The Portuguese number system is base-ten, like English, and most of its arithmetic vocabulary is recognisable — dois is two, cem is one hundred, milhão is million. But the moment you write or speak numbers in real Portuguese, three differences from English start to matter: agreement (some numerals change form to match feminine nouns), formatting (the comma is the decimal separator, the period is the thousands separator, the opposite of English), and scale (PT-PT historically uses the long scale in which a bilião is a million million, not a thousand million as in modern English). This page is the orientation map for the Numbers group: it surveys all the categories you will need and links to the dedicated pages where each is treated in depth.
The categories of number words
Portuguese has the same families of number words as English, plus a few that English collapses or paraphrases. Knowing the categorial structure makes it easier to learn the inventory.
| Category | Function | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Cardinals (cardinais) | counting, quantity | um, dois, três, dez, cem, mil |
| Ordinals (ordinais) | ranking, sequence | primeiro, segundo, terceiro, décimo, centésimo |
| Fractions (fracionários) | parts of a whole | meio, um terço, três quartos |
| Decimals (decimais) | numbers with a decimal point | três vírgula catorze (3,14) |
| Multiplicatives (multiplicativos) | doubling, tripling, etc. | duplo, triplo, quádruplo, quíntuplo |
| Collectives (coletivos) | fixed groups | uma dúzia, um par, uma centena, um milhar |
| Approximations | vague quantities | uns vinte, cerca de cinquenta, uma vintena |
| Roman numerals | centuries, monarchs, chapters | século XX, D. Manuel I, capítulo IV |
Cardinals: counting and quantity
Cardinal numbers (números cardinais) are the basic counting set: um, dois, três, quatro, cinco... Most are invariable — they don't change form. But three categories agree with the noun they count:
Numbers that agree
- um / uma (one) and dois / duas (two) agree in gender.
- hundreds from 200 onwards (duzentos / duzentas, trezentos / trezentas, ...) agree in gender (and number is fixed plural).
- milhão, bilião are masculine nouns and pluralise (um milhão, dois milhões).
um livro, uma mesa
one book (m), one table (f)
dois homens, duas mulheres
two men, two women
duzentos alunos, duzentas alunas
two hundred students (m), two hundred students (f)
trezentas páginas
three hundred pages (f, agreement)
um milhão de habitantes, dois milhões de turistas
one million inhabitants, two million tourists
All other cardinals (três, quatro, ... noventa, mil) are invariable: três casas, três livros — same form for both genders.
três livros, três mesas
three books, three tables (same form)
cinco euros, cinco moedas
five euros, five coins (same form)
For the full inventory and detailed agreement rules, see Cardinal Numbers 1-100 and Cardinal Numbers 100+.
Compound cardinals are written separately
Unlike French (vingt-et-un) or English-with-hyphen (twenty-one), Portuguese writes compound cardinals as separate words joined by e (and).
vinte e um, trinta e cinco, noventa e nove
twenty-one, thirty-five, ninety-nine
cento e vinte, duzentos e cinquenta e três
one hundred and twenty, two hundred and fifty-three
The e connects significant elements within each scale. We treat the placement rules in detail on Cardinal Numbers 100+.
Ordinals: ranking and sequence
Ordinal numbers (números ordinais) mark position rather than quantity: primeiro (first), segundo (second), terceiro (third), and so on. All ordinals agree in gender and number with the noun they modify.
o primeiro carro, a primeira casa
the first car, the first house
os segundos lugares, as segundas oportunidades
second places, second chances
o décimo aniversário, a centésima edição
the tenth anniversary, the hundredth edition
Ordinals are very productive in Portuguese — used for floors of buildings (o quinto andar), royal numbering (Dom João VI read sexto), school grades (o sétimo ano), and rankings of all kinds.
In writing, ordinals are often abbreviated with a superscript º (masculine) or ª (feminine): 1º andar, 1ª aula, 3º lugar. The superscript is part of the orthography — without it, 1 is read as a cardinal.
O 1º andar é onde fica o restaurante.
The first floor is where the restaurant is.
A 3ª edição do livro saiu o ano passado.
The third edition of the book came out last year.
