Numbers, time & days

What this is about

Numbers and clock time — the grammar of appointments, prices and plans. Two systems that lock together: learn 0–100 once, and telling time comes almost free.

The numbers that build all others

0 zero · 1 um/uma · 2 dois/duas · 3 três · 4 quatro · 5 cinco	1 and 2 have feminine forms!
6 seis · 7 sete · 8 oito · 9 nove · 10 dez
20 vinte · 30 trinta · 40 quarenta · 50 cinquenta · 100 cem	the tens
21 = vinte e um · 35 = trinta e cinco	glue with e ("and")

um/uma & dois/duas agree: um carro, uma casa · dois cafés, duas horas. That is why it's DUAS horas on the clock — hora is feminine.

Telling time

Que horas são?	what time is it?
É uma hora.	1 o'clock → É (singular!)
São duas horas. · São dez horas.	2+ → São (plural)
duas e meia · nove e quinze · dez para as três	half past two · 9:15 · ten to three
É meio-dia. · É meia-noite.	noon · midnight

AT a time — the à/às system

às nove (horas)	at nine — a + as = às
à uma hora	at one — singular à
ao meio-dia	at noon — a + o = ao
de manhã · à tarde · à noite	in the morning (DE!) · afternoon · evening

24h in writing, 12h in speech: a ticket says 19h; a Brazilian says sete da noite. The da manhã / da tarde / da noite tags replace AM/PM.

Exceptions & details

1 · cem vs cento: exactly 100 = cem; 101+ = cento e um…
2 · meia on the phone means 6 (from meia dúzia — half dozen): a number read as "meia-oito-nove" is 689. Genuinely useful when Brazilians dictate numbers!
3 · Days + at: na segunda (on Monday), no sábado (on Saturday) — em, not à.

Practise this chapter

3 pool questions plus generated ones — 20 fresh practice questions, reshuffled every visit, inside the grammar library.

Practise Numbers, time & days — 20 questions →

This chapter is taught in Lição 4 of the course — free, no account needed. Rumo is a complete Brazilian Portuguese course, A1 to B2; level A1 is free.

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