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ThePortuguese personal pronouns and possessives display a higher degree ofinflection than other parts of speech. Personal pronouns have distinct forms according to whether they stand for a subject (nominative), a direct object (accusative), an indirect object (dative), or areflexive object. Several pronouns further have special forms used afterprepositions.

Thepossessive pronouns are the same as thepossessive adjectives, but each is inflected to express thegrammatical person of the possessor and thegrammatical gender of the possessed.

Pronoun use displays considerable variation withregister anddialect, with particularly pronounced differences between the most colloquial varieties of European Portuguese andBrazilian Portuguese.

The personal pronouns of Portuguese have three basic forms:subject,object (object of a verb), andprepositional (object of a preposition).

¹direct object (masculine and feminine)

²indirect object

³reflexive orreciprocal, direct or indirect object

Like most European languages, Portuguese has different words for "you", according to the degree of formality that the speaker wishes to show towards the addressee (T-V distinction). In very broad terms,tu,você (both meaning singular "you") andvocês (plural "you") are used in informal situations, while in formal contextsosenhor,a senhora,os senhores andas senhoras (masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, and feminine plural "you", respectively) are preferred. However, there is considerable regional variation in the use of these terms, and more specificforms of address are sometimes employed.

Generally speaking,tu is the familiar form of address used with family, friends, and minors.Você indicates distance without deference, and tends to be used between people who are, roughly, social equals.O senhor /a senhora (literally "the sir / the madam") are the most ceremonious forms of address. English speakers may find the latter construction akin to the parliamentary convention of referring to fellow legislators in the third person (as "my colleague", "the gentleman", "the member", etc.), although the level of formality conveyed byo senhor is not as great. In fact, variants ofo senhor anda senhora with more nuanced meanings such as titles aso professor ("the professor"),o doutor ("the doctor"),o colega ("the colleague") ando pai ("the father") are also employed as personal pronouns. In the plural, there are two main levels of politeness, the informalvocês orvós and the formalos senhores /as senhoras.

This threefold scheme is, however, complicated by regional and social variation. For example, in many communities of Brazilian Portuguese speakers, the traditionaltu/você distinction has been lost, and the previously formalvocê tends to replace the familiartu in most cases (the distinction remains, however, in most parts of the country). On the other hand, inPortugal it is common to use a person's own name as a pronoun more or less equivalent tovocê, e.g.,o José,o senhor Silva, which is rare inBrazil (though it is found in parts of the Northeast region, for example). The explicit use of "você" may be discouraged in Portugal because it may sound too informal for many situations.InMozambique, however, the use of the imperative neutralizes the forms of the 2nd person singular (tu) and (você/senhor). Thus, forms of the imperative with features [+ informal] associated with the pronoun [- informal] (você/senhor) are observable. Also if find shapes with features [+ formal] associated with the pronoun [- formal] (tu)

When addressing older people or hierarchical superiors, modern BP speakers often replacevocê/tu andvocês with the expressionso(s) senhor(es) anda(s) senhora(s), which also require third-person verb forms and third-person reflexive/possessive pronouns (or, for the possessive, the expressionsde vocês,do senhor, etc.). The expressionso(s) senhor(es) anda(s) senhora(s) are also used in formal contexts in modern EP, in addition to a large number of similar pronominalized nouns that vary according to the person who is being addressed, e.g.a menina,o pai,a mãe,o engenheiro,o doutor, etc.

Historically,você derives fromvossa mercê ("your mercy" or "your grace") via the intermediate formsvossemecê andvosmecê.

