ou
Portuguese, conjunction/o(w)/
ou is spelled O-U (2 letters) and appears 2,570 times per million words in written Portuguese, the 37th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Ou is a Portuguese conjunction meaning “or (connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc. each of which could make a passage true)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “une palavras ou orações, podendo designar alternativa ou incompatibilidade”.
What does ou mean in English?
conjunction
- 1
or (connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc. each of which could make a passage true)
Escolhe a opção um ou a opção dois.
- 2
or (connects two equivalent names)
Mianmar, ou Birmânia, fica na Ásia.
conjunction
- 1
either … or
noun
- 1
masculineinclusive or (connective which yields true when at least one of the predicates is true)
suffix
- 1
a suffix indicating the third-person singular indicative preterite of a verb in -ar
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
conjunction: 1. une palavras ou orações, podendo designar alternativa ou incompatibilidade 2. une palavras ou orações, podendo designar indecisão ou incerteza 3. faz indicação de outro modo de expressar algo
pronoun: 1. eu
suffix: 1. indicador de terceira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo dos verbos terminados em -ar (primeira conjugação)
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of ou
- ou … ou canonical
- ous plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce ou?
- Brazil /o(w)/
- Brazil [o(ʊ̯)]
- Portugal /o(w)/
Sources: English Wiktionary, Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to ou
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is ou in Portuguese?
ou appears 2,570 times per million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).