Study Resource: Definite articles with country names in Brazilian Portuguese

By: Ana Amélia Rodrigues dos Santos

Associated Articles

These activities are part of our Brazilian Portuguese Grammar series. The skills we are practicing here are covered in our article:

In Brazilian Portuguese, most countries are used with a definite article, o, a(the), but a few are not.

Countries that have definite articles

As the lists below show, most of the feminine words end with -a , with some exceptions, and words ending in a consonant, -o or other vowels, including -á, are masculine.

Masculine Countries
Portuguese	English
O Afeganistão	Afghanistan
O Irã	Iran
O Brasil	Brazil
O Chile	Chile
O Japão	Japan
O Peru	Peru
Os Estados Unidos	United States
O México	Mexico
O Canadá	Canada
O Panamá	Panama
O Congo	Congo
O Egito	Egypt
O Iraque	Iraq
O Uruguai	Uruguay
O Equador	Ecuador
O Sudão	Sudan

Feminine Countries
Portuguese	English
A Argentina	Argentina
A Colômbia	Colombia
A Inglaterra	England
A China	China
A França	France
A Itália	Italy
A Alemanha	Germany
A Espanha	Spain
A Rússia	Russia
A Noruega	Norway
A Suécia	Sweden
A Romênia	Romania
A Venezuela	Venezuela
A Polônia	Poland
A Dinamarca	Denmark
A Áustria	Austria
A Guiné-Bissau	Guinea-Bissau
A Suíça	Switzerland
A Hungria	Hungary
As Filipinas	Philippines
A Irlanda	Ireland

Countries that do not have a definite article

Portuguese	English
Marrocos	Morocco
Portugal	Portugal
Cuba	Cuba
Angola	Angola
Bahamas	Bahamas
Cingapura	Singapore
Madagascar	Madagascar
Honduras	Honduras
Timor	Timor
Cabo Verde	Cape Verde

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