Pronouns

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Personal Pronouns
Possessive Pronouns
Demonstrative Pronouns
Indefinite Pronouns
Relative Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

The personal pronouns of Portuguese have five basic forms: subject, reflexive, accusative, dative, and prepositional.

Subject Personal Pronouns

These pronouns act as the subject of the sentence and dictate the conjugation of verbs.

Singular		Plural
eu	I	nós	we
tu	you (familiar)	vós	you all (familiar)
você	you (polite)	vocês	you all (polite)
ele	he, it (m.)	eles	they (m.)
ela	she, it (f.)	elas	they (f.)
o senhor	you (m. formal)	os senhores	you all (m. formal)
a senhora	you (f. formal)	as senhoras	you all (f. formal)

Notes:

It is common to hear a gente (the people) being used as "we" when referring to the speaker and his/her group.
a gente fala português - we speak Portuguese

There are many forms of the pronoun "you" in Portuguese. The use of each varies by region, but in general:

• Tu is used mainly in Portugal as an informal mode of address when talking to family or relatives. It uses the 2nd person verb forms.
• Vós is archaic and usually replaced by vocês. It is common in poetry or religious text and can be translated as "ye".
• Você is used very often between friends and coworkers and is informal; used often in Brazil in place of "tu". It takes the 3rd person verb forms.
• O senhor and A senhora are formal modes of address and also take the 3rd person verb form.

Reflexive Pronouns

These pronouns are used with reflexive verbs and refer back to the subject.

Subject	Reflexive Pronoun	Translation
eu	me	myself
tu	te	yourself
ele ela o senhor a senhora você	se	itself, himself, herself, yourself
nós	nos	ourselves
vós	vos	yourselves
eles elas os senhores as senhoras vocês	se	themselves, yourselves

Notes:

These pronouns can be placed before the verb, or attached to the end of the verb using a hyphen,.
A gente se conheceu ontem - we met each other yesterday
Sinto-me bem - I feel well

Object pronouns

In Portuguese there are direct object pronouns (accusative case) and indirect object pronouns (dative case).

In standard Portuguese object pronouns can be attached to the end of verbs with a hyphen.
mostre-me - show me
ensino-lhe - I teach him

They must be placed in front of the verb in negative clauses, in most questions, and in some dependent clauses.
não o tenho - I don't have it
Que me explica ele? - What does he explain to me?

In Brazil, They are almost always in front of the verb.
Eu te amo - I love you;

Accusative (Direct Object) Pronouns

Pronouns in the accusative case are usually used to replace a direct object noun in a sentence.

Singular		Plural
me	me	nos	us
te	you	vos	you
o	him; it, you (m.)	os	them, you (m.)
a	her; it, you (f.)	as	them, you (f.)
se	himself, herself (reflexive)	se	themselves (reflexive)

Notes:

Você can be used as its own direct object pronoun. Otherwise, it uses o or a. Colloquially, it often uses te.
Eu te amo / Eu amo você - I love you

Likewise, Vocês uses os or as, and can use vos as its direct object pronoun.
Ele vos viu / Ele viu vocês - He saw you

Direct object pronouns o, a, os, as make changes when they are added to the end of verbs:

• If the verb ends with -r, -s, -z → drop those letters change the pronouns to -lo, -la, -los, -las
  estudá-lo - to study it
  estudamo-la - we study it
• If the verb ends in a nasal sound (-am, -em, -ão etc.) → change the pronouns to -no, -na, -nos, -nas
  sabem-no - they know it
  estudam-na - they study it

Dative (Indirect Object) Pronouns

These pronouns are used to indicate the noun receiving the action of the verb.

Singular		Plural
me	to me	nos	to us
te	to you	vos	to you
lhe	to him, her, it, you	lhes	to them, you all
se	to himself, herself (reflexive)	se	to themselves (reflexive)

Notes:

Você(s) can use the pronouns lhe(s), te (vos), or para você(s).
Ele deu o livro para você? - Did he give the book to you?

