Making Sense Of Pronouns In Brazilian Portuguese

on August 2, 2021

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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!