Definite articles: o, a, os, as

Imagine introducing your friend Maria at a Brazilian party. Do you say "Maria" or "a Maria"? Both are correct: the choice depends on regional usage and context. The little words o, a, os, as are frequent, and learning them helps you build natural Portuguese sentences.

Match the article to the noun's gender and number. For example, casa is feminine, so use "a casa", not "o casa".

The Fantastic Four

Portuguese has four definite articles that all mean "the," but each has a specific job based on gender and number:

The Matching Game

Articles must match their noun in both gender AND number. No exceptions.

People you know

• O João (João)

• A Maria (Maria)

• Os meninos (the boys)

• As meninas (the girls)

• O senhor Silva (Mr. Silva)

• A senhora Costa (Mrs. Costa)

Everyday things

• O livro (the book)

• A mesa (the table)

• Os carros (the cars)

The name game exceptions

Not every name takes an article:

• Tom Cruise can occur with or without an article; being a foreign full name does not rule out "o Tom Cruise".

• O Tom da minha escola (the Tom from my school) is possible; the choice also depends on region and context.

• Most cities skip the article: São Paulo é grande (not "a São Paulo").

• Rio is the famous exception: O Rio é lindo.

The country confusion

Learn country names with their usual articles:

• With an article: o Brasil, os Estados Unidos, a França, o Japão, a China.

• Usually without an article: Portugal, Cuba, Israel.

• A modified name can take an article even when the unmodified name normally does not: o Portugal de hoje (the Portugal of today).

Old Portuguese once said lo, la, los, las

The modern o, a, os, as descend from Latin demonstratives illum / illam / illos / illas — the same source that gave Spanish el / la / los / las and French le / la / les. Old Portuguese still wrote lo and la; the initial l- was gradually dropped over the centuries when the article followed a vowel-final word, leaving the bare o and a we use today. So the tiny one-letter article is actually the worn-down end of a much older word.

Source: Origem do artigo definido — Ciberdúvidas.

"o João" or just "João"? It depends where in Brazil you are

Putting an article before a person's name varies across Brazil. For example, it is more frequent in São Paulo than in several Northeastern cities, but usage also varies between speakers and contexts. Both o João, a Maria and João, Maria are correct; the article is not required throughout the country.