How to Say Large Numbers in Portuguese

In the next couple lessons, we’ll let you practice with large numbers, such as those in the ten-thousands and hundred-thousands.
A few reminders:

• mil1000 Slow audio Play audio Number
• mil e trezentos1300
• cento e um101 Slow audio Play audio – Remember that 100 is cento when it’s part of a number (i.e. followed by e)
• cem100 Slow audio Play audio Number – Remember that 100 is just cem when it’s by itself (i.e. not followed by e)
• centenas dehundreds of
• dez mil10 000
• cem mil100 000
• duzentos200 Slow audio Play audio Number
• um milhãoone million Slow audio Play audio Number
• um biliãoone billion

Here’s an example of the wording for a high number such as 123456:
cento e vinte e três mil, quatrocentos e cinquenta e seis123 456

one hundred [and] twenty [and] –three thousand, four hundred [and] fifty [and] –six

As you can see, this is basically the same as English word order, possibly with a few extra uses of the word and.
Let’s hear one more:
dez milhões, cento e sessenta e seis mil, cento e setenta e seisten million, one hundred sixty-six thousand, one hundred seventy-six (10 166 176)

How to Say Years in Portuguese

Years are said the same way as any other number. For example, the year 2021 is dois mil e vinte e um2021 . It cannot be abbreviated to vinte, vinte e um.
The only time you would use an abbreviated way of referring to a year is when the century is already obvious from context. For example, when discussing historical events from the 20th century (século XX20th century ), you might hear some say setenta e quatro74 instead of mil novecentos e setenta e quatro1974 . Or, when referring to that décadadecade Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Feminine , you might hear nos anos setentain the '70s .

Notation

In some English-speaking countries, such as the US and UK, numbers are typically written as such: 12,345.67 with the comma separating the groups of thousands and the decimal point / period separating the integer from the decimal.
However, in Portugal (and many European countries), it would be the reverse: 12.345,67 ✅
The vírgulacomma separates the integer from the decimal and the pontopoint Slow audio Play audio Noun, Singular, Masculine  separates the groups of thousands (every 3 digits). Keep this in mind when you’re looking at price tags in Portugal!
Alternatively, to fit with international standards for writing numbers, you may see whole numbers written with just a space separating the groups of thousands, instead of any punctuation, as in 20 000 (instead of 20,000 or 20.000).
Notes:

• In our lesson exercises, we typically avoid any spacing or punctuation, just to keep things simple when you enter your answer.
• Before you start putting these longer numbers together, you may wish to review numbers from the Numbers 1 and Numbers 2 units, if you don’t have them memorized yet. Or you can re-read this learning note to get an overview: Introduction to Numbers in Portuguese