Locale Pt Pt

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

Identifiers

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

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 10,000,000
• L2 (additional): 500,000
• L1+L2 (total): 10,500,000

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 = 1 and v = 0 (e.g. 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. 0, 2~16, 100, 1000, …)

(CLDR defines a region-specific override for pt-PT, distinct from the general pt rule.)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Apply Locale Pt 001 with European Portuguese conventions.

• Address: "tu" is used for informal singular; "você" is avoided or can sound brusque, so use the verb in the third person with no pronoun, or "o senhor / a senhora" or a title ("Senhor Doutor") for formal text. Plural informal is "vocês".
• Vocabulary: "ficheiro", "ecrã", "rato", "telemóvel", "autocarro", "pequeno-almoço", "equipa", "utilizador", "palavra-passe", "descarregar" (download), "aplicação", "email". Use "€" after the amount: "12,50 €".
• Grammar: "estou a fazer" instead of the gerund; enclisis ("diz-me"); proclisis after negation and some conjunctions ("não me diz").
• Spelling: AO90 has been official in Portugal since the end of its transition period in 2015, though it is debated; silent consonants were dropped ("ação", "ótimo") and pronounced ones stay ("facto"). Check the Priberam dictionary or Ciberdúvidas for doubtful words.
• Formats: decimal comma, space (non-breaking) for thousands in CLDR pt-PT, day/month/year, 24-hour clock, "17 de outubro de 2026".
• Tone: more formal and reserved than Brazilian Portuguese; titles (Doutor, Engenheiro, Professor) are used frequently.

Common pitfalls

• Using Brazilian vocabulary ("arquivo", "tela", "celular") or "você" as a default.
• Using the gerund progressive.
• Mixing AO90 and pre-AO90 spelling.
• 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.
• Priberam Dicionário (https://dicionario.priberam.org)
• Microsoft Localization Style Guide, Portuguese (Portugal) (https://aka.ms/portuguese-portugal-styleguide)