
The Portuguese word for “ten” is “dez,” but how exactly is that pronounced? I went to the gas station to fill up my motorcycle with “dez reais de gasolina” (ten reals of gasoline). But when I spoke to the pump attendant, I had to repeat myself a few times. Then finally he exclaimed, “ah, dez reais.”
The word “dez” (ten) is pronounced “des.” Imagine you were going to pronounce the word “desk” and then leave up the “k”: dez. Say “des.”
But at some point, I thought that the pronunciation of “dez” was “dayz” and not “des.” Why was this? To understand why I made this error, let’s look at all the numbers in Portuguese from 1 to 20.
One = um/uma
Two = dois/duas
Three = tres
Four = quatro
Five = cinco
Six = Seis
Seven = sete
Eight = oito
Nine = nove
Ten = dez
Eleven = onze
Twelve = Doze
Thirteen = treze
Fourteen = Quatorze
Fifteen = Quinze
Sixteen = Dezesseis
Seventeen = Dezessete
Eighteen = Dezeoito
Nineteen = Dezenove
Twenty = Vinte
As you can see above, starting from sixteen, all the numbers are a combination of ten and a unit. Example, sixteen is dezesseis which means dez (ten) e (and) seis (six). In other word dezesseis means “ten and six.” And of course we know that ten and six or ten plus six is equal to sixteen.
Here is the catch. The word dez by itself is pronounced “des,” but when combined with other numbers to make “teenage” numbers, it is pronounced dayz.
Ten = dez (des)
sixteen = desesseis (dayz-eh-says)