Have you noticed that the definite articles also have a plural form?
a casa → as casas
o carro → os carros
This is because the article must agree in number (singular or plural) with the noun.
Brazilian Portuguese Articles
How to form plural nouns in Brazilian Portuguese?
By: Fabiana Dametto Oliveira Thu Dec 12 2024
Brazilian portugueseNouns
The most common way to form the pluralNo definition set for pluralLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. of a nounNo definition set for nounLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. in Brazilian Portuguese is to add an -s at the end of the word — just like English! This general rule is very straightforward and works great for nouns that end in vowels:
casa → casas
house → houses
But when a noun ends with a consonant, or certain special endings like -ão, you will sometimes need to change the spelling of this ending slightly. There are also some nouns with irregular plurals.
Do you want to know more? In this post, we’ll review the plural endings of nouns ending in vowels and nouns ending in consonants, as well as the plurals of compound nouns. Keep reading this post and become an expert on this topic!
Table of Contents
How to form the plural of nouns ending in vowels ‘a,’ ‘e,’ ‘i,’ ‘o,’ ‘u’?
For nouns ending in vowelsNo definition set for vowelsLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum., just add an -s at the end of the word. See below:
Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
a casa | as casas | the house(s) |
o carro | os carros | the car(s) |
o dente | os dentes | the tooth / teeth |
a lei | as leis | the law(s) |
o museu | os museus | the museum(s) |
However, this rule does not apply to most words ending in -ão. Keep reading to find out how to make the plural of words like limão(lemon).
Important
How to form the plural of nouns ending in ‘-ão’?
Although they technically end in the vowel o, nouns ending in -ão in Brazilian Portuguese have a unique set of plural endings and do not just add an -s like we have seen above. For nouns ending in -ão, like irmão(brother) or limão(lemon), the plural form is -ões. For example:
Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
o limão | os limões | the lemon(s) |
o avião | os aviões | the airplane(s) |
o coração | os corações | the heart(s) |
Exception!
A few -ão nouns follow a different pattern:
For some, we add just an -s at the end of the word:
o cidadão → os cidadãos
the citizen(s)
There are also a few cases where we replace -ão with -ães instead:
o pão → os pães
the bread(s)
See the full list of exceptions to the -ões rule for more examples.
How to form the plural of nouns ending in consonants?
For nouns ending in consonantsNo definition set for consonantsLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum., like mulher(woman), homem(man), and hospital(hospital), the plural form depends on the consonant that the singular nouns ends in. Pay attention here, because instead of adding an -s to the ending of the noun, you may need to add -es, a different ending entirely, or no new ending at all. Let's check out each of these cases now.
Plural of nouns ending in ‘-r ,’ ‘-s,’ ‘-z’
For Brazilian Portuguese nouns ending in -r, -s, or -z, just add -es at the end of the word to make the noun plural.
Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
o cantor | os cantores | French person / people |
o francês | os franceses | French person / people |
o nariz | os narizeses | the nose(s) |
Tip
Did you notice that the plural noun franceses has no circumflex accent ( ˆ )? When a singular noun has a circumflex accent in the syllable ending in -s, take the accent away when adding the plural -es:
mês → meses
month → months
As you may have expected, there are some exceptions to this rule!
Nouns that end -s and have an accent on the first syllable will have the same form in the plural as they do in the singular:
SingularPluralEnglisho ônibusos ônibusthe bus / busses
o lápisos lápisthe pencil(s)
o bônusos bônusthe bonus(es)
o vírusos vírusthe virus(es)
o brócolisos brócolisthe broccoli
Tip
As you see in the examples above, we still change the article from singular to plural:
o, a → os, as
There are a few nouns in Brazilian Portuguese that are only ever used in the plural form, like os óculos(the glasses).
Check out this longer list of Portuguese nouns that are always plural!
Tip
This same phenomenon occurs in English too, but sometimes the nouns that are always plural in English can be singular in Brazilian Portuguese. For example:
a calça → as calças
the pants
Curious to see more examples like these? Check out our list of nouns that have a singular form in Portuguese, but not English!
