguese vocabulary for grouping things by number, approximating quantities, and saying 'every other day'.