European Portuguese for English speakers
Tools for learning the Portuguese spoken in Portugal (pt-PT), not Brazil.
- Number trainerHear a number, type it.
- Read-along storyListen to a story with the text highlighted. Coming soon.
- Verb flash cardsPractise basic verbs. Coming soon.
Big numbers: English and European Portuguese do not match
Portugal counts large numbers differently from American English. The Portuguese word bilião looks like “billion” but is a thousand times bigger. Brazil uses the American meaning, so a Brazilian source can mislead you.
Looking for a European Portuguese voice…
| English | Digits | European Portuguese | Hear it |
|---|---|---|---|
| billion | 1,000,000,000 109 | mil milhões literally “a thousand millions” |
|
| trillion | 1,000,000,000,000 1012 | bilião a million millions |
|
| quadrillion | 1,000,000,000,000,000 1015 | mil biliões literally “a thousand biliões” |
Portugal names a new unit for every factor of a million: milhão (106), bilião (1012), trilião (1018), quatrilião (1024). In between, it says “thousand” plus the unit below. In Brazil bilhão means 109 (a Brazilian form, shown only as a contrast; do not use it for Portugal).
How these were checked (2026-10-11)
- Priberam, bilião: 1012; the sense “mil milhões” (109) is labelled Brazil.
- Priberam, trilião: 1018; the sense 1012 is labelled Brazil.
- Priberam, quatrilião: 1024; the sense 1015 is labelled Brazil.
- Ciberdúvidas, the nomenclature of large numbers: “Em Portugal, o número 1 000 000 000 designa-se mil milhões”; the United States uses the other rule.
- Not found in any source: a dictionary entry naming 1015 in Portugal. Mil biliões is formed by the same pattern as mil milhões, and Priberam uses the same phrase for Brazil’s sense of trilião, but treat it as a pattern, not a looked-up form.