Locale Zh Mo

Reference data for the Chinese (Traditional, Macao) locale — endonym 繁體中文 (澳門), written in the Han (Traditional) script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

• BCP 47 tag: zh-MO
• ISO 639-1: zh
• ISO 639-3: cmn
• Script: Hant (Han (Traditional))
• Region: MO (Traditional, Macao)
• Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 400,000
• L2 (additional): 80,000
• L1+L2 (total): 480,000

Base locale

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

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: other (1 form).

• other — everything else (e.g. 0~15, 100, 1000, 10000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Apply Locale Zh 001 with Macao conventions (Traditional Chinese, Macao). Chinese and Portuguese are the official languages.

• Script and standard: Traditional characters; Cantonese is the daily spoken language and Written Chinese is the formal standard. Use zh-Hant-MO.
• Vocabulary: closer to Hong Kong usage than Taiwan; Portuguese names and street names are transcribed in Chinese by the Macao SAR government forms (for example 澳門, 氹仔, 路環).
• Currency: Macao pataca (MOP$, 澳門元); the Hong Kong dollar is also widely accepted.
• Bilingualism: official notices appear in both Chinese and Portuguese; do not translate Portuguese proper names and institution names that have an official Chinese form.

Common pitfalls

• Using Mainland or Taiwan place-name forms for Macao.
• Dropping the Portuguese form where bilingual presentation is required.
• The general pitfalls in Locale Zh 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.
• Unicode CLDR locale data for zh-Hant-MO (https://cldr.unicode.org)