A common colloquial alternative to the first-person-plural pronounnós "we" is the noun phrasea gente (literally meaning "the people"), which formally takes verbs and possessives of the third person singular (or the expression "da gente"). Although avoided in the most formalregisters, it is not considered incorrect, unless it is accompanied by verbs conjugated in the first person plural, as in"*A gente moramos na cidade", instead of thenormative"A gente mora na cidade" "We live in the city".^[1]

In nearly all Portuguese dialects and registers, the second-person plural subject pronounvós is usually replaced byvocês and in many cases it is no longer in use, as is the case with its corresponding verb forms. Currently,vós (with its verb forms) is frequently employed only in the following contexts:

• In some dialects of northern Portugal (i.e., in the colloquial spoken language).
• In some forms of address (e.g. Vossa Senhoria, Vossa Santidade...)
• In religious texts and services.
• In old texts.
• In formal registers being used as a singular second-person pronoun, forarchaism.
• Inhistorical fiction.

For this reason, many associate the pronoun with solemnity or formality, not knowing thatvós is used for plural in the same context astu is used for singular.

Instead, the wordvocês is used, or equivalent forms of address which take verbs and possessives of the third-person plural. In European Portuguese, however, objectvos as well asconvosco (butnot prepositionalvós) andvosso have survived, even in formal situations; see the "Forms of address" section, above, and also the notes on colloquial usage, at the bottom of the page.

As in other Romance languages, object pronouns areclitics, which must come next to a verb, and are pronounced together with it as a unit. They may appear before the verb (proclisis,lhe dizer), after the verb, linked to it with a hyphen (enclisis,dizer-lhe), or, more rarely, within the verb, between itsstem and itsdesinence (mesoclisis,dir-lhe-ei).

Enclisis and mesoclisis may entail somehistorically motivated changes of verb endings and/or pronouns, e.g.cantar +o (originally*lo, from Latinillum) =cantá-lo "to sing it". The direct and indirect object pronouns can be contracted, as indar +lhe +os =dar-lhos "to give them to him"; cf. Spanishdar +le +los =dárselos.

comprá-lo-ei =comprarei (Late Latincomparāre habeō, two words) +o "I will buy it".

dar-to-ia =daria (dare habēbam) +te +o "I would give it to you".

dar-lho-ia =daria +lhe +o "I would give it to him".

When a verb conjugated in the 1st person plural, ending in-s, is followed by the enclitic pronounnos orvos, thes is dropped:Vamo-nos [vamos +nos]embora amanhã ("We are leaving tomorrow"),Respeitemo-nos [respeitemos +nos]mutuamente ("Let's respect each other"),Vemo-vos [vemos +vos] ("We see you"), etc.

Third person direct object clitic pronouns have several forms, depending on their position with relation to the verb and on the verb's ending. If the pronoun is enclitic and the verb ends with a consonant, or if the pronoun is mesoclitic and the root of the verb ends with a consonant, then that consonant iselided, and anl is added to the beginning of the pronoun. If the pronoun is enclitic and the verb ends with a nasal diphthong (spelled-ão,-am,-em,-ém,-êm,-õe, or-õem), ann is added to the beginning of the pronoun. The same happens after other clitic pronouns, and after the adverbial particleeis.

The third person formso,a,os, andas may present the variantslo,la,los,las,no,na,nos, andnas:

• The variantslo,la,los, andlas are used after verbal forms ending with a consonant, which is elided. Examples:seduz +a =sedu-la,faz +o =fá-lo,diz +o =di-lo,destróis +os =destrói-los (different fromdestrói-os, in which the verb is conjugated in the imperative mood),comes +a =come-la (different fromcome-a =come +a),apanha-las (apanhas +as),amá-lo (amar +o),fazê-lo (fazer +o),partire-lo (partires +o),tem-la (tens +a—then changes tom). Exceptionally,quer +o givesquere-o, rather than *qué-lo (qué-lo is still permitted, but uncommon).
  • This also occurs when the pronoun is in mesoclitic position:matá-lo-ás (matarás +o),fá-lo-ias (farias +o),feri-lo-ias (feririas +o),comê-lo-ias (comerias +o).
• The variantsno,na,nos andnas are used after a verbal form ending with a nasal diphthong. Examples:põe-no (põe +o),tem-na (tem +a),comeram-nos (ambiguous, can meancomeram +os "they ate them", orcomeram +nos "they ate us").
• The pronounso, etc. present the same forms as above when they follow other clitic pronouns, such asnos andvos, or the adverbial particleeis. Examples:ei-lo aqui (eis +o),deram-no-lo (deram +nos +o), "Não vo-lo [vos + o]quero dar a entender."

