Locale Pt Br

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

Identifiers

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

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 203,000,000
• L2 (additional): 3,000,000
• L1+L2 (total): 206,000,000

Base locale

This is a regional variant of Locale Pt 001 (Portuguese), the base/macro locale for this language.

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

Apply Locale Pt 001 with Brazilian conventions.

• Address: "você" is the singular informal and neutral form with third-person verbs ("Você pode salvar"); "tu" appears regionally (south and northeast) and is not standard in product text. Use "o senhor / a senhora" for formal text in some sectors. Plural is "vocês".
• Vocabulary: "arquivo", "tela", "mouse", "celular", "ônibus", "café da manhã", "time" (team), "usuário", "senha" (password), "baixar" (download), "e-mail", "aplicativo" ("app"). Use "R$" before the amount: "R$ 12,50".
• Grammar: the gerund progressive ("estou fazendo"), proclisis ("me liga"), and the loss of the second person verb forms.
• Spelling: AO90 has been mandatory since 2016 (no trema in "frequência", "ideia" without accent, "voo" without the circumflex, revised hyphen rules); verify doubtful words in the VOLP (Vocabulário Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa).
• Formats: decimal comma, period for thousands ("1.234,56"), day/month/year, 24-hour clock in daily use, "17 de outubro de 2026".
• Tone: warmer and more conversational than European Portuguese; politeness formulas like "por favor" and "obrigado/obrigada" are usual.

Common pitfalls

• Using European vocabulary ("ficheiro", "ecrã", "rato", "telemóvel", "autocarro").
• Using "tu" with third-person verbs, or "estou a fazer".
• Using enclitic pronouns in casual UI text ("diz-me") where Brazilian readers expect "me diz".
• The general pitfalls in Locale Pt 001 also apply.

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.
• Academia Brasileira de Letras, Vocabulário Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa (https://www.academia.org.br)
• Microsoft Localization Style Guide, Portuguese (Brazil) (https://aka.ms/portuguese-brazil-styleguide)