Basic forms The personal pronouns of Portuguese have three basic forms:
subject,
object (object of a verb), and
prepositional (object of a preposition). :1
direct object (masculine and feminine) :2
indirect object :3
reflexive or
reciprocal, direct or indirect object
Subject pronouns Forms of address 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") and
vocês (plural "you") are used in informal situations, while in formal contexts
o senhor,
a senhora,
os senhores and
as 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 specific
forms 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 by
o senhor is not as great. In fact, variants of
o senhor and
a senhora with more nuanced meanings such as titles as
o professor ("the professor"),
o doutor ("the doctor"),
o colega ("the colleague") and
o pai ("the father") are also employed as personal pronouns. In the plural, there are two main levels of politeness, the informal
vocês or
vós and the formal
os senhores /
as senhoras. This threefold scheme is, however, complicated by regional and social variation. For example, in many communities of Brazilian Portuguese speakers, the traditional
tu/
você distinction has been lost, and the previously formal
você tends to replace the familiar
tu in most cases (the distinction remains, however, in most parts of the country). On the other hand, in
Portugal it is common to use a person's own name as a pronoun more or less equivalent to
você, e.g.,
o José,
o senhor Silva, which is rare in
Brazil (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. In
Mozambique, 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 replace
você/
tu and
vocês with the expressions
o(s) senhor(es) and
a(s) senhora(s), which also require third-person verb forms and third-person reflexive/possessive pronouns (or, for the possessive, the expressions
de vocês,
do senhor, etc.). The expressions
o(s) senhor(es) and
a(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 from
vossa mercê ("your mercy" or "your grace") via the intermediate forms
vossemecê and
vosmecê.
Nós vs. a gente A common colloquial alternative to the first-person-plural pronoun
nós "we" is the noun phrase
a 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 formal
registers, 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 the
normative "A gente mora na cidade" "We live in the city".{{citation|last=Lopes
Vós In nearly all Portuguese dialects and registers, the second-person plural subject pronoun
vós is usually replaced by
vocês 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, for
archaism. • In
historical fiction. For this reason, many associate the pronoun with solemnity or formality, not knowing that
vós is used for plural in the same context as
tu is used for singular. Instead, the word
vocês is used, or equivalent forms of address which take verbs and possessives of the third-person plural. In European Portuguese, however, object
vos as well as
convosco (but
not prepositional
vós) and
vosso 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.
Object pronouns Proclisis, enclisis, and mesoclisis As in other Romance languages, object pronouns are
clitics, 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 its
stem and its
desinence (mesoclisis,
dir-lhe-ei). Enclisis and mesoclisis may entail some
historically motivated changes of verb endings and/or pronouns, e.g.
cantar +
o (originally
*lo, from Latin
illum) =
cantá-lo "to sing it". The direct and indirect object pronouns can be contracted, as in
dar +
lhe +
os =
dar-lhos "to give them to him"; cf. Spanish
dar +
le +
los =
dárselos. :
comprá-lo-ei =
comprarei (Late Latin
comparāre 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 pronoun
nos or
vos, the
s 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.
Allomorphs 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 is
elided, and an
l 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), an
n is added to the beginning of the pronoun. The same happens after other clitic pronouns, and after the adverbial particle
eis. The third person forms
o,
a,
os, and
as may present the variants
lo,
la,
los,
las,
no,
na,
nos, and
nas: • The variants
lo,
la,
los, and
las 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 from
destrói-os, in which the verb is conjugated in the imperative mood),
comes +
a =
come-la (different from
come-a =
come +
a),
apanha-las (
apanhas +
as),
amá-lo (
amar +
o),
fazê-lo (
fazer +
o),
partire-lo (
partires +
o),
tem-la (
tens +
a—the
n changes to
m). Exceptionally,
quer +
o gives
quere-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 variants
no,
na,
nos and
nas are used after a verbal form ending with a nasal diphthong. Examples:
põe-no (
põe +
o),
tem-na (
tem +
a),
comeram-nos (ambiguous, can mean
comeram +
os "they ate them", or
comeram +
nos "they ate us"). • The pronouns
o, etc. present the same forms as above when they follow other clitic pronouns, such as
nos and
vos, or the adverbial particle
eis. Examples:
ei-lo aqui (
eis +
o),
deram-no-lo (
deram +
nos +
o), "
Não vo-lo [
vos + o]
quero dar a entender."
