Mass vs Count Nouns in Portuguese

What are the Portuguese equivalents of “much” vs “many” and “little” vs “few”? To answer this question, it’s essential to understand the difference between mass nouns and count nouns.

Mass nouns refer to things or concepts we usually don’t count, such as “money” or “patience.” In English, we often use quantifiers like much and little with mass nouns (e.g., “She drinks too much/little coffee.”).

Count nouns, on the other hand, refer to countable things, such as “oranges” or “images.” In English, we typically use many and few as quantifiers for count nouns (e.g., “She drinks many/a few beers a day.”). 

Note that the expression a lot is a bit of a wild card—it can often be used with both mass and count nouns (e.g., “a lot of money” or “a lot of oranges”).

Read on.

Much vs Many in Portuguese

As mentioned earlier, “much” and “many” are used with mass and count nouns, respectively. Portuguese, being a straightforward language (no joke intended, ahah), uses just “muito” for both types of nouns.

Keep in mind, however, that when used as a quantifier (not as an adverb), “muito” changes form to agree in gender and number with the noun it refers to:

	M	F
S	muito	muita
P	muitos	muitas

Crucially, for mass nouns, we typically use singular forms. For count nouns, we use the plurals. Let’s look at a few examples:

[mass nouns]
Ela tem muita paciência.
She’s got much patience.

Tu comes muito arroz.
You eat a lot of rice.

[count nouns]
Ela tem muitas virtudes.
She has many virtues.

Tu comes muitos pêssegos todos os dias.
You eat many peaches every day.

Little vs Few in Portuguese

Conversely, “little” and “few” are used with mass and count nouns, respectively. In Portuguese, the word “pouco” serves the same purpose for both types.

Similar to “muito,” when used as a quantifier (not as an adverb), “pouco” changes form to agree in gender and number with the noun it refers to:

	M	F
S	pouco	pouca
P	poucos	poucas

For mass nouns, we typically use the singular forms only. For count nouns, we use the plurals. Let’s look at the same examples as before:

[mass nouns]
Ela tem pouca paciência.
She’s got little patience.

Tu comes muito pouco arroz.
You eat very little rice.

[count nouns]
Ela tem poucas virtudes.
She has very few virtues.

Tu comes poucos pêssegos.
You eat very few peaches.

Before I let you go, let me remind you that “muito” and “pouco” are also used as adverbs. In that case, they never change form. If you are not sure about what I am talking about, read this one: Adjectives/Quantifiers vs Adverbs – What’s the difference?