A2 · The noun
Nouns in -ão and their plurals
Three plurals for one ending — and mãos and mães are not the same word.
At a glance
- Remember
- When in doubt -ões — except for hand, brother and bread.
- Form
- estação → estaçõesthe large group
- Signal words
- -ões
- -ãos
- -ães
- Trap
- Wrong:Lava as mães.Right:Lava as mãos.
Your turn
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Now write it yourself4 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
The form
From the base form to the new form
Each row first says what the form expresses, then shows it in Portuguese: the base form before the arrow, the result after it.
| the large group | estação → estações |
| the same | coração → corações |
| the -ãos group | mão → mãos |
| the same | irmão → irmãos |
| the small group | pão → pães |
| the same | cão → cães |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
-ões is the commonest plural.
As estações estão fechadas.The stations are closed.
mão, irmão and their kind take -ãos.
Tenho dois irmãos.I have two brothers.
pão, cão and alemão take -ães.
Comprei dois pães.I bought two loaves.
Words in -ção are always feminine and always take -ções.
As informações estão no site.The information is on the website.
Example sentences
Há duas estações na cidade.There are two stations in the town.
Lava as mãos, por favor.Wash your hands, please.
Os cães ladram à noite.The dogs bark at night.
Os meus irmãos vivem no Porto.My brothers live in Porto.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Mãos and mães are two different words and they look almost identical. As mãosare handsas mãesare mothers Form the plural of mão by the commonest rule and you do not land on a wrong form — you land on a correct one that means something else, which no spell-check will catch and no reader will query. It is the one place in this theme where guessing costs more than looking it up.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Words in -ão form their plural in three ways: -ões, -ãos or -ães. Nothing in the written word says which.
What helps is frequency: -ões is the overwhelming majority — a estação becomes as estações, o coração becomes os corações. Guessing that one is a good bet, and since every noun in -ção belongs to it, the bet covers a large part of the vocabulary at once.
The -ãos group takes the words where the -ão is unstressed — o órgão, os órgãos — and a small group of common words that are learnt one by one: a mão becomes as mãos, o irmão becomes os irmãos, o cidadão becomes os cidadãos.
The -ães group is small and learnt word by word: o pão becomes os pães, o cão becomes os cães, o alemão becomes os alemães.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: estar · ter · haver · comprar · viver