Months in Portuguese: Names, Capitalization, and Dates
Portuguese month names are lowercase: janeiro, fevereiro, março, and the rest of the calendar year.
Real Life Portuguese · 5 min read · Updated October 14, 2026
The short answer
Portuguese month names are janeiro, fevereiro, março, abril, maio, junho, julho, agosto, setembro, outubro, novembro, and dezembro. Unlike English, Portuguese normally writes these names with a lowercase first letter, except at the start of a sentence or in a title style that capitalizes every word.
Learn the twelve months and keep them lowercase
Several names look similar to English, while others need a spelling check: março has a cedilla, and setembro and outubro end in -bro. Learning them in seasonal groups can make recall easier, even though Brazil’s weather seasons differ by region.
Meu aniversário é em março.
My birthday is in March.
As aulas começam em agosto.
Classes start in August.
Dezembro costuma ser um mês movimentado.
December is usually a busy month.
Use em for a month and de inside a full date
Use em + month for a general time: em julho (in July). In a full date, join the day and month with de, then the month and year with de: 20 de abril de 2027. The preposition em may appear before the full date when the sentence requires it: a prova será em 20 de abril.
Prepositions attach to the sentence, not to the month itself. Learn a full phrase such as nasci em novembro, viajo em setembro, or o prazo termina em… to speak about plans without building each part from English.
A gente vai viajar em setembro.
We’re going to travel in September.
O contrato termina em 31 de dezembro.
The contract ends on December 31.
Ela nasceu em 2001, no mês de janeiro.
She was born in 2001, in the month of January.
Put it into practice
Write Portuguese month names in lowercase. Use em + month for a general time and de between the day, month, and year in a full date.
Quick practice
Which Portuguese example matches “My birthday is in March”?
Choose an answer to check yourself.
Keep practicing with the Real Life Portuguese app
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