Definite articles: o – os – a – as
1. In English the definite article is ‘the’. As Portuguese syntax needs to consider gender and number for all nouns, there are 4 ways to say ‘the’.
| singular | plural | |
| masculine | o | os |
| feminine | a | as |
2. The following words will reapper in the course. Let’s use them as examples:
(1) Family members:
| the son | the sons |
| o filho | os filhos |
| the daughter | the daughters |
| a filha | as filhas |
(2) ‘Country’ and ‘city’:
| the country | the countries |
| o país | os países |
| the city | the cities |
| a cidade | as cidades |
(3) Personal objects:
| the pen | the pens |
| a caneta | as canetas |
| the computer | the computers |
| o computador | os computadores |
| the mobile phone | the mobile phones |
| o telemóvel (EP) o celular (BP) |
os telemóveis (EP) os celulares (BP) |
2. Most good monolingual and bilingual dictionaries inform the gender of every noun. See an example from this dictionary:
Would you like to see the above straight from the source? Click here to go to Infopédia dictionary.
By looking at the information above, we know that ‘book’ is a masculine word. Therefore: o livro – os livros (the book – the books).
Foundations of Portuguese for Global Communication
Foundations of Portuguese for Global Communication
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