Contractions between clitic pronouns The contraction for
lhes +
o is
lho, not *
lhe-lo or *
lhos. This occurs because
lhe used to be employed indistinctly for the singular and the plural and, while the agglutinated form suffered no alteration,
lhe evolved into
lhes for the plural number. These contracted forms are rarely encountered in modern Brazilian usage.
Syntax Apart from the pronouns that act as subjects of a sentence, and from the stressed object pronouns which are employed after prepositions, Portuguese has several
clitic object pronouns used with nonprepositional verbs, or as indirect objects. These can appear before the verb as separate words, as in
ela me ama ("she loves me"), or appended to the verb after the tense/person inflection, as in
ele amou-a ("he loved her") or
ele 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. In
West Iberian-Romance, the position of
clitic object pronouns with respect to the verbs which govern them was flexible, but all Romance languages have since adopted a more strict
syntax. 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). Spoken Brazilian 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", but Me diz
"Tell me", and Você 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 example
Vas 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 usually
correct in European Portuguese (often found in medieval literature), though nowadays uncommon and emphatic. Only sentences that begin with a clitic pronoun, such as
Te amo or
Me 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" becomes
eu cantar-te-ei uma balada "I will sing you a ballad" in the future, and
eu 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 and
haver:
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 is the default position for clitic pronouns in European Portuguese in simple affirmative sentences, 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 as
ainda,
já,
sempre, etc., and (5) indefinite pronouns such as
todos. Since proclisis is already the normal default position for clitic pronouns in
Brazilian Portuguese, this marking between enclisis and proclisis does not exist.
Prepositional pronouns Governance The personal pronouns labelled "object of preposition" above are always employed after a
preposition, and most prepositions
govern those pronouns, but a few of them require subject pronouns. For example, prepositions denoting exception, such as
afora,
fora,
excepto,
menos,
salvo, and
tirante. In those cases, the subject pronouns
eu,
tu,
ele,
ela,
eles and
elas 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), but
Ele referiu-se a toda a gente excepto a si,
Falaste a todos menos a mim,
Falaste com todos menos comigo (not *
com eu).
Contractions with the prepositions de and em The following 3rd person pronouns contract with the prepositions
de "of/from" and
em "in/on/at".
Contractions with the preposition com The following prepositional pronouns contract with the preposition
com "with" (circumstantial complement). The form
connosco is used in European Portuguese, while
conosco is used in Brazilian Portuguese. These contractions are derived from the
Latin practice of suffixing the preposition
cum "with" to the end of the
ablative form of personal pronouns, as in
mecum or
tecum. In
Vulgar Latin, enclitic
cum (later shifted to
-go) became fossilized and was reanalysed as part of the pronoun itself. Then, a second
cum began to be used before those words, and finally
cum mecum,
cum tecum, etc. contracted, producing
comigo,
contigo, and so on.
Reflexive pronouns 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:
Eu me vi no espelho. •
Não te 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, or
si if preceded by a preposition. Examples: • EP:
Hoje ele levantou-se cedo. BP:
Hoje ele se levantou cedo. • EP:
Eles lavam-se sempre muito bem. BP:
Eles se lavam sempre muito bem. •
O gato sabe cuidar bem de si. •
Os ladrões levaram consigo tudo o que puderam. (see above for compounds with
com) The reflexive pronoun forms, when used in the plural (
me and
te 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 say
eles amam-se mutuamente or
eles amam-se um ao outro (although
eles amam-se will probably be interpreted this way anyhow); if one means "each one of them loves him-/herself", one should say
eles amam-se a si mesmos ou
eles amam-se a si próprios. Sometimes, especially in the spoken Portuguese,
ele mesmo,
ela mesma,
com ele mesmo,
com eles mesmos, etc. may be used instead of
si and
consigo. Example: "Eles têm de ter confiança
neles [em
+ eles
] mesmos" or
Eles têm de ter confiança em si (mesmos). ==Possessive pronouns and adjectives==