The contraction forlhes +o islho, not *lhe-lo or *lhos. This occurs becauselhe used to be employed indistinctly for the singular and the plural and, while the agglutinated form suffered no alteration,lhe evolved intolhes for the plural number.^{[citation needed]}

These contracted forms are rarely encountered in modern Brazilian usage.

Apart from the pronouns that act as subjects of a sentence, and from the stressed object pronouns which are employed after prepositions, Portuguese has severalclitic object pronouns used with nonprepositional verbs, or as indirect objects. These can appear before the verb as separate words, as inela me ama ("she loves me"), or appended to the verb after the tense/person inflection, as inele amou-a ("he loved her") orele deu-lhe o livro ("he gave her/him the book"). Note that Portuguese spelling rules (like those of French) require a hyphen between the verb and the enclitic pronoun.

InWest Iberian-Romance, the position ofclitic object pronouns with respect to the verbs which govern them was flexible, but all Romance languages have since adopted a more strictsyntax. The usual pattern is for clitics to precede the verb; e.g. Sp.Yo te amo, Fr.Je t'aime "I love you"; Fr.Tu m'avais dit "You had told me" (proclisis). The opposite order occurs only with the imperative: Sp.Dime, Fr.Dis-moi "Tell me" (enclisis). SpokenBrazilian Portuguese has taken more or less the same route, except that clitics usually appear between the auxiliary verb and the main verb in compound tenses, and proclisis is even more generalized:Eu te amo "I love you", butMe diz "Tell me", andVocê tinha me dito "You had told me".

In European Portuguese, by contrast, enclisis is the default position for clitic pronouns in simple affirmative clauses:Eu amo-te "I love you",Diz-me "Tell me". In compound tenses, the clitic normally follows the auxiliary verb,Você tinha-me dito "You had told me" (like in Brazilian Portuguese, but conventionally spelled with a hyphen), though other positions are sometimes possible:Você vai dizer-me "You are going to tell me" (Spanish allows this syntax as well, for exampleVas a decirme),Você não me vai dizer "You are not going to tell me". Still, in formal Portuguese the clitic pronouns always follow the verb in the infinitive. The Brazilian proclisis is usuallycorrect in European Portuguese (often found in medieval literature), though nowadays uncommon and emphatic. Only sentences that begin with a clitic pronoun, such asTe amo orMe diz, are considered unacceptable in European Portuguese.

With verbs in the future indicative tense or the conditional tense, enclitic pronouns are not placed after the verb, but rather incorporated into it:eu canto-te uma balada "I sing you a ballad" becomeseu cantar-te-ei uma balada "I will sing you a ballad" in the future, andeu cantar-te-ia uma balada "I would sing you a ballad" in the conditional (mesoclisis).

This is because these verb forms were originally compounds of the infinitive andhaver:cantarei =cantar hei,cantarás =cantar hás. In spoken Brazilian Portuguese, where proclisis is nearly universal, mesoclisis never occurs. Although the mesoclisis is often cited as a distinctive feature of Portuguese, it is becoming rare in spoken European Portuguese, since there is a growing tendency to replace the future indicative and the conditional with other tenses.

