Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Um fruto seco é suficiente para o lanche.

fruto (masculine) is the more general/technical word for fruit (any plant fruit, in a botanical or broader sense).
fruta (feminine) is the everyday word for the sweet, edible fruits we usually eat as dessert or snacks (apples, pears, bananas, etc.).

However, the fixed expression frutos secos in European Portuguese means nuts and dried fruits as a category (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, raisins, etc.).

Because of that set expression, you normally say:

fruto seco (singular)
frutos secos (plural)

You wouldn’t normally use fruta seca for this meaning. Fruta seca could be understood literally as “fruit that has dried out”, but it’s not the standard term for nuts / dried fruit in Portugal.

What exactly does fruto seco mean in Portugal? Is it just “dried fruit”?

In European Portuguese, fruto seco / frutos secos is a broader category than English dried fruit:

It includes nuts: amêndoas (almonds), nozes (walnuts), avelãs (hazelnuts), pinhões (pine nuts), pistácios, etc.
And also includes dried fruit as English uses it: passas (raisins), alperces secos (dried apricots), tâmaras (dates), etc.

So:

English dried fruit ≈ fruta desidratada / fruta seca (literally dried fruit)
Portuguese frutos secos = nuts + dried fruit (as a general group)

In the sentence, um fruto seco is like saying “one nut / one piece of dried fruit is enough for the snack.”

Why is it um fruto seco and not uma fruta seca? Does gender matter here?

Yes, gender matters and it’s tied to the word choice:

fruto is masculine, so you use:
- um fruto seco (one dried fruit / one nut)
- os frutos secos (the nuts & dried fruits)
fruta is feminine, so you would say:
- uma fruta seca (a dried piece of fruit – literally)
- as frutas secas (the dried fruits – literally)

But for the category “nuts & dried fruits” in European Portuguese, you almost always use the masculine expression frutos secos, so the singular is naturally um fruto seco.

Why is the adjective seco after fruto? Could I say seco fruto?

In Portuguese, adjectives most commonly come after the noun:

fruto seco – literally “fruit dry”, i.e. dried fruit / nut
carro novo – new car
casa grande – big house

Putting the adjective before the noun is possible but either:

sounds poetic/literary, or
changes the emphasis or meaning slightly.

Seco fruto is not idiomatic and sounds wrong for the normal meaning. The fixed expression is fruto seco / frutos secos, with the adjective after the noun.

Why is it seco and not seca here?

Adjectives agree with the gender and number of the noun:

fruto – masculine singular → seco (masculine singular)
fruta – feminine singular → seca (feminine singular)
frutos – masculine plural → secos
frutas – feminine plural → secas

So:

um fruto seco – one dried fruit / nut
uma fruta seca – one dried (piece of) fruit
os frutos secos – the nuts & dried fruits
as frutas secas – the dried fruits (literally)

Why is it é suficiente and not está suficiente?

This is about ser vs estar:

ser (here é) is used for general, permanent or characteristic statements.
estar (here está) is used for temporary states or conditions.

In Um fruto seco é suficiente para o lanche, you’re making a general rule:
“One dried fruit (nut) is enough for the snack (in this context / on this kind of occasion).”

Using está suficiente would normally sound strange here. You’d use está with adjectives that describe a temporary state:

A sopa está quente. – The soup is (currently) hot.
Hoje o almoço está fraco. – Today the lunch is (a bit) poor.

But suficiente in a sentence like this is more like a general evaluation → use ser: é suficiente.

Could I also say Basta um fruto seco para o lanche? Is that the same?

Yes, Basta um fruto seco para o lanche is very natural and close in meaning.

Differences:

Um fruto seco é suficiente para o lanche.
More neutral, slightly more formal/literal: “One dried fruit is sufficient for the snack.”
Basta um fruto seco para o lanche.
Very common in speech. Literally “One dried fruit is enough / suffices for the snack.”

