Numbers in Brazilian Portuguese follow a very logical system once you learn a few ground rules: the first sixteen numbers are memorized, 16-19 use the dez- family with Brazilian spellings, everything from 21 upward joins with e (and), and 100 is cem while anything above it is cento. Brazilian Portuguese also differs from European Portuguese in a few spellings and words that surprise travelers. This guide covers 0 to a million, pronunciation, ordinals, and the real situations — prices, dates, and phone numbers — where numbers matter most.
Cardinal Numbers 0 to 20
| 0 zero | 1 um/uma | 2 dois/duas | 3 três | 4 quatro |
| 5 cinco | 6 seis | 7 sete | 8 oito | 9 nove | 10 dez |
| 11 onze | 12 doze | 13 treze | 14 catorze/quatorze | 15 quinze |
| 16 dezesseis | 17 dezessete | 18 dezoito | 19 dezenove | 20 vinte |
Note the gender pairs: um/uma and dois/duas agree with the noun — um café but duas cervejas. All other cardinals stay the same. The number 14 has two accepted spellings in Brazil, catorze and quatorze, while 16 and 17 are dezesseis and dezessete (in Portugal: dezasseis and dezassete).
Building Numbers: 21 to 999 with E
From 21 upward, Brazilian Portuguese joins tens and units with e (and): vinte e um (21), trinta e cinco (35), noventa e nove (99). The same e appears between hundreds and tens: cento e vinte (120), trezentos e quarenta (340). 100 alone is cem, but 101 to 199 use cento: cento e um (101), cento e cinquenta (150).
| 100 cem | 200 duzentos/as | 300 trezentos/as | 400 quatrocentos/as | 500 quinhentos/as |
| 600 seiscentos/as | 700 setecentos/as | 800 oitocentos/as | 900 novecentos/as | 1.000 mil |
Hundreds from 200 upward agree in gender: duzentos reais, but duzentas pessoas. Mil (1,000) never changes: mil reais, mil pessoas. With e again, 1,250 is mil duzentos e cinquenta.
Ordinals and the Brazilian Differences from Portugal
Ordinals agree in gender too: primeiro/primeira (1st), segundo/segunda (2nd), terceiro (3rd), quarto (4th), quinto (5th), sexto (6th), sétimo (7th), oitavo (8th), nono (9th), décimo (10th). Brazilians use ordinals mostly for floors, chapters, and dates — primeiro de janeiro, décimo andar.
The two big contrasts with European Portuguese: for a billion, Brazil says um bilhão while Portugal says mil milhões, and the teens are spelled dezesseis/dezessete in Brazil versus dezasseis/dezassete in Portugal. Pronunciation differs, too: Brazilian speech is slower and opens the vowels, so vinte sounds like VEEN-chee rather than the European VEEN-tuh.
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Start Free →Numbers in Context: Prices, Dates, and Phones
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Prices: custa cinquenta reais (it costs 50 reais) — the currency is real, plural reais.
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Dates: hoje é primeiro de agosto, or 1 de agosto — day-month-year order, like the rest of the Portuguese-speaking world.
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Phone numbers: read one digit at a time, so zero (zeh-roh) is the most frequent number you will say.
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Time: são três e meia (it is 3:30), meio-dia (noon), meia-noite (midnight).
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Addresses: moro na Rua das Flores, número 123, apartamento 4B.
Brazilians use numbers constantly in daily negotiation, so a simple drill — saying every price you see out loud with reais — builds confidence fast.
Building Big Numbers: Mil, Milhão, Bilhão
Above 1,000 the same e pattern continues: 1.250 is mil duzentos e cinquenta, and 1.000.000 is um milhão. Brazil counts by million the way English does — um milhão (1,000,000) and um bilhão (1,000,000,000) — while Portugal says mil milhões for the billion. Watch the genders: duzentos mil reais (200 thousand reais) stays masculine, but duzentas mil pessoas (200 thousand people) turns feminine. Decimals use a comma in Brazil, so 3,50 is read três e cinquenta, as in three reais and fifty centavos.
Pronunciation: The Brazilian Sounds
Brazilian pronunciation follows different rules than European Portuguese. The letter t before i or e softens into a ch-like sound: sete is SEH-chee and vinte is VEEN-chee. Final vowels are pronounced fully and openly — cinco ends with a clear o (SEEN-koo) — and the r in quatro is a light flap. These small sounds are what make numbers in Brazilian Portuguese instantly recognizable to native ears.
Everyday Settings Where Numbers Appear
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At the market: quanto custa? — cinquenta e cinco reais.
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Bargaining: pode fazer por vinte? (can you do it for twenty?).
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On the phone: me liga às oito (call me at eight) — numbers read digit by digit.
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In the elevator: apartamento 4B is quarto andar, letra B.
Mini Drill
Translate aloud: (1) 21 — vinte e um; (2) 100 reais — cem reais; (3) 150 — cento e cinquenta; (4) 1,000 — mil; (5) 1,000,000 — um milhão. If the e between compounds feels foreign, drill vinte e um and cento e vinte until the sound stops being optional.
The Verdict
Numbers in Brazilian Portuguese reward pattern learners: memorize 0-15, apply the dezesseis-to-19 family, join everything else with e, and remember cem versus cento plus gender on the hundreds. The differences with European Portuguese are few and clear, so focus on Brazilian norms if Brazil is your goal, and drill prices and dates aloud until the words flow.
Metheus turns your Brazilian Portuguese practice into habit: watch Brazilian series or YouTube with translated subtitles, hover over any number to see its written form and pronunciation, and save complete sentences as SRS flashcards
FAQ
How do you count to 20 in Brazilian Portuguese?
Zero, um, dois, três, quatro, cinco, seis, sete, oito, nove, dez, onze, doze, treze, catorze (or quatorze), quinze, dezesseis, dezessete, dezoito, dezenove, vinte. Only um/uma and dois/duas change with gender; all other cardinals stay the same regardless of the noun they count.
What is the difference between cem and cento in Portuguese?
Cem is used for 100 alone or before a noun: cem reais, cem anos. Cento appears before any other number: cento e um (101), cento e cinquenta (150). Both Brazilian and European Portuguese follow this rule, and forgetting the e in compounds like cento e vinte is a classic learner mistake.
How do Brazilian numbers differ from European Portuguese?
The main differences are spelling and scale: 16-19 are dezesseis/dezessete in Brazil but dezasseis/dezassete in Portugal, and a billion is um bilhão in Brazil but mil milhões in Portugal. Brazilian speech also draws the final vowels longer, and quatorze is the more common spelling in Brazil.
How do you say prices in Brazilian Portuguese?
Prices use the currency real, plural reais, with the number first: custa cinquenta reais (it costs 50 reais), são duzentos reais (it is 200 reais). Remember gender on the hundreds: duzentos reais but duzentas pessoas. Asking quanto custa? works everywhere in Brazil.
Do I need to learn ordinal numbers in Portuguese?
Yes, for floors, dates, and positions: primeiro (1st), segundo (2nd), terceiro (3rd), quarto (4th), quinto (5th), sétimo (7th), and décimo (10th). Ordinals agree in gender with the noun: primeira vez (first time) and segundo andar (second floor). Dates like primeiro de janeiro are common in daily speech.
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