Although enclisis (or mesoclisis) is the default position for clitic pronouns in European Portuguese, there are several instances in which proclisis will be used due to certain elements or words that "attract" the pronoun to appear before, rather than after, the verb. For example, a simple affirmative sentence or command will be enclitic (mesoclitic in the future or conditional). However, the following elements attract the pronoun and cause proclisis even in European Portuguese: (1) negative words, (2) interrogative words, (3) conjunctions/dependent clauses, (4) certain common adverbs such asainda,já,sempre, etc., and (5) indefinite pronouns such astodos. Since proclisis is already the normal default position for clitic pronouns inBrazilian Portuguese, this marking between enclisis and proclisis does not exist.

The personal pronouns labelled "object of preposition" above are always employed after apreposition, and most prepositionsgovern those pronouns, but a few of them require subject pronouns. For example, prepositions denoting exception, such asafora,fora,excepto,menos,salvo, andtirante. In those cases, the subject pronounseu,tu,ele,ela,eles andelas are used. Examples:Todos foram ao cinema excepto eu,Ele referiu toda a gente excepto ele mesmo (not *Ele referiu toda a gente excepto si), butEle referiu-se a toda a gente excepto a si,Falaste a todos menos a mim,Falaste com todos menos comigo (not *com eu).

The following 3rd person pronouns contract with the prepositionsde "of/from" andem "in/on/at".

The following prepositional pronouns contract with the prepositioncom "with" (circumstantial complement).

The formconnosco is used in European Portuguese, whileconosco is used in Brazilian Portuguese.

These contractions are derived from theLatin practice of suffixing the prepositioncum "with" to the end of theablative form of personal pronouns, as inmecum ortecum. InVulgar Latin, encliticcum (later shifted to-go) became fossilized and was reanalysed as part of the pronoun itself. Then, a secondcum began to be used before those words, and finallycum mecum,cum tecum, etc. contracted, producingcomigo,contigo, and so on.

Reflexive pronouns are used when one wants to express the action is exercised upon the same person that exercises it or refers to such person. Examples:

• EP:Eu vi-me ao espelho. BP:Eume vi no espelho.
• Nãote levas muito a sério.
• EP:De repente, vimo-nos perdidos na floresta. BP:De repente, nos vimos perdidos na floresta.

In the third person, the reflexive pronoun has a form of its own,se, orsi if preceded by a preposition. Examples:

• EP:Hoje ele levantou-se cedo. BP:Hoje elese levantou cedo.
• EP:Eles lavam-se sempre muito bem. BP:Elesse lavam sempre muito bem.
• O gato sabe cuidar bem desi.
• Os ladrões levaramconsigo tudo o que puderam. (see above for compounds withcom)

The reflexive pronoun forms, when used in the plural (me andte are therefore excluded), may indicate reciprocity. In those cases, they do not have reflexive character – for instance,as pessoas cumprimentaram-se does not mean that each person complimented him-/herself, rather they complimented each other. In some situations, this may create ambiguity; therefore, if one means "they love each other", one might want to sayeles amam-semutuamente oreles amam-seum ao outro (althougheles amam-se will probably be interpreted this way anyhow); if one means "each one of them loves him-/herself", one should sayeles amam-se a simesmos oueles amam-se a sipróprios.

Sometimes, especially in the spoken Portuguese,ele mesmo,ela mesma,com ele mesmo,com eles mesmos, etc. may be used instead ofsi andconsigo. Example: "Eles têm de ter confiançaneles[em+ eles]mesmos" orEles têm de ter confiança em si (mesmos).

The forms of the possessives depends on thegender andnumber of the possessed object or being.

Thepossessive pronouns are identical topossessive adjectives, except that they must be preceded by thedefinite article (o meu,a minha,os meus,as minhas, etc.) For the possessive adjectives, the article is optional, and its use varies with dialect and degree of formality.

Due to the use ofseu(s),sua(s) as 2nd-person possessive pronouns,dele(s) anddela(s) are normally used as 3rd-person possessive markers in lieu ofseu(s)/sua(s) to eliminate ambiguity, e.g.Onde está o seu carro ("Where is your car?") vs.Onde está o carro dele? ("Where is his car?").Seu/Sua used as 3rd-person possessive pronouns are still frequent, especially when referring to the subject of the clause or when the gender is unknown and ambiguity can be solved in context, e.g.O Candidato Geraldo Alckmin apresentou ontem a sua proposta para aumentar a geração de empregos no Brasil ("The candidate Geraldo Alckmin presented yesterday his proposal to increase job creation in Brazil").