Fractions: parts of a whole
Fractions (fracionários) use the cardinal for the numerator and the ordinal for the denominator (from 4 onwards). Two special forms: meio (half) and terço (third) replace what would otherwise be segundo and terceiro in fractional contexts.
| Fraction | Spoken | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1/2 | meio / metade | meio as quantifier; metade as noun |
| 1/3 | um terço | special form |
| 1/4 | um quarto | ordinal form |
| 1/5 | um quinto | ordinal |
| 2/3 | dois terços | plural agreement |
| 3/4 | três quartos | plural agreement |
| 1/10 | um décimo | ordinal |
| 1/100 | um centésimo | ordinal |
Comi metade do bolo.
I ate half the cake.
Falta um quarto para as três.
It's a quarter to three.
Dois terços dos votantes ficaram em casa.
Two-thirds of voters stayed home.
Meia hora chega para chegar lá.
Half an hour is enough to get there.
Decimals: comma is the separator
This is the single most important formatting difference for English speakers reading PT-PT financial, scientific, or commercial text: the comma is the decimal separator, the period is the thousands separator. The English convention is exactly reversed.
3,14 (lê-se «três vírgula catorze»)
3.14 (read 'three point fourteen')
0,5 litros
0.5 litres
1.000 euros
1,000 euros (period is thousands separator)
2.500.000 habitantes
2,500,000 inhabitants
O preço do litro é 1,789 euros.
The price per litre is 1.789 euros.
Modern PT-PT (especially in technical and EU-aligned contexts) increasingly uses a non-breaking space instead of the period as the thousands separator: 1 000 000 rather than 1.000.000. Both are acceptable; the period remains the most common in everyday Portuguese.
Multiplicatives: rare in everyday use
Portuguese has the multiplicative series — duplo, triplo, quádruplo, quíntuplo, sêxtuplo — but in everyday speech these are largely replaced by paraphrases.
O dobro do preço, o triplo da população
Double the price, triple the population (commonly used)
duas vezes mais, três vezes mais
twice as much, three times as much (very common)
O parto de gémeos é duplo, mas eu tive um parto triplo.
A twin birth is double, but I had a triple birth.
The full multiplicative forms (quádruplo, quíntuplo) are mostly limited to formal, mathematical, or medical contexts.
Collectives: fixed-size groups
A few nouns name a specific quantity as a single concept. The most common:
| Collective | Quantity | Use |
|---|---|---|
| uma dúzia | 12 | uma dúzia de ovos (a dozen eggs) |
| meia dúzia | 6 | meia dúzia de pastéis |
| uma vintena | ~20 | uma vintena de pessoas (about twenty people) |
| uma dezena | ~10 | uma dezena de carros |
| uma centena | 100 | uma centena de páginas |
| um milhar | 1,000 | um milhar de espectadores |
| um milhão (noun) | 1,000,000 | um milhão de razões |
| um par | 2 (a pair) | um par de sapatos, um par de horas |
Comprei uma dúzia de ovos no mercado.
I bought a dozen eggs at the market.
Um par de horas chega para arrumar tudo.
A couple of hours is enough to tidy everything up.
Estavam lá uma centena de pessoas.
There were about a hundred people there.
Milhares de adeptos encheram o estádio.
Thousands of fans filled the stadium.
These all take the preposition de before the counted noun: dúzia de ovos, milhar de pessoas, milhão de euros. This is true even of milhão, which is a noun rather than a numeral in PT (see below).
Approximations: "about X"
PT-PT has several ways to say "about" or "approximately."
uns vinte, umas trinta
about twenty (m), about thirty (f) — informal, uses the indefinite article in plural
cerca de cinquenta
about fifty (more formal)
aproximadamente cem
approximately one hundred
uma vintena, uma dezena
about twenty, about ten (collectives used loosely)
à volta de duzentos
around two hundred (informal)
O concerto atraiu cerca de cinco mil pessoas.
The concert drew about five thousand people.
Roman numerals: still very much alive
Unlike English, where Roman numerals have largely retreated to royal numbering and clock faces, PT-PT uses Roman numerals routinely for centuries, monarchs, popes, book chapters, and certain official numbering.
| Use | Example | Read as |
|---|---|---|
| Centuries | século XX, século XIX | século vinte, século dezanove |
| Monarchs | D. Manuel I, D. João VI | Dom Manuel primeiro, Dom João sexto |
| Popes | Papa João Paulo II | Papa João Paulo segundo |
| Chapters | capítulo IV, capítulo VII | capítulo quarto, capítulo sétimo |
| Volumes / acts | Volume III, Ato II | volume terceiro, ato segundo |
O século XX foi o século das grandes guerras.
The twentieth century was the century of great wars.
