Plurals and Contractions

Dialog — Life in the City

This unit’s dialog is set in a Brazilian context where speakers discuss neighborhoods, distances, and daily life. The programming section focuses on the open O vs. closed o distinction, pluralizing rules, and plural articles.

Portuguese	English
Onde os senhores moram?	Where do you (pl.) live?
Nós moramos no Leme.	We live in Leme.
É longe?	Is it far?
Não, fica perto do túnel.	No, it’s near the tunnel.

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Notes on Grammar

Pronunciation: Open O vs. Closed o

Just as Portuguese distinguishes between open E and closed e, it also distinguishes between open O and closed o. The open O (like the aw in “paws”) appears in words like só, posso, pode, agora, and senhora. The closed o (like a clipped o in “go”) appears in words like hoje, você, and moça.

Open O	Closed o
só (only)	hoje (today)
posso (I can)	você (you)
pode (can)	moça (girl)
agora (now)	todo (all)

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Pluralizing Nouns

Most Portuguese nouns ending in a vowel sound form their plural by adding an -s sound.

Singular	Plural	English
casa	casas	houses
carro	carros	cars
parque	parques	parks
festa	festas	parties
cidade	cidades	cities
semana	semanas	weeks

In the speech of many people from the Rio area, this final -s may closely resemble the English sh sound.

Nouns that end in a consonant sound (like -r, -l, -z) have special plural patterns that are covered in later units.

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The Voiced/Unvoiced s Contrast

When the plural -s is followed by a vowel sound (as when the next word starts with a vowel), it is pronounced as a z sound. Otherwise, it remains an s (or sh in some dialects).

Portuguese	s sound
as casas	s sound
os dias	z sound (before d)
as oportunidades	z sound (before o)

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Plural Articles

The definite and indefinite articles also have plural forms:

	Singular	Plural
Masculine definite	o	os
Feminine definite	a	as
Masculine indefinite	um	uns
Feminine indefinite	uma	umas

Portuguese	English
os carros	the cars
as casas	the houses
os parques	the parks
as festas	the parties
uns carros	some cars
umas casas	some houses

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Plural Contractions: nos, nas, nuns, numas

Just as em + o = no and em + a = na in the singular, the plural forms are:

Contraction	Components	English
nos	em + os	in the (masc. pl.)
nas	em + as	in the (fem. pl.)
nuns	em + uns	in some (masc. pl.)
numas	em + umas	in some (fem. pl.)

Portuguese	English
nos parques	in the parks
nas cidades	in the cities
nas festas	at the parties

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Plural Possessive Contractions: dos, das

The contractions do and da also have plural forms:

Contraction	Components	English
dos	de + os	of the (masc. pl.)
das	de + as	of the (fem. pl.)

Portuguese	English
as filhas dos professores	the teachers’ daughters
os filhos das professoras	the female teachers’ sons

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Some Numbers

Portuguese	English
um / uma	one
dois / duas	two
três	three
quatro	four
cinco	five
seis	six
sete	seven
oito	eight
nove	nine
dez	ten

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Practice Drills (Selected)

Forming Plurals

Singular	Plural
a festa	as festas
a casa	as casas
o carro	os carros
o parque	os parques
a cidade	as cidades
a criança	as crianças
o telefonema	os telefonemas
a semana	as semanas

Using Plural Contractions

Portuguese	English
Eles moram nas cidades.	They live in the cities.
Nós trabalhamos nos escritórios.	We work in the offices.
As filhas dos professores.	The teachers’ daughters.

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Comprehension

1. Where do they live? — They live in Leme.
2. Is it far? — No, it’s near the tunnel.
3. How do you say “the parties” in Portuguese? — as festas
4. How do you say “in the parks”? — nos parques

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Key Vocabulary Summary

Portuguese	English
moram	live (they-form)
moramos	live (we-form)
longe	far
perto	near
o túnel	the tunnel
os / as	the (plural m/f)
uns / umas	some (plural m/f)
nos (em + os)	in the (masc. pl.)
nas (em + as)	in the (fem. pl.)
dos (de + os)	of the (masc. pl.)
das (de + as)	of the (fem. pl.)
nuns (em + uns)	in some (masc. pl.)
numas (em + umas)	in some (fem. pl.)
a criança	the child
a semana	the week
o escritório	the office