In European Portuguese,si andconsigo can also be used to refer to the person to whom the message is directed in the formal treatment byo senhor, etc. or in the treatment byvocê. They are employed in the same circumstancesti andcontigo would be used in the treatment bytu. Actually, in those circumstancesvocê andcom você is uncommonly used and considered incorrect.

Examples:

• Se você não se importar, eu vouconsigo. "I'll gowith you, if you don't mind." (Se você não se importar, eu voucom você would sound strange in some regions and is generally considered a wrong construction.)
• Quando estava a passar pela Praça do Chile, lembrei-me desi. "When I was going through the Praça do Chile (the Chile park), it reminded me ofyou."

Thus, in moderncolloquial European Portuguese, the classical paradigm above is modified to (differences emphasized):

Se,si, andconsigo are used in standard written BP exclusively as reflexive pronouns, e.g.Os manifestantes trouxeram consigo paus e pedras para se defenderem da violência policial ("Protesters brought (wood) sticks and stones with them to protect themselves against police brutality"), orOs políticos discutiam entre si o que fazer diante da decisão do Supremo Tribunal ("Politicians discussed among themselves what to do in face of the Supreme Court decision"). In colloquial language, those reflexive forms may be replaced however by subject pronouns (e.g.Discutam entre vocês em que data preferem fazer o exame vs standardDiscutam entre si em que data preferem fazer o exame, Eng. "Discuss among yourselves when you prefer to take the exam"). Note also that in both standard and colloquial BP, it is consideredwrong to usese,si,consigo in non-reflexive contexts. Therefore, unlike in modern colloquial EP,para si for example cannot ordinarily replacepara você, nor canconsigo ordinarily replacecom você.

Formodern Brazilian Portuguese, one could propose the following chart (departures from the norm are in italics):

Although the 3rd person pronounvocê tended to replace the classical 2nd-person pronountu in several Brazilian dialects and, especially, in the media communication, the use oftu is still frequent in several Brazilian Portuguese dialects. Most of the dialects that retaintu also use accordinglyte (accusative pronoun),ti (dative postprepositional pronoun),contigo, and the possessiveteu, tua, teus, and tuas. The use oftu is dominant in the South (Rio Grande do Sul,Santa Catarina and parts ofParaná) and Northeast (with the exception of most ofBahia and some other areas, mostly in the coast), and it is also very frequent in the Northern region andRio de Janeiro.

However, even in some of the regions wherevocê is the prevailing pronoun, the object pronounte andti and the possessive pronounteu/tua are quite common, although not in most ofSão Paulo, Brazil's most populous state. In fact, in thecity of São Paulo the pronountu is almost nonexistent.

That distinction, object and possessive pronouns pattern likewise, is still maintained in the South and in the area around the city of Santos (inState of São Paulo) and in the Northeast. In Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, for instance,você is rarely used in spoken language—in most occasions,o senhor/a senhora is employed whenevertu may sound too informal.

In most of the Northeast,você is frequently used only in semi-formal and formal conversations, mostly with people whom one does not know well or when a more polite or serious style is required. As forRio de Janeiro and the North of Brazil, bothtu andvocê (and associated object and possessive pronouns) are used with no clear distinction in their use.

However, when one talks to older people or people of higher status (a boss, for example), most Brazilians prefer to useo senhor anda senhora.

