Portuguese 1.7. The Articles

The Articles in Portuguese are either definite or indefinite. All nouns are either masculine or feminine. There are no neuter nouns in Portuguese.

Indefinite Articles

The indefinite articles in Portuguese are “um” (for singular masculine) and “uma” (for singular feminine). These are equivalent to “a” or “an” in English.

um	Before a singular masculine noun	e.g., um homem (a man)
uma	Before a singular feminine noun	e.g., uma casa (a house)

The plural forms “uns” and “umas” are used to mean “some,” e.g., “uns momentos” (some moments), “umas palavras” (some words).

Definite Articles

Below are the four definite articles (equivalent to “the” in English). We have four definite articles in Portuguese because the definite article has to agree with the noun in both gender and number.

o	Before a singular masculine noun	e.g., o homem (the man)
a	Before a singular feminine noun	e.g., a casa (the house)
os	Before a plural masculine noun	e.g., os homens (the men)
as	Before a plural feminine noun	e.g., as casas (the houses)

Use of the Definite Article in Portuguese versus English

There are cases in which Portuguese uses the definite article when in English, we would omit it, such as:

1. Abstract concepts or speaking in a general sense, e.g., “A ciência é importante” (Science is important), “Os animais são inteligentes” (Animals are intelligent), etc.
2. Languages and nationalities, e.g., “o português” (Portuguese), “os alemães” (Germans), etc. Exceptionally, we drop the definite article in Portuguese when the language name is an object of a verb, e.g., “Falo e ensino espanhol” (I speak and teach Spanish), “Gostaria de aprender árabe” (I would like to learn Arabic), or after the preposition “em,” e.g., “escrito em italiano” (written in Italian).
3. Days of the week, e.g., “Trabalho na segunda” (I work on Monday), “Vou para a academia às quintas-feiras” (I go to the gym on Thursdays), etc. An exception is when the day name comes after the verb “to be,” e.g., “Hoje é sexta-feira” (Today is Friday).
4. Body parts and clothes are often preceded with the definite instead of the possessive pronoun if the possessor is the same as the subject of the sentence, e.g., “Levante a mão” (Raise your hand), “Calce os sapatos” (Put on your shoes), etc.
5. Telling time, e.g., “São duas horas” (It’s two o’clock), “Nos encontramos à uma hora” (We meet at one o’clock), etc.
6. Before a personal title, such as “senhor” (Mr.), “senhora” (Mrs.), “doutor” (doctor), “presidente” (president), etc., e.g., “o presidente Kennedy,” “a senhora Hernández,” “o doutor Davids.” An exception is when addressing the person directly, e.g., “Senhor Adams, como vai?” (Mr. Adams, how are you?).
7. Before each noun in the case of multiple nouns, e.g., “o pai e a mãe” (the father and mother), “os cachorros e os gatos” (the dogs and cats). Although you can use one definite article in English to refer to all nouns, the grammatically correct way in Portuguese is to repeat the definite article for each noun.

Unlike in English, the definite article is omitted in Portuguese before the ordinal number describing a king or a queen, e.g., “Luís Quatorze”(Luis the Fourteenth), “Isabel Primeira” (Elizabeth the First), etc.

Next: Interrogative Pronouns & Adjectives

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