In this lesson, we’ll compare Portuguese definite articles and indefinite articles. ArtigosArticles are small words that precede and define a noun. In Portuguese, articles take on different forms to agree in gender and number with the noun they define. In English, we just have the definite article the and the indefinite articles a, an, and some.
Definite Articles
Artigos definidosDefinite articles are determiners that show we are referring to a specific, well-defined thing or person. There are four types, which all correspond to “the” in English. We use o and os for masculine nouns, plus a and as for feminine nouns.
O, Os
The article othe is used for masculine nouns in the singular, while osthe is used for masculine nouns in the plural. Examples:
Quanto custa o pão?How much does the bread cost?
O homem lê o jornalThe man reads the newspaper
Os livros estão na mesaThe books are on the table
Os bosques de Sintra são fantásticos.The woods of Sintra are fantastic.
A, As
The article athe is used for feminine nouns in the singular, while asthe is used for feminine nouns in the plural. Examples:
A caneta está na mesaThe pen is on the table
A casa da esquina é nova?Is the house on the corner new?
As meninas bebem sumoThe girls drink juice
As mesas são muito carasThe tables are very expensive
Indefinite Articles
When we want to refer to something in a more general way, we use artigos indefinidosindefinite articles , like the words “a”, “an”, or “some” in English. There are four indefinite articles as well: um and uns for masculine nouns, plus uma and umas for feminine nouns. Um and uma correspond to “a” in English, while the plural forms, uns and umas, correspond to “some”.
Um, Uns
The article uma, an is used for masculine nouns in the singular, and unssome, a few is used for masculine nouns in the plural. Examples:
Um homemA man
Ela lê um livroShe reads a book
Queres uns rissóis de carne?Do you want some meat rissoles?
Uns anos mais tardeA few years later
O João tem uns livros muito interessantes.John has some very interesting books.
Notice that, unlike all the other plurals in this lesson, uns is NOT formed by simply adding –s to the singular form of the article. This is because Portuguese doesn’t allow an –ms ending for words. Instead, to pluralize words ending in -m, the -m is dropped and -ns is added.
Uma, Umas
The article umaa, an is used for feminine nouns in the singular, and umassome, a few is used for feminine things or persons in the plural. Examples:
uma canetaa pen
Quanto custa uma bebida?How much does a drink cost?
Umas vezesA few times
Só precisamos de água e umas sementes.We only need water and some seeds.
Thank you
What is the difference between saying “uns/umas” and “alguns”. I’ve come across the latter a few times before but never really know when to use it over the plural of the definite article.
Olá, Lukas. This is how I’ve tried to explain before (easier said than done!): The two terms are often used in the same contexts and feel pretty much interchangeable, even though I’d say that “umas/uns” feels a bit more general and abstract, while “algumas/alguns” tends to feel more concrete and quantifiable, at least for me.
Now, some examples of situations where they’re not interchangeable:
– Ele é um génio. (He’s a genius) | Eles são uns génios. (They’re geniuses) -> Uns is not used as a quantifier here; it’s still just acting as a simple indefinite article, like in the singular sentence. Alguns is not acceptable here. Tip: If you see the word uns/umas in a Portuguese sentence, but no corresponding quantifier in the English sentence, it’s probably a case like this.
– Eles falaram uns com os outros. (They spoke with each other) | Nem uns nem outros estão certos. (Neither of them are right) -> In these kinds of structures, where you have this reciprocity between uns and outros, alguns is not usable. Maybe because the sum of uns + outros is todos (all), and this overall wholeness doesn’t fit with the incompleteness that alguns represents.
– Eu tenho uns quantos amigos (I have a few/many friends) | “Ela cometeu uns poucos erros” (She made a few mistakes) -> In sentences where the quantifying bit is somehow compounded, alguns can’t be interchanged with uns alone, i.e. you can’t say both “uns poucos” and “alguns poucos“. But you can replace the whole group -> “uns poucos” with “alguns“.
– Estes são alguns dos meus projetos. (These are some of my projects) | Elas são algumas de várias colegas que tenho. (They’re some of many colleagues I have) -> In plural sentences like this, where you’re isolating a part of a whole, assisted by the preposition de, the word uns/umas shouldn’t be used to replace alguns/algumas.
