Making Sense Of Pronouns In Brazilian Portuguese
Pronouns are among the most used words in English, and as you can probably guess, in Portuguese as well. Luckily for us, Portuguese makes use of pronouns in essentially the exact same ways that English does.
In order to properly discuss pronouns, we need to step back and take some time to identify some vocabulary first.
By studying this table for a bit, you should start to see some patterns and commonalties arise. Also, you should notice that several pronouns in English correspond to various words in Portuguese.
Let’s begin:
| English Pronoun | Portuguese Translation |
| I | Eu |
| Me | Eu / Me |
| You | Você/Tu |
| We | Nós |
| Us | Nós |
| She | Ela |
| He | Ele |
| Her | Ela / A |
| Him | Ele / O |
| They | Eles/ Elas / As |
| Them | Eles / Elas / Os |
| That | Esse / Essa, Aquele / Aquela |
| Those | Esses / Essas, Aqueles / Aquelas |
| It | Isto, Aquilo, Lo |
| Mine | Meu / Minha |
| Your | Seu / Sua, Teu / Tua, De você |
| Yours | Seus / Suas, Teus / Tuas, De vocês |
| Our | Nosso / Nossa |
| Ours | Nossos / Nossas |
| Hers | Dela, Sua |
| His | Dele, Seu |
| Theirs | Deles / Delas, Seus / Suas |
| What | Que, O que |
| Who | Quem |
| Whose | Cujo / Cuja / De quem, Do qual |
| Whom | O qual, Quem, Que |
| Which | Qual |
| This | Este / Esta |
| These | Estes / Estas |
| Either | Ou, Qualquer um |
| Neither | Nem, Nenhum, Nenhuma |
| None | Nenhum |
| No one | Ninguém |
| Nobody | Ninguém |
| Several | Vários / Várias |
| Many | Muito / Muita, Muitos / Muitas |
| Few | Poucos / Poucas |
| Other | Outro / Outra |
| Any | Algum / Alguma, Qualquer, Quaisquer |
| All | Tudo, Todo / Toda, Todos / Todas |
| Everything | Tudo |
| Nothing | Nada |
| Every | Cada |
| Each other | Um ao outro / Uma à outra |
| One another | Um outro / Uma outra |
| Myself | Eu mesmo |
| Yourself | Você mesmo |
| Herself | Ela mesma |
| Himself | Ele mesmo |
| Itself | Se, Em si, A si mesmo |
| Oneself | Se, O próprio, A si mesmo |
| Themselves | Eles mesmos / Elas mesmas |
| Yourselves | Vocês mesmos |
| Ourselves | Nós mesmos / Nós mesmas |
Now that you have been introduced to the translation of each pronoun in Portuguese, we are going to continue this topic by listing each type of pronoun in English and looking at its Portuguese counterpart. Then we will look at some examples of each.
By the end of this article, you should hopefully see that your knowledge of English will once again expedite the Portuguese learning process.
Pronouns fall under the following categories:
| Pronoun Type | How it is Used | English Examples | Portuguese examples |
| Personal | Used to substitute the name of a noun. | I, me, you, we, us, she, he, her, him, they, them, those, it | Eu, você, tu, ele, ela, nós, a gente, o senhor, a senhora, vocês, else, elas, isto, isso, aquilo |
| Possessive | Expresses the ownership or possession of a thing. | Mine, yours, ours, Hers, His, Theirs | Meu, minha, meus, minhas, teu, tua, teus, tuas, seu, sua, seus, suas,nosso, nossa, nossas, nossas, dele, dela |
| Relative | Associates a particular sentence to a specific noun. | Who, whose, whom, which, that | Que, qual, quais, quem |
| Demonstrative | Calls attention to a particular noun in a phrase. | This, that, these, those, either, neither, none | Este, esta, estes. Estas, esse, essa, esses, essas, aquele, aquela, aqueles, aquelas, isto, isso, aquilo |
| Indefinite | Discusses a noun without specifically identifying it. | Some, a few, Someone, each, any, somebody, something, none no one, nobody, several, many, few, other, any, all, everything, nothing, every | Alguém, ninguém, algum, alguns, algo, certo, certa, certos, certas, nenhum, nenhuma, quanto, quanta, quantos, quantas, muito, muita, muitos, muitas, tanto, tanta, tantos, tantas, vários, várias, pouco, pouca, poucos, poucas, nada, cada, outro, outra, outros, outras, qualquer, todo, toda, todos, todas, tudo, |
| Interrogative | Used when asking a question. | Who, what, whose, whom, which | Qual, quanto, quais, quantos, quanta, quantas, que, o que, quem, como, onde, quando |
| Reciprocal | Used when multiple subjects are doing the same thing or reciprocate to the other. | Each other, One another | Ao outro |
| Reflexive | Used use when the subject and the object are one in the same. | Myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, oneself, themselves, yourselves, ourselves | Me, se, te, nos |
This table is packed with information, and it can be hard to know what you are looking at, at first.