D. Manuel I governou Portugal no período dos Descobrimentos.
King Manuel I ruled Portugal during the Age of Discoveries.
Estamos a estudar o capítulo IV do romance.
We are studying chapter IV of the novel.
Note: Roman numerals for monarchs and popes are read as ordinals up to 10 and as cardinals from 11 onwards. So D. Manuel I is primeiro, D. João VI is sexto, but Luís XIV (the French king) is catorze, not décimo quarto.
Percentages
The word for percent is por cento, written % in numbers.
trinta por cento (30%)
thirty percent
cem por cento (100%)
one hundred percent
A inflação foi de 4,2% no ano passado.
Inflation was 4.2% last year.
Mais de 90% dos portugueses vive em zonas urbanas.
More than 90% of the Portuguese live in urban areas.
The verb after a percentage usually agrees with the noun the percentage refers to: 30% dos alunos estão presentes (the students are present), not está presente. Some grammarians accept singular agreement when the focus is the percentage itself, but plural agreement with the referent is the more common modern use.
Math operations
The basic arithmetic vocabulary:
| Operation | PT-PT | Read |
|---|---|---|
| + | mais | dois mais três (2 + 3) |
| − | menos | dez menos quatro (10 − 4) |
| × | vezes / multiplicado por | cinco vezes seis (5 × 6) |
| ÷ | dividido por | doze dividido por três (12 ÷ 3) |
| = | igual a / é igual a / dá | dois mais dois é igual a quatro |
| ² | ao quadrado | três ao quadrado (3²) |
| ³ | ao cubo | dois ao cubo (2³) |
Cinco mais sete é igual a doze.
Five plus seven equals twelve.
Quanto é vinte vezes três?
How much is twenty times three?
Dez menos quatro dá seis.
Ten minus four equals six.
Time and dates
The basic patterns; dedicated pages cover these in detail.
Clock time
Time uses cardinals in a 24-hour or 12-hour system, joined to horas (or omitted in casual speech).
São oito horas.
It's eight o'clock.
É uma e meia.
It's half past one.
Faltam dez para as três.
It's ten to three.
O comboio sai às quinze e quarenta e cinco.
The train leaves at 15:45.
Dates
Dates use cardinals + month name (lowercase, see Capitalization Rules) + year.
Hoje é (dia) 15 de março de 2024.
Today is March 15, 2024.
Ela nasceu a 8 de junho de 1995.
She was born on June 8, 1995.
For the first of the month, both o primeiro and o um are heard, with o primeiro slightly more formal.
O primeiro de maio é feriado.
The first of May is a public holiday.
Phone numbers, addresses, and codes
Long digit sequences are typically read digit by digit or in two-digit groups, not as a single huge cardinal.
912 345 678 — nove um dois, três quatro cinco, seis sete oito
(reading a Portuguese mobile number digit by digit)
O meu código postal é 1100-085 — mil e cem traço zero oitenta e cinco.
My postcode is 1100-085.
This is similar to English usage. The opposite (reading 912 as nove mil duzentos e doze) sounds odd in a phone-number context.
Quirks worth flagging early
Three quirks of PT-PT numerals trip up almost every learner. They are:
cem vs cento
Cem is used alone or directly before a noun (or its quantifier).
Tenho cem euros.
I have one hundred euros.
cem por cento, cem mil, cem alunos
one hundred percent, one hundred thousand, one hundred students
Cento is used before another number in compound forms.
cento e vinte, cento e cinquenta, cento e noventa e nove
one hundred and twenty, one hundred and fifty, one hundred and ninety-nine
cento e cinquenta euros
one hundred and fifty euros (the *e cinquenta* triggers *cento*)
So you say cem alunos (no following number) but cento e vinte alunos (a number follows). This is one of the most common A1 spelling mistakes.
mil is invariable
Mil is invariable as a numeral — there is no uns mil, no plural form when it functions as a cardinal. Just mil.
mil pessoas, mil euros
one thousand people, one thousand euros
dois mil livros, três mil casas
two thousand books, three thousand houses (the *dois/três* multiplier agrees with the noun's gender; *mil* itself doesn't change)
When mil is used as a noun (meaning "thousands of"), it pluralises: milhares de pessoas (thousands of people).
Milhares de portugueses emigraram nos anos sessenta.
