Zero documentos estão prontos.

to be

Breakdown of Zero documentos estão prontos.

• pronto: ready
• o documento: the document
• zero: the numeral for no quantity

Questions & Answers about Zero documentos estão prontos.

Why is documentos plural after zero? Shouldn’t zero behave like singular?

In Portuguese, zero normally takes a plural noun.

So you say:

• zero documentos
• zero pessoas
• zero reais

This is similar to how many languages treat quantities: anything other than exactly one usually goes with the plural.

So zero documento would sound wrong in standard Portuguese.

Why is the verb estão plural?

Because the subject is documentos, which is plural.

Even though the quantity is zero, Portuguese grammar still treats zero documentos as grammatically plural, so the verb must agree:

• Zero documentos estão prontos.
• Dois documentos estão prontos.
• Muitos documentos estão prontos.

If the subject were singular, the verb would be singular:

• Um documento está pronto.

Why is it prontos and not pronto?