Portuguese Grammar - Articles

Articles

Portuguese has a definite article and an indefinite one, with different forms according to the gender and number of the noun to which they refer:

	singular		plural		meaning
	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine
definite article	o	a	os	as	the
indefinite article	um	uma	uns	umas	a, an; some

Unlike some other Romance languages or English, the written form of the Portuguese articles is the same, independently of the next word. The noun after the indefinite article may be elided, in which case the article is equivalent to English "one" (if singular) or "a few ones" (if plural): quero um também ("I want one too"), quero uns maduros ("I want a few ripe ones").

The definite article may appear before a noun in certain contexts where it is not used in English, for example before certain proper nouns, such as country, and organization names:

Ele visitou o Brasil, a China e a Itália, "He visited Brazil, China, and Italy"

Ele visitou o Rio, "He visited Rio de Janeiro".

A IBM patrocinou o MoMA, "IBM sponsored MoMA"

Ele foi para o São Paulo, "He went to the São Paulo (soccer team)".

However:

Ele visitou Portugal e Moçambique, "He visited Portugal and Mozambique"

Ele foi para São Paulo, "He went to São Paulo (city or state)".

The article is never used with Portugal, Angola, Cabo Verde, Moçambique and Timor. In general, article usage for proper nouns is largely determined by tradition, and it may vary with dialect.