Thousands of Portuguese emigrated in the sixties.
milhão takes de
Milhão (and bilião, trilião) are nouns rather than pure numerals. They require the preposition de before the counted noun.
um milhão de habitantes
one million inhabitants (with *de*)
dois milhões de euros, cinco milhões de pessoas
two million euros, five million people
O orçamento é de quinze milhões de euros.
The budget is fifteen million euros.
The de is mandatory. Um milhão habitantes (without de) is ungrammatical. This contrasts with cardinals up to mil, which take no preposition: cem habitantes, mil habitantes.
PT-PT vs PT-BR scale: the "billion" trap
Historically, PT-PT uses the long scale (1 bilião = 10¹², a million million — what English would call a trillion), while PT-BR uses the short scale (1 bilhão = 10⁹, what English calls a billion). In PT-PT, what English calls a billion (10⁹) is mil milhões (a thousand million).
In recent decades, PT-PT journalism has begun drifting toward the short scale (bilião = 10⁹) under American influence and EU statistical conventions, but the long scale remains the conservative default and the one taught in Portuguese schools.
| Number | PT-PT (traditional, long scale) | PT-BR (short scale) | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10⁹ | mil milhões | um bilhão | one billion |
| 10¹² | um bilião | um trilhão | one trillion |
| 10¹⁵ | mil biliões | um quatrilhão | one quadrillion |
A população mundial é de cerca de oito mil milhões.
The world population is about eight billion. (PT-PT long scale: 8,000,000,000)
O bilião português equivale ao trilhão americano.
The Portuguese 'bilião' equals the American 'trillion'.
Always check the context. Modern financial PT-PT often clarifies with the digits: 15 mil milhões de euros (€15.000.000.000).
Common mistakes
❌ Tenho dois mesas.
*Dois* must agree with feminine *mesas*. Use *duas*.
✅ Tenho duas mesas.
I have two tables.
❌ duzentos pessoas
Hundreds (200, 300, ..., 900) agree in gender. *Pessoas* is feminine: *duzentas pessoas*.
✅ duzentas pessoas
two hundred people
❌ um milhão habitantes
*Milhão* requires *de* before the counted noun.
✅ um milhão de habitantes
one million inhabitants
❌ cem e vinte
Before another number, use *cento*, not *cem*.
✅ cento e vinte
one hundred and twenty
❌ Reading 1.000 as 'one'
In PT-PT, the period is the thousands separator. *1.000* means *one thousand*, not *one*.
✅ 1.000 = mil
1,000 = one thousand
❌ Translating 'one billion dollars' as *um bilião de dólares*
Traditional PT-PT *bilião* is 10¹² (one trillion in English). For 10⁹ use *mil milhões*.
✅ mil milhões de dólares (10⁹)
one billion dollars (English short scale)
Key takeaways
- Portuguese has cardinals, ordinals, fractions, decimals, multiplicatives, collectives, approximations, and Roman numerals — each with its own form and use.
- Most cardinals are invariable, but um/uma, dois/duas, hundreds (duzentos/duzentas, ...) agree in gender. Milhão and bilião are masculine nouns and pluralise.
- Compound cardinals are written as separate words joined by e: vinte e um, cento e cinquenta.
- Ordinals always agree in gender and number: o primeiro, a primeira, os primeiros, as primeiras.
- Decimal separator is the comma; thousands separator is the period. This is the reverse of English.
- Mil is invariable as a numeral; milhão requires de before the counted noun.
- Roman numerals are routine in PT-PT for centuries (século XX), monarchs (D. Manuel I), and book chapters.
- Beware the long-scale / short-scale split: traditional PT-PT bilião = 10¹² (English trillion); PT-BR bilhão = 10⁹ (English billion).
- For the inventory of cardinals 1-100, see Cardinal Numbers 1-100; for 100 and beyond, see Cardinal Numbers 100+.
Related Topics
- 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.
- Cardinal Numbers 100+A1 — Hundreds, thousands, millions, and beyond in European Portuguese — gender agreement of duzentas/trezentas, the cem/cento split, mil as invariable, milhão with de, and the long-scale bilião that traps English speakers.
- Hyphenation RulesB1 — When European Portuguese uses the hyphen — with prefixes, in compound words, in numerals, in days of the week, and at line ends — under the Acordo Ortográfico 1990.
- Portuguese Spelling OverviewA1 — An orienting tour of European Portuguese orthography — alphabet, diacritics, digraphs, nasal spelling, and the Acordo Ortográfico 1990 reforms that still affect every modern PT-PT text.