Original post by Viceroy- | Archived post
If you also need help on Definite Articles, check out my Guide
Section 1 - Indefinite Articles and Gender
The indefinite article (In English it is a or an) also has masculine or feminine forms in Portuguese, it also has plural forms the work the same as the English word 'some'. If Uns or Umas are used before a number, then the meaning changes to mean 'about or around'.
- Um is single masculine, Uns is plural masculine
- Uma is single feminine, Umas is plural feminine
Examples
- Um Livro - a book
- uns garfos - some forks
- Recebi uns dez telefonemas - I got about ten phone calls
Section 2 - Contracting Indefinite articles with prepositions
em 'at, in, on' can be contracted with the indefinite article but this is not obligatory. This contraction is usually made in speech, and sometimes in the written language.
To contract em with indefinite articles, reduce em to n. Then when you combine n with um it becomes num, with uns it becomes nuns, with uma it becomes numa and with umas becomes numas. In Brazilian Portuguese, this contraction isn't very common so you should really just write em and then the indefinite.
The word de 'of, from' can be contracted just like em, but it is rare and probably should be avoided. Instead, you can just write de and then the indefinite article separately.
Section 3 - Differences in uses of Indefinite articles from English
Most of the time the indefinite article in Portuguese is used in a similar fashion to the English words 'a, an', but there are some significant differences:
The indefinite article is not usually used:
After the verb ser 'to be' when describing someones nationality, job or religion.
After the verb tornar-se and virar 'to become'
A casa virou meseu - The house became a museum.Before a noun that is used as a direct object in a generic sence: O hotel tem piscina - The hotel has a pool
After the word como when it means 'as'. - Ele trabalha como engenheiro - He works as an engineer
After the prepositions de 'with, in' and sem 'without' when they are used to specify someones characteristics. Um homem de bengala - a man with a walking stick
When an indefinite noun is used in next to something, usually to a name
The Indefinite article appears in these instances where it does not in English:
- With abstract nouns when qualified by an adjective
O filme é de uma beleza arrebatadora -
The film is breathtakingly beautiful
In grammar, a word or phrase that qualifies another word or phrase limits its meaning and makes it less general. So in this case, the adjective 'Breathtakingly' would cause the abstract noun 'Beautiful' to become specific instead of generalized. For example, the sentence 'He walked' doesn't give us any information other than there is a man that is walking. The sentence, 'He walked along the road', causes the word 'walked' to be limited to 'along the road'. If anyone can describe this better please write it in the comments
An abstract noun is something that is conceptual or not physically real. A house is not a concept and it is real so it is not an abstract noun, whereas beauty and love are conceptual and are not physically real so they are abstract nouns.
- With many abstract nouns to mean thing - O que eles fizeram foi uma crueldade -
What they did was an act of cruelty.
In this sentence, the words 'act' and 'cruelty' are both abstract nouns, but they are both being used to mean to mean one thing - an act of cruelty. The sentence, 'The animal has suffered cruelty', only has one abstract noun and not two or more that are all talking about one thing so the rule would not apply.
N 
C1 
B2 
B1 
B1 
A1 
A1