Indirect object pronouns always precede direct object pronouns. When used together in the same sentence they are contracted like so:

	o	a	os	as
me	mo	ma	mos	mas
te	to	ta	tos	tas
lhe	lho	lha	lhos	lhas
nos	no-lo	no-la	no-los	no-las
vos	vo-lo	vo-la	vo-los	vo-las
lhes	lho	lha	lhos	lhas

Prepositional Pronouns

These pronouns are used with prepositions such as para, a, and de.

Singular		Plural
mim	me	nós	us
ti	you	vós	you
ele	him, it, you	eles	them, you all (m.)
ela	her, it, you	elas	them, you all (f.)
si	to himself, herself (reflexive)	si	to themselves (reflexive)

Notes:

Você(s), o senhor, a senhora, a gente and other pronouns do not have a special form when used with prepositions.
Eu logo para você amanhã - I'll call you tomorrow

Some pronouns contract with the preposition com (with):

Pronoun	Contraction	Translation
mim	comigo	with me
ti	contigo	with you
nós	connosco	with us
vós	convosco	with you
si	consigo	reflexive

Ele(s) and Ela(s) contract with the prepositions em (in / on), and de (of / from):

	em	de
ele(s)	nele(s)	dele(s)
ela(s)	nela(s)	dela(s)

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Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns are the same as possessive adjectives but they use the definite articles. They agree in number and gender of the thing possessed.

Masculine	Feminine	Translation
o meu os meus	a minha as minhas	mine
o teu os teus	a tua as tuas	yours
o nosso os nossos	a nossa as nossas	ours
o vosso os vossos	a vossa as vossas	yours
o seu os seus	a sua as suas	his, hers, its, yours, theirs, one’s

Notes:

To avoid the ambiguity of o(s) seu(s) and a(s) sua(s), you can use the prepositional pronouns dele(s) and dela(s).

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Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstratives are words that point to a noun and specify a distance between the speaker and something.

Pronoun	Translation	Location
este	this (m.)	Near the speaker - "here" Aqui
esta	this (f.)
estes	these (m.)
estas	these (f.)
isto	this (neuter)
esse	that (m.)	Near the person addressed - "there" Aí
essa	that (f.)
esses	those (m.)
essas	those (f.)
isso	that (neuter)
aquele	that (m.)	Far away from speaker and listener - "over there" Ali / Lá
aquela	that (f.)
aqueles	those (m.)
aquelas	those (f.)
aquilo	that (neuter)

Notes:

These pronouns contract with the prepositions de, em, and a. See the Prepositions chapter for full detail.

Isto, isso, and aquilo, do not refer to nouns, but to ideas or something unspecific.
isto é verdade - this is true

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Indefinite Pronouns

These are words that refer to an identifiable but unspecified noun, expressing the idea of all, none, any, some, another, other, etc. Here are a few of the most common:

Pronoun	Translation
algum alguma alguns algumas	some, any, few
alguém	someone, anybody
algo	something
nenhum nenhuma nenhuns nenhumas	no, none, not any
nada	nothing
ninguém	no one, nobody
todo toda todos todas	every, all, whole, entire
tudo	everything
outro outra outros outras	another, other
outrem	other people
ambos ambas	both
cada um cada uma	each, every
certo certa certo certas	a certain, certain
tanto tanta tantos tantas	so much, so many
tal tais	such a, such
muito muita muitos muitas	much, many
pouco pouca poucos poucas	little, few
qualquer quaisquer	whatever, whichever, any one, either one
o mesma a mesma os mesmos as mesmas	himself, herself, itself, themselves, the same thing
vários várias	several

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Relative Pronouns

These are used to refer to another noun or pronoun, meaning that, which, or who(m). Relative pronouns are never omitted in Portuguese.
Os professores que falam ... - The proffesors who speak ...
A lição que estudo... - The lesson that I study ...

Pronoun	Translation	Notes
que	that, which, who, whom	the most common relative pronoun in speech
quem	that, which, who, whom	invariable; a quem when the object of a verb
o qual a qual os quai as quais	who, whom, which, that	used to avoid ambiguity since it indicates gender and number
cujo cuja cujos cujas	whose	agree in number and gender with the thing possessed
o que a que os que as que aquilo que	he/she who, that which	also used to avoid ambiguity
quanto quanta quantos quantas	all that, all who, all those who/which, as much	used when dealing with quantities of nouns

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