Numbers 1 to 100 in Portuguese: um to cem
The numbers 1 to 100 in Portuguese are regular from 20 up: tens, then e ("and"), then units, written as three words. Twenty-one is vinte e um, ninety-nine is noventa e nove, and one hundred is cem. Two things set Portuguese apart from its neighbours: one and two each have a feminine form, and Brazil and Portugal spell three of the teens differently.
Portuguese numbers 1 to 100
| Portuguese | Portuguese | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | um | 51 | cinquenta e um |
| 2 | dois | 52 | cinquenta e dois |
| 3 | três | 53 | cinquenta e três |
| 4 | quatro | 54 | cinquenta e quatro |
| 5 | cinco | 55 | cinquenta e cinco |
| 6 | seis | 56 | cinquenta e seis |
| 7 | sete | 57 | cinquenta e sete |
| 8 | oito | 58 | cinquenta e oito |
| 9 | nove | 59 | cinquenta e nove |
| 10 | dez | 60 | sessenta |
| 11 | onze | 61 | sessenta e um |
| 12 | doze | 62 | sessenta e dois |
| 13 | treze | 63 | sessenta e três |
| 14 | catorze | 64 | sessenta e quatro |
| 15 | quinze | 65 | sessenta e cinco |
| 16 | dezesseis | 66 | sessenta e seis |
| 17 | dezessete | 67 | sessenta e sete |
| 18 | dezoito | 68 | sessenta e oito |
| 19 | dezenove | 69 | sessenta e nove |
| 20 | vinte | 70 | setenta |
| 21 | vinte e um | 71 | setenta e um |
| 22 | vinte e dois | 72 | setenta e dois |
| 23 | vinte e três | 73 | setenta e três |
| 24 | vinte e quatro | 74 | setenta e quatro |
| 25 | vinte e cinco | 75 | setenta e cinco |
| 26 | vinte e seis | 76 | setenta e seis |
| 27 | vinte e sete | 77 | setenta e sete |
| 28 | vinte e oito | 78 | setenta e oito |
| 29 | vinte e nove | 79 | setenta e nove |
| 30 | trinta | 80 | oitenta |
| 31 | trinta e um | 81 | oitenta e um |
| 32 | trinta e dois | 82 | oitenta e dois |
| 33 | trinta e três | 83 | oitenta e três |
| 34 | trinta e quatro | 84 | oitenta e quatro |
| 35 | trinta e cinco | 85 | oitenta e cinco |
| 36 | trinta e seis | 86 | oitenta e seis |
| 37 | trinta e sete | 87 | oitenta e sete |
| 38 | trinta e oito | 88 | oitenta e oito |
| 39 | trinta e nove | 89 | oitenta e nove |
| 40 | quarenta | 90 | noventa |
| 41 | quarenta e um | 91 | noventa e um |
| 42 | quarenta e dois | 92 | noventa e dois |
| 43 | quarenta e três | 93 | noventa e três |
| 44 | quarenta e quatro | 94 | noventa e quatro |
| 45 | quarenta e cinco | 95 | noventa e cinco |
| 46 | quarenta e seis | 96 | noventa e seis |
| 47 | quarenta e sete | 97 | noventa e sete |
| 48 | quarenta e oito | 98 | noventa e oito |
| 49 | quarenta e nove | 99 | noventa e nove |
| 50 | cinquenta | 100 | cem |
The table uses Brazilian spelling. The three forms that differ in Portugal are below.
The rules, in order
1 to 15 are single words: um, dois, três, quatro, cinco, seis, sete, oito, nove, dez, onze, doze, treze, catorze, quinze. Brazil also writes 14 as quatorze.
16 to 19 are "ten and six" run together: dezesseis, dezessete, dezoito, dezenove.
The tens are vinte (20), trinta (30), quarenta (40), cinquenta (50), sessenta (60), setenta (70), oitenta (80), noventa (90).
From 21, it is tens + e + units, as separate words: vinte e um (21), trinta e cinco (35), noventa e nove (99).
Brazil and Portugal
Three of the teens are spelt, and said, differently on the two sides of the Atlantic:
| Brazil | Portugal | |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | dezesseis | dezasseis |
| 17 | dezessete | dezassete |
| 19 | dezenove | dezanove |
The subtitles show the split cleanly. In Brazilian subtitles dezesseis appears 4.1 times per million words and dezasseis 0.1; in subtitles from Portugal it is the other way round, 0.6 against 4.4. More of the differences between the two are in Brazilian vs European Portuguese.
Um and uma, dois and duas
Portuguese is unusual in giving both one and two a feminine form:
- um livro, uma casa: one book, one house
- dois livros, duas casas: two books, two houses
The feminine carries into bigger numbers: vinte e uma pessoas, "twenty-one people", trinta e duas casas, "thirty-two houses". Both forms of two are common. In Brazilian subtitles dois is said 889.1 times per million words and duas 430.3.
Cem and cento
One hundred exactly is cem: cem reais. With anything after it, it is cento e: cento e um (101), cento e vinte (120).
Which numbers do Portuguese films say most?
Counted in Brazilian film and television subtitles, per million words:
| Number | Word | Per million words |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | um | 13460.5 |
| 2 | dois | 889.1 |
| 3 | três | 492.1 |
| 4 | quatro | 208.3 |
| 5 | cinco | 217.9 |
| 6 | seis | 155.9 |
| 7 | sete | 92.2 |
| 8 | oito | 76.6 |
| 9 | nove | 53.0 |
| 10 | dez | 121.6 |
Um is far ahead, but its count is mostly the article "a", so it cannot be compared with the rest; and dois is only the masculine half of "two". Among the others the order follows the counting order, with the two exceptions that turn up in every language we counted: five is said more than four, and ten more than seven, eight and nine. Round numbers get used for approximations, cinco minutos, dez anos.
Pronunciation notes
- Três, dez, seis: in Brazil the final sound is an s; in Portugal, and in Rio, it is closer to "sh".
- Dois is "doysh" in Portugal and "doys" in most of Brazil.
- Vinte, sete, nove: in much of Brazil a final -te is said "chee": vinte is "VEEN-chee", sete "SEH-chee".
- Cinquenta, quatro, quarenta: qu here is "kw".
- Um, cinco, cem have nasal vowels: the m and n are not said as consonants, the vowel goes through the nose.
How to learn them
- Learn 1 to 19 and the eight tens by heart. That is 27 words.
- Practise 21 to 99 with e out loud: tens, e, units.
- Practise um and uma, dois and duas with real nouns, since the gender is the part English speakers forget.
The numbers are in the most common Portuguese words, and the Portuguese course, Verbavia (our own course), teaches them in sentences, free on the web. For the other everyday set, where Portuguese counts instead of naming, see the days of the week in Portuguese. French does something stranger with 70, 80 and 90: numbers 1 to 100 in French.
Numbers are most often needed for dates, and the months are in months of the year in Portuguese.
Sources
- The table of 1 to 100 is generated by rule by
scripts/frequency_reference.py, which checks itself against a list of the forms most often got wrong before it writes anything. - The counts are from OpenSubtitles 2018 (Lison, P. & Tiedemann, J., 2016, aclanthology.org) through Hermit Dave's FrequencyWords lists, content licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, github.com, and are printed from the script's output rather than typed.