Portuguese words for days, months, numbers and greetings
These Portuguese words are the everyday basics: the seven days, the twelve months, the numbers and the greetings, each with its Brazilian and European pronunciation and the points where the two varieties differ.
Portuguese words by topic
Four pages, each with a word table in two pronunciations, the spelling and grammar rules, and example sentences.
- 01Days of the week in Portuguese: segunda-feira to domingo, with IPAThe days of the week in Portuguese are segunda-feira, terça-feira, quarta-feira, quinta-feira, sexta-feira, sábado and domingo. Monday to Friday are counted, second to sixth day, and in conversation the -feira is usually dropped: segunda, terça, quarta.
- 02Months in Portuguese: janeiro to dezembro, IPA and date rulesThe months in Portuguese are janeiro, fevereiro, março, abril, maio, junho, julho, agosto, setembro, outubro, novembro and dezembro. They are masculine, written in lower case in both Brazil and Portugal, and a date joins them with de: 28 de outubro de 2026.
- 03Numbers in Portuguese: zero to a billion, Brazilian and European formsNumbers in Portuguese from one to ten are um, dois, três, quatro, cinco, seis, sete, oito, nove, dez. Brazil and Portugal share almost all of them, but spell 16, 17 and 19 differently and disagree on what a billion is.
- 04Greetings in Portuguese: hello, thank you and goodbye in BrazilThe basic greetings in Portuguese start with olá, hello everywhere, and oi, hello in Brazil. Bom dia, boa tarde and boa noite greet by the time of day, thank you is obrigado or obrigada depending on who is speaking, and the everyday goodbye is tchau.
One spelling, two pronunciations
- portuguêsPortuguese Latin
- obrigadothank you Latin
- segunda-feiraMonday Latin
Portuguese has two written standards, Brazilian and European, which the 1990 Orthographic Agreement brought closer without merging them. Most Portuguese words are spelled the same in both, a few differ (dezesseis in Brazil, dezasseis in Portugal), and pronunciation differs a great deal. European Portuguese swallows unstressed vowels and says sh for s before a consonant; Brazilian Portuguese keeps its vowels open and turns te and de into tchi and dji. That is why every table on these pages carries two IPA columns.
The alphabet is Latin with a cedilla on ç and several accent marks, among them the acute of sábado, the circumflex of português and the tilde of ã and õ, which marks a nasal vowel. The Portuguese alphabet chart lists the letters and their names.
How Portuguese handles dates, numbers and greetings
Portuguese words for the weekdays are unique among the Romance languages: Monday to Friday are numbered, segunda-feira to sexta-feira, a change credited to the sixth-century bishop Martin of Braga. Days and months are written in lower case under the 1990 agreement, and a date reads 28 de outubro de 2026.
Numbers bring the deepest split between the two countries: Brazil's bilhão is a thousand million, while in Portugal the same amount is mil milhões and bilião means a million million. Greetings split by country too. Oi and valeu are Brazilian, adeus means a simple goodbye in Portugal but a final farewell in Brazil, and obrigado or obrigada depends on whether a man or a woman is giving thanks.
Where Portuguese is official
Portuguese is the official language of Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe, co-official in East Timor with Tetum and one of three official languages of Equatorial Guinea. The Romance word list sets Portuguese beside Galician, Spanish, Latin and the other languages of the family.
Questions about Portuguese words
Are Brazilian and European Portuguese different languages?
No. They are two standards of one language with a shared core vocabulary and grammar. They differ in pronunciation, in some spellings and words, and in the placement of pronouns.
Which Portuguese should I learn, Brazilian or European?
The one of the country you will deal with. These pages give both forms wherever they differ, so either can be learned from them.
What is the word for Portuguese in Portuguese?
Português, with a circumflex on the e. The language is o português, the people are os portugueses.