- Maria é do Brasil. Maria é de São Paulo.
- Maria está no Brasil. Ela está em São Paulo.
Confused with the use of prepositions in Portuguese? Don’t be! This lesson is all about demystifying the use of Portuguese prepositions with countries, cities, and states. I hope this lesson will answer many questions and make things much easier for you.
You might think this is a complex topic, but I assure you, it’s more straightforward than you initially might believe. There are some rules to guide you, along with a few exceptions that prove the rule, of course. With practice, you will have it all in autopilot.
We’ve split this lesson into two digestible parts for easier learning:
Part 1: Understanding Articles – Here, I’ll show you the basic rules regarding the use of articles in Portuguese, setting a strong foundation for the rest of the lesson. To learn a lot more about articles, including differences in use between English and Portuguese, visit my lesson about articles in Portuguese.
Part 2: Mastering Prepositions – Next, we’ll explore how to choose the correct preposition in various contexts, bringing clarity to your Portuguese conversations.
Part 1: Using Articles with Countries, Cities, and States
Let’s start by understanding when to use a definite article with a country, city, or state. Our focus will be on the crucial role of definite articles:
- in Portuguese: a, o, as, os
- in English = the
Rule # 1: Cities
Do not use an article in front of city names.
- São Paulo é fascinante. = São Paulo is fascinating.
- Florianópolis fica no sul do Brasil. = Florianópolis is in the south of Brazil.
- Porto Alegre tem muita vida cultural. = Porto Alegre has a lot of cultural life.
- Nova York nunca dorme. = New York never sleeps.
- São Francisco é um lugar incrível. = San Francisco is an incredible place.
There are exceptions:
- O Rio de Janeiro é uma cidade maravilhosa. = Rio de Janeiro is a wonderful city.
Rio de Janeiro translates to River of January in English. Just as we refer to “the Amazon River”, we similarly say “the River of January”, or “o Rio de Janeiro” in Portuguese.
This usage is a common linguistic practice: when a city’s name is derived from a geographical feature, it typically includes a definite article.
Rule # 2: Countries
In Portuguese, you need to use a definite article (a, o, as, os) in front of country names, depending on their grammatical gender and number.
- a França
- o Brasil
- os Estados Unidos
Therefore you say:
- A França tem muitas cidades bonitas. = France has many beautiful cities.
- O Brasil é um país muito grande. = Brazil is a very big country.
- Os Estados Unidos atraem muitos turistas. = The United States attract many tourists.
There are exceptions. We do not use an article with Portugal, for example.
- Portugal fica na Europa. = Portugal is in Europe.
One of the key challenges in Portuguese is determining whether a country name requires a masculine or feminine article. Generally, a country name ending in ‘a’ is paired with a feminine article:
- a Argentina
- a Bolívia
- a Suécia
If the name of the country ends in a letter other than “a”, it will likely take the masculine article:
- o Uruguai
- o Peru
- o México
One big exception is: o Canadá.
Resist the temptation to translate to your native language. It doesn’t make sense in English to say “The Brazil is a very big country”. In Portuguese, however, you always need the article.
Rule # 3: Continents
Use the article with continents.
- a América do Sul/Norte/Central
- a África
- a Europa
- a Ásia
- a Austrália /A Oceania
- a Antártida
Regra # 4: States
The article is used with most Brazilian states, and most of the states are masculine:
- o Acre
- o Amapá
- o Amazonas
- o Ceará
- o Espírito Santo
- o Maranhão
- o Mato Grosso
- o Mato Grosso do Sul
- o Pará
- o Paraná
- o Piauí
- o Rio de Janeiro
- o Rio Grande do Norte
- o Rio Grande do Sul
- o Tocantins
There are two Brazilian states that take the feminine article:
- a Bahia
- a Paraíba
Nine Brazilian states do not take any article:
- Alagoas
- Goiás
- Minas Gerais
- Pernambuco
- Rondônia
- Roraima
- Santa Catarina
- São Paulo
- Sergipe
Part 2: Choosing the correct preposition
Armed with knowledge about when to use articles, grasping the correct prepositions becomes much simpler. We’ll focus on two key prepositions:
- De = from
- Em = in, on, at (I have a specific lesson if you wish to go deeper into this.)
Here is how it works:
1. For places that don’t require the article, we use de (from) and em (in):
- São Paulo
- Maria é de São Paulo. = Maria is from São Paulo.
- Maria está em São Paulo. = Maria is in São Paulo.
2. For places that take the feminine article, we use da (de + a) or na (em + a):
- a Bahia
- Ana é da Bahia. = Ana is from Bahia.
- Ana está na Bahia. = Ana is in Bahia.
3. For places that take the masculine article, we use do (de + o) or no (em + o):
- o Brasil
- Eu sou do Brasil. = I am from Brazil.
- Eu estou no Brasil. = I am in Brazil.
Sometimes you need the plural forms: dos, das, nos, nas. Example:
- os Estados Unidos
- Josh é dos Estados Unidos. = John is from the United States.
- Josh está nos Estados Unidos. = John is in the United States.
This same logic applies when employing the prepositions ‘de’ and ’em’ with various verbs and in different contexts. Take these examples for illustration:
- Eu gosto do Brasil. = I like Brazil. (Visit my lesson about the verb Gostar)
- Eu nasci no Brasil. = I was born in Brazil.
- Helena vai morar no Brasil. = Helena is going to live in Brazil.
- Ele veio do trabalho. = He came from work.
- Cris gosta de ler no quarto. = Cris likes to read in the bedroom.
- As chaves estão na mesa. = The keys are on the table.
A personal message: If you find yourself still making mistakes with these prepositions, don’t be too hard on yourself. In the heat of a conversation, your brain is working at lightning speed, juggling numerous linguistic elements. It’s completely normal to feel a bit bewildered, even when you’re familiar with the rules. Remember, language learning is a journey filled with gradual improvements, and every conversation is a step forward in your mastery of Portuguese.
I hope that helps!
Quick Quizz: Test Your Knowledge
Put your newly acquired skills to the test with this quick quiz. Select the appropriate preposition to complete each sentence. Don’t worry – the answers are provided below for you to check your progress. Let’s see how much you’ve learned!”.
- Fernanda é ______ Nova Iorque. João é ______ São Francisco.
- Luciano é ______ Rio de Janeiro.
- Fabiana está ______ Rio de Janeiro. Helena está ______ Curitiba.
- Cristina é ______ Alemanha. A Alemanha é ______ Europa.
- Antônio é ______ Portugal, mas ele mora ______ Brasil.
Street Smart Brazil offers one-on-one and group Portuguese lessons via webcam. Our tutors are native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese and we offer exclusive class materials and complete programs from absolute beginner to fluent. See what our customers are saying.
Quiz answers:
- de, de
- do
- no, em
- da, na
- de, no