Super! Love this! Thank you for doing this guys!
Is this unit the first time we see plural indefinite articles (or am I totally forgetting my Portuguese learning🤔)?
We cover plural indefinite articles briefly at the beginning of the A1 section, in this unit: Basic Grammar. But you’re right, they don’t come up very often in the examples. Much more common to come across the singular versions. 🙂
Thank you
Olá!
Só uma pequena dúvida ao ler um exemplo desta aula. Há alguma diferença entre as expressões “por vezes”, “às vezes” e “umas vezes”? Sei que “por vezes” coloca-se ao princípio da frase e, “às vezes”, normalmente, no final, mas talvez o significado possa mudar entre si.
Muito obrigada!
Olá Ines!
Todas essas expressões têm o mesmo significado. Pode haver tendência para utilizar “por vezes” no início das frases, mas não é uma regra! Diria que “umas vezes” talvez seja o menos comum usar com o mesmo sentido das outras duas expressões. “Às vezes” é muito comum, seja no início, no meio ou no fim das frases.
Exemplos:
Por vezes chego atrasado.
Às vezes chego atrasado.
Umas vezes chego atrasado, outras vezes chego a horas.
Já cheguei atrasado umas vezes. (Desta forma seria mais correto – ou pelo menos mais habitual – usar “umas vezes”)
Here is a question:
in titles such as in Fernando Pessoa’s “Livro do desassossego”, given that the noun “livro” contains no article, is it definite or indefinite?
obrigado!
Olá! We assume by default that the omitted article is a definite article, since the title describes one specific book 🙂
Whats the difference between
de França
and
da Alemanha,
I couldn’t understand it, sorry
why do we use “de França” and not “da França”?
This link may help you understand a bit better:
https://www.practiceportuguese.com/learning-notes/where-are-you-from/
However, bottom line is: There are no consistent rules wether to include the definite article or not when referring to a country, so ultimately it comes down to memorizing them over time. Luckily, it’s a small detail, so you will still be understood if you accidentally include or don’t include an article.
In this particular case, França is not mentioned with gender (even though we’d see it as female – and a few people actually do mention it “incorrectly” as female: a/na/da França). As for Germany, it’s mentioned as being female, therefore the definite article “a”.
So: from France = de França and from Germany = da (de + a) Alemanha.
In the example in this lesson, why is it “A mesa é muito cara” vs. muita cara?
Because the word ‘muito’ is an adverb here (meaning ‘very’), and as such, it is invariable 🙂 However, the same word can also be used as a quantifier (meaning ‘many’), and in those cases it is variable in gender and number. Compare the following examples:
– Tenho muitos amigos (I have many friends) – quantifier
– Eles são muito amigáveis (They are very friendly) – adverb
Just an extra note: As slang only, the word ‘muita’ is sometimes used as an adverb, but you’ll only see this on Practice Portuguese in our materials specifically dedicated to slang terms. ‘Muito’ is the only appropriate adverb in general.
I am struggling with the various pronunciations of the letter s. Sometimes it has a z sound, sometimes a soft j. Sometimes a sort of rolling soft s followed by sh. It seems to vary depending upon the word that follows. It also seems to vary by specific speaker. Is there a lesson or guidance that discusses these variations? Also, is there a discussion of reductions in circumstances like minha empresa? Obrigado.
Yes! This Learning Note should be helpful: How to Pronounce S in Portuguese
And for reduced vowels: Vowels in European Portuguese and Mystery of the Disappearing Sounds
“Queres uns rissóis de carne?” Translated as “Do you want some meat rissoles?” Should it not be translated as “Do you want the meat rissoles?”It would have to be written “Queres alguns rissóis de carne?” for this translation. Maybe this is a bit ‘nitpicky’ but I just want to check my understanding of the phrase!
Olá! ‘The’ is a definite article – that would be ‘os’ in Portuguese. Since we are using the indefinite article ‘uns’ instead, you can either translate this as “Do you want meat rissoles?” or “Do you want some meat rissoles?”. Both ‘uns’ and ‘alguns’ can be translated as ‘some’.