NumListen · Portuguese hundreds
Portuguese hundreds and connectors: hear cem, cento e, quinhentos, type the digits
Portuguese counts to 99 predictably enough, then the hundreds break the pattern in two ways. First, several of them do not contain the digit word you expect: 200 is duzentos, not dois-centos, and 500 is quinhentos, which sounds nothing like cinco. Second, the word for 100 changes depending on what follows: cem on its own, cento e as soon as anything comes after it. Add the connector e, which is spoken between hundreds and tens and between tens and units but is dropped in certain places after mil, and a number like 1.234 becomes a small sentence that you have to parse before you can write four digits.
NumListen · Portuguese hundreds
What this practice trains
Portuguese does not have a dedicated contrast card in NumListen. Instead, the hundreds forms and the connector e are weighted inside Basic Numbers when Portuguese is the number voice language. Set Portuguese as the number voice, open Basic Numbers, listen to one complete number, and type the digits you heard: 500, not quinhentos. Replay repeats the same reading; Show Answer reveals the number when you want to move on. Because these forms are mixed with ordinary values rather than isolated, you practise recognising quinhentos e vinte at the moment it appears in a longer number, which is how you meet it in prices, addresses, and years.
What you actually hear
A sample of the hundreds and the places where e appears or disappears. The app plays the full spoken form; you only ever type digits.
| Number | What you hear | What you type | Why it trips people up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | cem | 100 | Exactly one hundred is cem, a single syllable. There is no um in front of it, so nothing warns you that a three-digit number is coming. |
| 101 | cento e um | 101 | The moment anything follows, cem becomes cento and the connector e appears. Cento is never used alone; if you hear it, more digits are coming. |
| 123 | cento e vinte e três | 123 | Two connectors in one number: hundreds e tens e units. Each e is a signal that another block follows, not a pause. |
| 200 | duzentos | 200 | Not dois-centos. The stem duz- has to be learned as its own word, and the same goes for trezentos (300). |
| 500 | quinhentos | 500 | The most irregular hundred: no cinco, no -centos ending. Learners who know quinze (15) sometimes hear a teen instead of a hundred. |
| 600 | seiscentos | 600 | Regular: seis plus centos, like setecentos, oitocentos, novecentos. The contrast with quinhentos right before it is where 500 and 600 get swapped. |
| 1.500 | mil e quinhentos | 1500 | Mil alone means 1,000 with no um. The e is kept after mil because what follows is a round hundred with nothing after it. |
| 2.340 | dois mil trezentos e quarenta | 2340 | No e between mil and trezentos, because the lower block goes on with its own e. Hearing mil trezentos run together is the cue that the thousands are done. |
Portuguese
The four things to listen for
- Cem is exactly 100 and stands alone, including before a noun and before mil (cem reais, cem mil). Cento appears only when a smaller number follows, always with e: cento e um (101), cento e cinquenta (150), cento e vinte mil (120,000). If you hear cento, the number is not finished.
- Three hundreds are irregular and do not contain their digit word: duzentos (200), trezentos (300), quinhentos (500). The rest are regular digit + -centos: quatrocentos, seiscentos, setecentos, oitocentos, novecentos. From 200 upwards they also agree in gender: duzentas páginas, trezentas pessoas, quinhentas e uma vagas, so the ending changes with the noun but the digits you type do not.
- The connector e is spoken between hundreds and tens and between tens and units: trezentos e quarenta e cinco (345). After mil it is kept only when the remaining part is a round hundred or a number below 100: mil e quinhentos (1,500), dois mil e vinte e quatro (2,024). When the remaining part has both hundreds and something after them, the e after mil is dropped: mil duzentos e trinta e quatro (1,234). Milhão follows the same logic: um milhão e duzentos mil, but um milhão duzentos e cinquenta mil.
- Mil never takes um: 1,000 is mil, 1,500 is mil e quinhentos. You may occasionally hear um mil when someone reads a cheque or a contract aloud, but everyday speech uses bare mil. Milhão is the opposite: 1,000,000 is always um milhão, and the plural is milhões (dois milhões).
Listen, type, check
01
Set Portuguese as the number voice
Choose Portuguese from the number-voice menu on the NumListen home screen. This is independent of the app interface language, so your menus can stay in English.
02
Open Basic Numbers
Portuguese has no separate hundreds card; the cem / cento contrast, the irregular hundreds, and the connector e are weighted inside Basic Numbers when Portuguese is the number voice.
03
Hear the whole number before writing
Cem is finished; cento e is not. Mil e quinhentos ends at the hundred; mil duzentos keeps going. Let the last block arrive before committing digits.
04
Type the digits, then check
Enter the digits in normal written order, use Replay if you lost a block, and use Show Answer to see the full number before the next prompt.
A Brazilian Portuguese voice you choose in Settings
The Portuguese number voice in NumListen is Brazilian Portuguese, so hundreds, connectors, and price wording (reais and centavos) follow Brazilian usage. NumListen plays prompts with a compatible Portuguese system voice installed on your iPhone; you can choose and preview the voice from Settings, and the app tells you how to enable one if no compatible Portuguese voice is available rather than silently playing a different language.
Portuguese hundreds FAQ
What is the difference between cem and cento?
Cem is exactly 100 and is used on its own or directly before a noun or mil: cem reais, cem mil. Cento is used only when a smaller number follows, and it is always joined by e: cento e um, cento e noventa e nove. You will never hear cento by itself as a complete number.
Why is 500 quinhentos and not cinco-centos?
Quinhentos, along with duzentos and trezentos, comes from older Latin forms rather than from the modern digit word plus -centos. There is no rule that derives them; they have to be heard often enough that quinhentos maps straight to 500 without a pause. The other hundreds, 400 and 600 to 900, are regular.
When is e dropped after mil?
Keep e after mil when what follows is a round hundred (mil e quinhentos, 1,500) or a number under 100 (mil e vinte, 1,020). Drop it when what follows has hundreds plus tens or units of its own: mil duzentos e trinta (1,230). The lower block always keeps its own e between hundreds, tens, and units.
Do I need to type duzentas or duzentos?
No. Every answer is digits only, so 200 is 200 whether the spoken form was duzentos or duzentas. The gender ending changes with the noun being counted, but it never changes the number you write.
Is there a Portuguese hundreds card, like French 70–99 or German 21–99?
No. Portuguese does not have a dedicated contrast card in NumListen. The hundreds forms and the connector e are weighted inside Basic Numbers for the Portuguese number voice, so you meet them mixed with ordinary values rather than in a separate drill. The number-voice language and the app interface language are independent, so you can keep English menus while practising.
Make quinhentos mean 500 on the first hearing
Short, repeatable rounds of Portuguese numbers with the hundreds and connectors mixed in, until cem, cento e, and mil e quinhentos go straight to digits without a translation step.
Keep practising Portuguese numbers
Portuguese number listening practice for everyday formats
See every Portuguese number format NumListen covers, not just this one.
Portuguese phone numbers: hear the DDD, the nove, and meia for six, type the digits
Practice hearing Brazilian phone numbers — a two-digit DDD, the ninth digit nove, then digits read one by one with meia standing in for seis — and typing the digits. Listen-and-type practice for the reading habits that make a dictated number hard to catch.