Especially without having yet memorized the translation of each pronoun in Portuguese. I have purposefully created this table to give you as much of an overview as possible in one place.
I cannot recommend highly enough that you take some time to really look it over, not just once, but several times. The more you see these words, the more familiar they will become to you. I know it seems like a lot at first, but the beauty of it is, this is it. They do not change. So, once you get it down, you are golden.
Once you have looked over the table enough times to feel comfortable moving on, let’s keep going with some examples to drive these concepts home.
Personal pronouns examples:
| English | Portuguese |
| We want to go fishing. | Nós queremos ir pescar. |
| She does not like the red meat. | Ela não gosta da carne vermelha. |
| They don’t like it. | Eles não gostam disso. |
Possessive pronoun examples:
| English | Portuguese |
| That is her bottle. | Essa é a garrafa dela. |
| Is this table yours? | Esta mesa é sua? |
| This house is ours. | Esta casa é nossa. |
Relative pronoun examples:
| English | Portuguese |
| I have a sister whose hair is long. | Eu tenho uma irmã cuja cabelo é comprido. |
| This is the dog that you saw before. | Este é o cachorro que você viu antes. |
| I have the bowl which you lost. | Eu tenho a tigela que você perdeu. |
Demonstrative pronoun examples:
| English | Portuguese |
| This is a good day. | Este é um bom dia. |
| That field is very green. | Esse campo é muito verde. |
| These are comfortable shoes. | Estes são sapatos confortáveis. |
Indefinite pronoun examples:
| English | Portuguese |
| Does anyone have some juice? | Alguém tem um pouco de suco? |
| You can do anything you want! | Você pode fazer o que quiser! |
| Everybody was happy. | Todo mundo estava feliz. |
Interrogative pronoun examples:
| English | Portuguese |
| Whose rock is this? | De quem é essa pedra? |
| What kind of music is playing? | Que tipo de música está tocando? |
| Who got here first? | Quem chegou primeiro? |
Reciprocal pronoun examples:
| English | Portuguese |
| We all passed the potato to one another. | Todos nós passamos a batata uns para os outros. |
| They kept staring at each other. | Eles continuaram olhando um para o outro. |
| They gave each other a bracelet. | Eles deram um ao outro uma pulseira. |
Reflexive pronoun examples:
| English | Portuguese |
| She gave herself some extra time. | Ela se deu um tempo extra. |
| You will need to look after yourself. | Você precisará cuidar de si mesmo. |
| The bear warmed itself in a cave. | O urso se aqueceu em uma caverna. |
We will conclude the article on pronouns here. As I often do, I like to close out these posts by offering the reminder that you should not stress over the amount of information there is to take in here. But rather, your focus should be on taking in what you can and moving forward.
I can guarantee you that everything I have said so far on this site will come up again and again as you continue your journey with Portuguese, and every time that you see it, it will make more and more sense as you continue to build context.
If you are looking for the best place to start with learning Brazilian Portuguese, then I have no higher recommendation than to head on over to Rocket Languages Portuguese to get started.
They have all the tools you need to fast track your learning journey and get you speaking like a native in record time!
Good luck my friend, e até a próxima!
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