Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Quantos animais vocês têm aqui?

In Portuguese, nouns that end in -al, -el, -ol, or -ul usually form their plural by dropping the -l and adding -is. Because of this rule, the singular animal drops the -l and becomes animais.

Why does têm have an accent mark on it?

The circumflex accent (the little hat) is used here to show that the verb is plural. The singular form is tem (he/she/it has), but the plural form used with vocês or eles (they) is written as têm. The accent helps you tell the difference in writing, even though they sound almost exactly the same when spoken.

Why is it Quantos and not just Quanto?

The word for "how much" or "how many" has to match the noun it asks about. Because animais is a masculine, plural word, quanto changes its ending to become quantos. If you were asking about a feminine plural word, like houses (casas), you would use Quantas.

I learned that tu means "you". Why does this sentence use vocês?