Portuguese personal pronouns
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Portuguese has two sets of personal pronouns — the subjective pronouns and the objective pronouns; objective pronouns are also divided into two sets — unstressed (weak) pronouns and stressed (strong) pronouns. Forms of address are also considered personal pronouns.
Subjective pronouns
The subjective pronouns are the personal pronouns that can be used as subject or subject predicative:
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| First person | eu | nós | |
| Second person | tu | vós | |
| Third person | Masculine | ele | eles |
| Feminine | ela | elas | |
Objective pronouns
The objective pronouns are the personal pronouns that can be used as complements to verbs (i.e. as objects) and to nouns.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| First person | me | nos | |
| Second person | te | vos | |
| Third person | Masculine | o, se, lhe | os, se, lhes |
| Feminine | a, se, lhe | as, se, lhes | |
The pronouns me, te, se, nos and vos can be used as complements to both direct and indirect transitive verbs; the pronouns o, a, os and as can be used as direct objects only; the pronouns lhe and lhes, on the other hand, can be used as indirect objects only.
Ele me ama.
Mamãe te deu dinheiro?
Eu a amo.
Papai lhe deu um carro.
The pronoun se is always reflexive.
Eles se amam.
The pronouns me, te, lhe, nos, vos and lhes can be combined with o, a, os and as, leading to compound pronouns:
| 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 |
— Compraste o livro?
— Ora, entreguei-to ontem, não te lembras?
Such compound pronouns are never used in Brazil, but they're not rare in the literary language.
‘Não te esqueci, eu to juro.’ (Gonçalves Dias)
The pronouns o, a, os and as go through phonological adaptations after certain verbal endings:
- when the verb ends in -z, -s or -r, the pronouns are changed to lo, la, los, las and the verbal ending is dropped:
fiz + o = fi-lo
dizer + a = dizê-la
- when the verb ends in a nasal sound, the pronouns are changed to no, na, nos, nas:
viram + o = viram-no
repõe + as = repõe-nas
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| First person | mim | nós | |
| Second person | ti | vós | |
| Third person | Masculine | ele, si | eles, si |
| Feminine | ela, si | elas, si | |
The stressed objective pronouns always follow a preposition, such as a, até, de, em, para, etc.
Isso é entre mim e ti.
Não vá sem ela!
Você não pode provar nada contra mim.
The preposition com, however, has special combined forms derived from Latin:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| First person | comigo | conosco |
| Second person | contigo | convosco |
| Third person | consigo | |
Ela foi embora comigo.
Si and consigo are always used only as reflexive pronouns in Brazil:
Meu irmão só pensa em si.
Aquela menina é louca: fala consigo o dia todo.
The forms conosco and convosco are replaced by com nós and com vós when other words reinforce the pronouns:
Ele viajou com nós dois!
Estávamos com vós todos ontem, não?
Forms of address
Also known as indirect second person pronouns, these are forms used to address someone (second person) using verbs in the third person.
| Form of address | Abbreviation | Used to address: |
|---|---|---|
| Vossa Alteza | V. A. | princes, dukes |
| Vossa Eminência | V. Em.ª | cardinals |
| Vossa Excelência | V. Ex.ª | high authorities and officer-generals |
| Vossa Magnificência | V. Mag.ª | university rectors |
| Vossa Majestade | V. M. | kings, emperors |
| Vossa Santidade | V. S. | pope |
| Vossa Senhoria | V. S.ª | cerimonious addressing |
All the above forms are always used to address someone, but they take the third person of the verbs:
Vossa Senhoria poderia me enviar seus papéis hoje?
When using them to talk about someone (that is, in a real third person context), it's necessary to replace Vossa with Sua:
Já falei com Sua Majestade e a permissão foi dada.
There are some other forms of address, among which we can point o senhor, a senhora and você.
- O senhor / a senhora are used in formal addressing;
- Você is used as a distal pronoun in Portugal and as a familiar pronoun in Brazil (where it replaces the true second person pronouns in the modern language).
Another construction that is worth noting is a gente. In Brazil, it's often used to replace nós (that is, as a first person plural pronoun) in the colloquial language and, like the addressing forms above, it also takes the third person singular forms of the verbs:
A gente vai ver um filme amanhã.
In the formal usage of the language — and, to some extent, in all levels of the written language —, though, only nós is regarded as acceptable:
Nós vamos ver um filme amanhã.
