Articles In Portuguese – Definite And Indefinite

In this lesson we will talk about the articles in Portuguese; definite and indefinite. with brief explanation.

Definite Articles in Portuguese

When to use the definite article

There are four definite articles in Portuguese: o, a, os, as and they are the equivalent of the English “the“, they are used to designate a specific noun (that we know or heard about before), and they must agree in gender and number.

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	o	a
Plural	os	as

Example

The book – o livro

The books – os livros

The flower – a flor

The flowers – as flores

Contractions of the definite articles

This list provides the contractions between the definite articles and the prepositions (em, de, a , por):

	o	a	os	as
em	no	na	nos	nas
de	do	da	dos	das
a	ao	à	aos	às
por	pelo	pela	pelos	pelas

Note: you can practice what you’ve learned here, and learn how to pronounce each of the words in our Memrise course here, don’t know how to use the platform or sign up? we’ve got you covered in this easy-to-follow tutorial here.

Indefinite Articles in Portuguese

When to use the indefinite article

There are four indefinite articles in Portuguese: um, uns, uma, umas and they are the equivalent of the English “a, an, some“, they are used to designate a non-specific noun, and they must agree in gender and number.

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	um	uma
Plural	uns	umas

Contractions of the definite articles

This list provides the contractions between the definite articles and the prepositions (em, de):

	um	uma	uns	umas
em	num	numa	nuns	numas
de	dum	duma	duns	dumas

Happy learning!