Locale Pt 001

Reference data for the Portuguese locale — endonym Português, written in the Latin script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

• BCP 47 tag: pt-001
• ISO 639-1: pt
• ISO 639-3: por
• Script: Latn (Latin)
• Region: 001 (World)
• Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 230,000,000
• L2 (additional): 30,000,000
• L1+L2 (total): 260,000,000

Regional variants

This is the base/macro locale for Portuguese. Region-specific variants in this dataset:

• Locale Pt Br (Portuguese (Brazil))
• Locale Pt Pt (Portuguese (Portugal))

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: one, many, other (3 forms).

• one — i = 0..1 (e.g. 0, 1)
• many — e = 0 and i != 0 and i % 1000000 = 0 and v = 0 or e != 0..5 (e.g. 1000000, …)
• other — everything else (e.g. 2~17, 100, 1000, 10000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Portuguese has two principal written norms, European (Portugal) and Brazilian, with a shared 1990 Orthographic Agreement (AO90) and several vocabulary and grammar differences. Choose the target country first. See Locale Pt Br and Locale Pt Pt; use this locale only for pan-lusophone content.

Translate ideas, not words.

• Portuguese favors verbs and full clauses over English noun stacks: "user account settings" is "definições da conta de utilizador" (PT) or "configurações da conta do usuário" (BR).
• The English passive often becomes the reflexive passive: "Vendem-se casas", "O ficheiro foi eliminado".
• Idioms must be re-expressed: "it's a piece of cake" is "é canja" (PT) or "é moleza" (BR).
• Subject pronouns are usually dropped; use the verb ending.
• Portuguese text tends to run longer than English.

Grammar that trips translators.

• Gender and number agreement; contractions of prepositions and articles (do, da, no, na, pelo, pela, num, numa).
• The personal infinitive ("Para eles saberem"), the future subjunctive ("Quando você fizer"), and subjunctive use.
• Tu vs você vs o senhor/a senhora: see the regional skills for the main difference.
• Clitic placement: enclisis ("diz-me") in European Portuguese; proclisis ("me diz") is typical in Brazil.
• Progressive: "estou a fazer" (PT) vs "estou fazendo" (BR).

Register.

• Formality is carried by the choice of second-person form and titles; see the regional skills for tu, você, and the formal "o senhor / a senhora". In UI, imperative ("Guarde", "Guardar") or infinitive are both used; choose one.

Orthography and typography.

• AO90 removed silent consonants (Portuguese "acção" became "ação", "óptimo" became "ótimo"); where the consonant is pronounced it stays ("facto" in Portugal, "fato" in Brazil). It is in force in Brazil and Portugal but still debated; verify doubtful words in the VOLP or a current dictionary.
• Accents are essential (á, â, ã, é, ê, í, ó, ô, õ, ú, ç); the hyphen rules were also reformed.
• Lowercase months, days of the week, and languages; sentence case for titles.
• Numbers: decimal comma, period or space for thousands; dates "17 de outubro de 2026".

Common pitfalls

• Using Brazilian vocabulary or grammar in European Portuguese text and the reverse.
• False friends: "pretender" is "to intend", "assistir" can mean "to watch", "esquisito" is "strange", "puxar" is "to pull", "atualmente" is "currently", "eventualmente" is "possibly".
• Mixing pre- and post-AO90 spellings.
• Using the wrong second-person form for the audience.
• Dropping accents.

Learn more

• Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
• Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
• Priberam Dicionário (https://dicionario.priberam.org) and Portal da Língua Portuguesa (https://www.portaldalinguaportuguesa.org)
• Microsoft Localization Style Guides, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal) (https://aka.ms/portuguese-brazil-styleguide, https://aka.ms/portuguese-portugal-styleguide)