Learn Portuguese (Portugal): O pão custa cinquenta cêntimos.

O pão custa cinquenta cêntimos.

The bread costs fifty cents.

Breakdown of O pão custa cinquenta cêntimos.

Questions & Answers about O pão custa cinquenta cêntimos.

Why do we say O pão instead of just Pão?

In Portuguese, definite articles like o (the) are used much more often than in English. Even when talking about bread in general, or just the specific bread you are buying at the bakery, you usually include the masculine article o.

How do you pronounce the -ão in pão?

The -ão is a nasal sound. Make an 'ow' sound (like in the English word 'cow'), but push the air out through your nose. The tilde symbol (~) over the 'a' is your cue that the vowel is nasal.

What is the dictionary form of the verb custa?

The infinitive (dictionary form) is custar (to cost). Because o pão is a singular third-person subject (like 'it' in English), we drop the -r from the end to make custa.

I've heard the word centavos for cents before. Why is it cêntimos here?

In Portugal, the official word for the cents of a Euro is cêntimos. You will hear centavos used in Brazil when they talk about their currency, the Real.