Plural of nouns ending in ‘-m’ or ‘-n’
For singular nouns in Brazilian Portuguese that end in -m or -n, the plural ending will be -ns or -s, respectively.
Nouns ending in -m:
To make the plural of nouns ending in -m, drop the -m and add -ns.
SingularPluralEnglisho homemos homensthe man / men
a garagemas garagensthe garage(s)
Nouns ending in -n:
To form the plural of nouns ending in -n, like hífen(hyphen) or abdômen(abdomen), just add -s and remove the accent:
SingularPluralEnglisho hífenos hifensthe hyphen(s)
o abdômenos abdomensthe abdomen(s)
Tip
Brazilian Portuguese only has a few words ending in -n.
Plural of nouns ending in ‘-l’
To make the plural of nouns ending in -l, drop the -l and add the plural ending -is.
Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
o azul | os azuis | the blue(s) |
o hospital | os hospitais | the hospital(s) |
Exception!
When a noun ends in -il, we just drop the -l and add -s. This is because we can't duplicate the vowel -i in Brazilian Portuguese:
perfil → perfis
profile → profiles
However, if there is an accent on the syllable before the -il ending, we replace -il with -eis:
réptil → répteis
reptile → reptiles
Plural of nouns ending in ‘-x’
For the plural of nouns ending in -x, there is no need to change the ending at all, but you still have to make the article plural.
o xerox → os xerox
the photocopy → the photocopies
You can find more examples of plurals of nouns ending in -x!
Plural of compound nouns
To form the plural of compound nouns in Brazilian Portuguese, the plural ending can either be added to all parts of the compound noun or to only one of the words. But how do you know which words should be pluralized? You need to first identify the types of words making up the compound noun, and then you can refer to the following rules:
Noun + adjective or number + noun:
Both parts take the plural form.
SingularPluralEnglisho cachorro-quenteos cachorros-quentesthe hot dog(s)
a segunda-feiraas segundas-feirasthe Monday(s)
Noun + noun:
Both nouns become plural.
SingularPluralEnglisha couve-floras couves-florsthe cauliflower(s)
a palavra-chaveas palavras-chavesthe keyword(s)
Verb + noun:
Only the noun changes into the plural.
SingularPluralEnglisho guarda-chuvaos guarda-chuvasthe umbrella(s)
o arranha-céuos arranha-céusthe skyscraper(s)
Prefix + noun:
You might find compound nouns formed by the prefixes pós(post), pré(pre), vice(vice), ex(ex), and contra(against). In cases like these, only the noun is pluralized.
SingularPluralEnglisho vice-presidenteos vice-presidentesthe vice president(s)
o ex-gerenteos ex-gerentesthe ex-manager(s)
o contra-ataqueos contra-ataquesthe counterattack(s)
Noun + preposition + noun:
When a preposition is connecting two nouns, like in the word fim de semana(weekend→ lit. end of week), only the first noun takes the plural.
SingularPluralEnglisho fim de semanaos fins de semanathe weekend(s)
a estrela-do-maras estrelas-do-marthe starfish(es)
o pôr do solos pores do solthe sunset(s)
a água de cocoas águas de cocothe coconut water(s)
Tip
For this last case of compound nouns, we can have nouns with or without a hyphen, as you may have noticed in the examples above.
In summary
Let’s review what we have covered about forming the plural of Brazilian Portuguese nouns. We saw that…
Adding -s is the most common way to form plurals, and this is the general rule for nouns ending in a vowel.
For nouns ending in -ão, we drop the -ão and add -ões in most cases. There are, however, a few exceptions in which the plural of these nouns ends in -ães or -ãos.
Nouns ending in consonants may have different endings:
Nouns ending in -r, -s, or -z form their plural by adding the ending -es.
If a noun ends in -m, drop the -m and add -ns.
If a noun ends in -l, drop the -l and add -is.
Nouns ending in -x remain the same, although there are very few nouns that end in -x in Brazilian Portuguese.
There are some simple, but specific, rules for the plurals of compound nouns, which depend on the combination of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and numbers in the compound word.
Ready to practice forming the plurals of nouns in Brazilian Portuguese?