In standard Portuguese (both in Brazil and in Portugal),você andvocês are always accompanied by 3rd-person verb forms (e.g.você é,vocês são), whereastu requires 2nd-person verb forms (e.g.tu és). However, intuteante BP dialects likegaúcho,tu is almost always accompanied by 3rd-person verb forms, e.g.tu é,tu bebeu vs. standardtu és,tu bebeste. That particular usage is considered ungrammatical by most Brazilian speakers whose dialects do not includetu (e.g.paulistanos).

Thevocê (subj.) /te (obj.) combination, e.g.Você sabe que eu te amo, is a well-known peculiarity of modern General Brazilian Portuguese and is similar in nature to thevocês (subj.) /vos (obj.) /vosso (poss.) combination found in modern colloquialEuropean Portuguese. Both combinations would be condemned, though, by prescriptive school grammars based on the classical language.

When Brazilians usetu, it is mostly accompanied by the 3rd-person verb conjugation:Tu vai ao banco? — "Will you go to the bank?" (Tu vai is wrong according to the standard grammar, yet is still used by many Brazilians). The pronountu accompanied by the second-person verb can still be found inMaranhão,Piauí,Pernambuco (mostly in more formal speech) andSanta Catarina, for instance, and in a few cities inRio Grande do Sul near the border withUruguay, with a slightly different pronunciation in some conjugations (tu vieste — "you came" — is pronounced as if it weretu viesse), which also is present in Santa Catarina and Pernambuco (especially inRecife, where it is by far the predominant way to pronounce the past tense particle-ste).

The table for 2nd person singular conjugation in Brazilian Portuguese is presented below:^[4][5][6]

In Brazil, the weak clitic pronouns-o(s) and-a(s) are usedalmost exclusively in writing or in formal speech (e.g. TV newscasts). In colloquial speech,ele(s) andela(s) replace the clitics as direct objects (e.g.Vi eles na praia ontem versusVi-os na praia ontem; in English, "I saw them on the beach yesterday"). The standard written variants-lo(s) and-la(s) (used after an infinitive ending inr) are more frequent though in the speech of polite speakers, but seem to be losing ground as well. Note, however, thatele(s) orela(s) arenever used as direct objects in formal writing, such as newspaper articles, academic papers, or legal documents. The use of-lo,-la, etc. replacing "você" as direct object is restricted mostly to the written language (in particular, movie subtitles) although it occurs frequently in a few fixed expressions likePrazer em conhecê-lo ("Pleased to meet you") orPosso ajudá-lo? ("May I help you?").

The use oflhe andlhes as indirect object forms ofvocê andvocês ("[to] you", plural and singular) is currently rare in General BP, wherelhe is often replaced as noted above byte or, alternatively, bypara você. On the other hand,lheísmo, i.e. the use oflhe not only as an indirect object (e.g.Eu lhe dou meu endereço, "I will give you my address"), but also as adirect object (e.g.Eu lhe vi na praia ontem, Eng. "I saw you at the beach yesterday") is frequent in Northeastern Brazilian dialects, especially inBahia.

In standard written BP, it is common to uselhe(s) as indirect object forms ofele(s)/ela(s) ("[to] him / her / it / them"), e.g.O presidente pediu que lhe dessem notícias da crise na Bolívia. In the colloquial language, 'lhe' in that context is frequently replaced bypara ele, etc., although educated speakers might uselhe in speech as well.

In nonstandard BP, especially in regional dialects likecaipira, object pronouns may be avoided altogether, even in the first person. For example:Ele levou nós no baile (standard BPEle nos levou ao baile) orEla viu eu na escola (standard BPEla me viu na escola). These examples, although common in rural areas and in working-class speech, would sound ungrammatical to most urban middle-class BP speakers in formal situations.

• Portuguese verb conjugation
• Portuguese language
• Portuguese grammar
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Gender neutrality in Portuguese

• Portuguese pronouns at Orbis Latinus
• Portuguese adjectives at Orbis Latinus
• "What is the word for 'you' in Portuguese?", by Danilo Nogueira

• Portuguese pronouns

• Portuguese grammar
• Pronouns by language

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