Appendix:Portuguese pronouns
Personal pronouns
[edit]| Portuguese personal pronouns (edit) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Person | Nominative (subject) |
Accusative (direct object) |
Dative (indirect object) |
Prepositional | Prepositional with com |
Non-declining | ||||||
| m | f | m | f | m and f | m | f | m | f | m | f | |||
| Singular | First | eu | me | mim | comigo | ||||||||
| Second | tu | te | ti | contigo | você | ||||||||
| o senhor | a senhora | ||||||||||||
| Third | ele | ela | o (lo, no) |
a (la, na) |
lhe | ele | ela | com ele | com ela | o mesmo | a mesma | ||
| se | si | consigo | |||||||||||
| Plural | First | nós | nos | nós | connosco (Portugal) conosco (Brazil) |
a gente | |||||||
| Second | vós | vos | vós | convosco, com vós | vocês | ||||||||
| os senhores | as senhoras | ||||||||||||
| Third | eles | elas | os (los, nos) |
as (las, nas) |
lhes | eles | elas | com eles | com elas | os mesmos | as mesmas | ||
| se | si | consigo | |||||||||||
| Indefinite | se | si | consigo | ||||||||||
The Portuguese personal pronouns, show a higher degree of inflection compared to other parts of speech, being the only words that have distinct forms for subject (nominative case), direct object or indirect object, or object of a preposition.
Portuguese personal pronouns are categorized in three main groups: pronomes pessoais do caso reto “nominative case personal pronouns”, pronomes pessoais do caso oblíquo “accusative and dative case personal pronouns” and formas de tratamento “forms of address”.
Caso recto and Caso oblíquo
[edit]Most of these can be directly translated as the English words I, me, you, etc.
- The subject is always before a verb. Due to the high number of verb conjugations, this pronoun can be omitted if superfluous:
- Eu comi arroz ontem.; Comi arroz ontem. — “I ate rice yesterday.”
- Usually the direct object can be placed after or before a verb. If after, it is joined to the verb by a hyphen. However, there is a different rule when a verb is conjugated in the future indicative: the direct object can be placed before or inside this verb.
- Eu te fiz feliz.; Eu fiz-te feliz. — “I made you happy.”
- Nós te daremos um presente.; Nós dar-te-emos um presente. — “We will give you a gift.”
- The indirect object is used after a preposition.
- Ela comprou comida para ti. — “She bought food for you.”
- Ele gosta de mim. — “He likes me.”
Formas de tratamento
[edit]| Portuguese forms of address (edit) | |
|---|---|
| Second-person | Vossa Alteza, Vossa Eminência, Vossa Excelência, Vossa Magnificência, Vossa Majestade, Vossa Mercê, |
| Third-person | Sua Alteza, Sua Eminência, Sua Excelência, Sua Magnificência, Sua Majestade, Sua Mercê, |
| Others | |
| Dom, você, o senhor, a gente | |
They are often translated as English Your Majesty, Your Highness, etc., with few exceptions.
In many dialects, você is a common variation or complete substitution of tu, te and ti. Verbs taking this as subject are conjugated in third-person singular.
- Eu te amo.; Eu amo você. — “I love you.”
In many dialects, vocês is a complete substitution of vós and vos. Verbs taking this as subject are conjugated in third-person plural. Therefore, second-person plural conjugations are almost unknown by many native speakers.
- Vocês são os meus melhores amigos. — “You are my best friends.”
In many dialects, a gente is a common colloquial variation of nós and nos. Verbs taking this as subject are conjugated in third-person singular.
- Nós vamos para casa.; A gente vai para casa. — “We are going home.”
Personal pronouns and verb forms
[edit]Not all personal pronouns are used with verb forms that correspond in number and person. The following table lists which verb forms are used with which personal pronouns:
| pronoun | person and number of the pronoun |
person and number of verb forms used with it |
example with ser | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eu | first-person singular | first-person singular | eu sou | |
| nós | first-person plural | first-person plural | nós somos | |
| third-person singular | *nós é | highly proscribed Brazilian usage | ||
| a gente | first-person plural | third-person singular | a gente é | |
| first-person plural | *a gente somos | highly proscribed Brazilian usage | ||
| tu | second-person singular | second-person singular | tu és | |
| third-person singular | tu é | regional Brazilian usage | ||
| você | second-person singular | third-person singular | você é | |
| o senhor, a senhora | second-person singular | third-person singular | o senhor é | |
| vós | second-person plural | second-person plural | vós sois | |
| vocês | second-person plural | third-person plural | vocês são | |
| os senhores, as senhoras | second-person plural | third-person plural | os senhores são | |
| ele, ela | third-person singular | third-person singular | ele é | |
| o mesmo, a mesma | third-person singular | third-person singular | o mesmo é | |
| eles, elas | third-person plural | third-person plural | eles são | |
| os mesmos, as mesmas | third-person plural | third-person plural | os mesmos são |
In addition, the second-person singular imperative is sometimes used with você in colloquial usage.
Possessive pronouns
[edit]| Portuguese possessive pronouns (edit) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Possessor | Possessum | ||||
| Number | Person | Singular | Plural | ||
| Masculine | Feminine | Masculine | Feminine | ||
| Singular | First | meu | minha | meus | minhas |
| Second | teu | tua | teus | tuas | |
| Third | seu | sua | seus | suas | |
| Plural | First | nosso | nossa | nossos | nossas |
| Second | vosso | vossa | vossos | vossas | |
| Third | seu | sua | seus | suas | |
| Possessive contractions | |||||
| Possessor | |||||
| Number | Person | Masculine (ele) | Feminine (ela) | ||
| Singular | Third | dele | dela | ||
| Plural | deles | delas | |||
The Portuguese possessive pronouns are translated as the English words my, mine, your, etc.
Portuguese personal pronouns are inflected according to this information:
- Grammatical number (singular or plural) and person (first, second or third) of the owner.
- Grammatical number (singular or plural) and gender (masculine or feminine) of the thing owned.
Unlike English, there are no distinct words for attributive or other uses. For example, my and mine would be considered identical in Portuguese. However, there is a tendency for omitting articles in attributive context.
Examples:
- Hoje é o meu dia de sorte. — “Today is my lucky day.”
- A minha namorada é linda. — “My girlfriend is pretty.”
- Eu não gosto dos teus filhos. — “I don't like your kids.”
- Este cachorro é teu. — “This dog is yours.”
Contractions
[edit]The pronouns seu, sua, seus and suas have a high degree of ambiguity: there is no way to know whether they are singular or plural. Additionally, they can be used as second or third person, to agree with tu and você. Usually in dialectal or colloquial contexts, the contractions dele, dela, deles and delas are used in the third person instead.