You can also hear:

Um fruto seco chega para o lanche. – “One dried fruit is enough for the snack.” (chegar here = to be enough)

What exactly does lanche mean in Portugal? Is it “lunch”?

In European Portuguese, lanche is not lunch.

Typical meal words in Portugal:

pequeno-almoço – breakfast
almoço – lunch (main midday meal)
lanche – snack, usually mid-afternoon (or mid-morning for lanche da manhã)
jantar – dinner / evening meal

So lanche is a snack, not a full main meal. It can be simple (a piece of fruit, a yogurt) or more substantial (a sandwich, a pastry).

In Brazil, lanche can more easily mean a light meal / fast-food-style meal, but in Portugal it’s really “snack between meals.”

Why do we say para o lanche and not just para lanche?

In European Portuguese, it’s very common to use the definite article with meals:

o pequeno-almoço, o almoço, o lanche, o jantar

So you normally say:

para o lanche – for the snack
para o almoço – for lunch
para o jantar – for dinner

Dropping the article (para lanche) is less natural in European Portuguese in this context and may sound a bit off or too generic.

In Brazilian Portuguese, you more often see the article dropped (e.g. para almoço), but in Portugal para o lanche is the standard phrasing here.

Can I say Um fruto seco é suficiente como lanche or …para lanchar? Are those correct?

Both are possible, but the nuance changes slightly:

Um fruto seco é suficiente como lanche.
Literally “as a snack”. The focus is that as a snack, one dried fruit is enough. This is correct and natural.
Um fruto seco é suficiente para lanchar.
lanchar = “to have a snack”.
This sounds like “One dried fruit is enough to have a snack / to be able to snack.” It’s understandable and grammatically okay, but less idiomatic than para o lanche or como lanche in this exact sentence.

Most natural in Portugal for this idea:

Um fruto seco é suficiente para o lanche.
Um fruto seco é suficiente como lanche.
Basta um fruto seco para o lanche.

Does um here mean exactly “one”, or can it just mean “a”?

Um can mean both “a/an” and “one”, depending on context and emphasis.

In Um fruto seco é suficiente para o lanche:

Taken normally, it’s like “One dried fruit (one nut) is enough…” – you’re specifying the quantity.
You could also understand it more loosely as “a dried fruit is enough…”, but because we’re talking about countable items and it contrasts with “more”, English usually feels it as “one”.

If you really want to stress exactly one, you can say:

Só um fruto seco é suficiente para o lanche. – Only one dried fruit is enough…
Um só fruto seco é suficiente para o lanche. – One single dried fruit is enough…

How would I make this plural, like “Some dried fruits are enough for the snack”?

You need to pluralize both the noun and the adjective:

Alguns frutos secos são suficientes para o lanche.
“Some dried fruits / Some nuts are enough for the snack.”

Components:

alguns – some (masculine plural)
frutos – fruits (masculine plural of fruto)
secos – dried (masculine plural of seco)
suficientes – enough/sufficient (plural of suficiente)
são – they are (plural of é)

How do you pronounce fruto, seco, lanche, and suficiente in European Portuguese?

Approximate English-based hints for European Portuguese:

fruto – [FROO-too]
- fru like “froo” (u as in food but shorter)
- to like “too”, but the final o is often quite reduced.
seco – [SEH-koo]
- se like “seh” (open e, like “bet”)
- co like “koo”.
lanche – roughly [LUNSH]
- initial la is nasalised (like “lun”)
- nch gives a “sh” /ʃ/ sound at the end (similar to English lunch but with a clearer “sh”).
suficiente – roughly [soo-fee-see-EN-te] in careful speech, but in natural European Portuguese it gets quite reduced: [sfi-si-EN-t(ə)].
- stress on -en-: su-fi-ci-en-te.

If you listen to European speakers, you’ll notice reduction of unstressed vowels and a stronger /ʃ/ sound in words like lanche.