The kitty in the picture is my precious baby doll Amahle. Because she is a girl, when I say “my cat”, I say minha gata. If my kitty was a boy, I’d say meu gato. If I had two cats and one was a boy, I’d say meus gatos.
Yes, in Portuguese, the possessive pronouns vary in gender (masculine and feminine) and number (singular and plural). As you can see from the examples above, it doesn’t depend on who owns, but on the gender and number of what is owned. That is the case for most of the possessive pronouns, but not all.
Let me show you how to use possessive pronouns correctly in Portuguese.
You will find practice exercises at the end of the lesson.
Meu, Seu, Teu, Nosso
There are two rules to use these pronouns correctly:
- These pronouns agree in gender and number with the item that is owned.
- These pronouns are placed before the object that is owned.
Let me show you these pronouns one by one.
Meu = My
Personal pronoun: eu
| Masculine, singular | Feminine, singular | Masculine, plural | Feminine, plural |
|
meu |
minha | meus |
minhas |
Examples:
- Minha casa é bonita. = My house is beautiful.
- Meu casaco é vermelho. = My coat is red.
- Adoro meus amigos. = I love my
Teu = Your
Personal pronoun: tu
| Masculine, singular | Feminine, singular | Masculine, plural | Feminine, plural |
|
teu |
tua | teus |
tuas |
Examples:
- Teu pai é engraçado. = Your father is funny.
- Tuas irmãs moram em Recife? = Do your sisters live in Recife?
Seu = Your/His, Her, Their
Personal pronoun: você, vocês / ele, ela, eles, elas
Yes, this seems confusing, right? The context will tell you what the pronoun means.
| Masculine, singular | Feminine, singular | Masculine, plural | Feminine, plural |
| seu | sua | seus | suas |
Examples:
- Sua namorada é gente boa. = Your girlfriend is cool.
- Quantos anos os seus irmãos têm? = How old are your brothers?
- Adoro Caetano Veloso. Suas músicas são lindas. = I love Caetano Veloso. His songs are very beautiful.
- Você conhece a escritora Clarice Lispector? Seus livros são fantásticos. = Do you know the writer Clarice Lispector? Her books are fantastic.
- Você já ouviu a banda Capital Inicial? Suas músicas fizeram muito sucesso nos anos 80. = Have you heard the band Capital Inicial? Their songs were very popular in the 1980’s.
Nosso = Our
Personal pronoun: nós
| Masculine, singular | Feminine, singular | Masculine, plural | Feminine, plural |
|
nosso |
nossa | nossos |
nossas |
Examples:
- Nosso cachorro e nossa gata são muito doces. = Our dog and our cat are very sweet.
- Nossos amigos gostam de futebol. = Our friends like soccer.
Dele, Dela, Deles, Delas = His, her, their
As you’ve seen, we use the same possessive pronouns for você and for ele, ela. That means that we use the same possessive pronouns to say your and to say his, her, their.
That seu can be confusing, right? We make things clear when we use Dele or Dela.
The rules for Dele and Dela (and the plural versions) are different:
- These pronouns agree in gender and number with the person who “owns” the items
- These pronouns are always placed after the object that is owned
Here are examples:
1. A casa de Maria é bonita. A casa dela é bonita. (dela = de + ela)
= Maria’s house is beautiful. Her house is beautiful.
2. A casa de Paulo é bonita. A casa dele é bonita. (dele = de + ele)
= Paulo’s house is beautiful. His house is beautiful.
3. A casa de Melissa e Ana é bonita. A casa delas é bonita. (delas = de + elas)
Melissa’s and Ana’s house is beautiful. Their house is beautiful.
4. A casa de Ana e José é bonita. A casa deles é bonita. (deles = de + eles)
= Ana’s and José’s house is beautiful. Their house is beautiful.
Therefore, the examples given before could be rephrased like this:
1. Adoro Caetano Veloso. As músicas dele são lindas.
= I love Caetano Veloso. His songs are very beautiful.
2. Você conhece a escritora Clarice Lispector? Os livros dela são fantásticos.
= Do you know the writer Clarice Lispector? Her books are fantastic.
3. Você já ouviu a banda Capital Inicial? As músicas deles fizeram muito sucesso nos anos 80.
= Have you heard the band Capital Inicial? Their songs were very popular in the 1980’s.
Meu pai or O meu pai?
I hear this question a lot and I even see Brazilians correcting Portuguese speakers and telling them to use the article.
The use of the definite article is optional before the possessive pronoun. That is what our grammar says.
The use of the article is pretty much a regional habit in Brazil. In Northeastern Brazil, we don’t use it. In Southeastern and Southern Brazil, they use it. So, we’d have:
- Meu pai é engraçado. = My dad is funny. (In Recife)
- O meu pai é engraçado. = My dad is funny. (In São Paulo)
Both forms are perfectly correct.
Now, here’s something very interesting. If both forms are correct, I then have:
- Gosto de seu pai. = I like your dad. (In Recife)
- Gosto do seu pai. = I like your dad. (In São Paulo)
The use of the article has an impact on the use of the preposition DE or DO (which is the contraction of DE + O).
Both forms are perfectly correct. So if anyone tries to tell you that there is a right way regarding the use of the article in front of the possessive pronouns, teach them some good Portuguese, OK? 😉
Practice Exercise
Practice is the key to speaking a language with ease and with confidence. Speak Portuguese that you are proud of: Book one-on-one lessons via Skype with a Street Smart Brazil professional instructor.
Fill in the blanks with the correct possessive pronoun. The answers are below.
A)
Oi, (1) ___________ nome é Antonieta. Eu sou de Recife. (2) ______________ família não é muito grande. (3) ___________ marido se chama Bernardo. (4) ______________ filha se chama Melissa. Ela é casada e tem uma filha. (5) ____________ neta, Luana, tem sete anos. O marido de Melissa é americano. Ele é um homem muito bom. O nome (6) ______________ é Rob.
B)
Sueli: E aí, como vai o (7) _____________ namoro?
Ana: Ah, o (8) ___________ namoro vai bem. O Joaquim é tudo de bom.
Sueli: Você gosta dos amigos (9) ______________?
Ana: Gosto, sim. Os amigos do Joaquim são todos legais.
Sueli: E como é a família (10) _______________?
Ana: A mãe (11) ____________ é muito simpática. O nome (12) _____________ é Solange. O pai (13) _____________ é mais sério, mas também é gente boa. A casa (14) _______________ é linda.
Answer Key
A)
Oi, (1) meu nome é Antonieta. Eu sou de Recife. (2) Minha família não é muito grande. (3) Meu marido se chama Bernardo. (4) Minha filha se chama Melissa. Ela é casada e tem uma filha. (5) Minha neta, Luana, tem sete anos. O marido de Melissa é americano. O nome (6) dele é Rob.
B)
Sueli: E aí, como vai o (7) seu namoro?
Ana: Ah, o (8) meu namoro vai bem. O Joaquim é tudo de bom.
Sueli: Você gosta dos amigos (9) dele?
Ana: Gosto, sim. Os amigos do Joaquim são todos legais.
Sueli: E como é a família (10) dele?
Ana: A mãe (11) dele é muito simpática. O nome (12) dela é Solange. O pai (13) dele é mais sério, mas também é gente boa. A casa (14) deles é linda.
This post was originally posted in March 2009 and has been improved and updated.
Hi I’m Andy I’ve just started learning portuguese… I wanna know if you guys have a portuguese WhatsApp group.
if the answers is yes, here is my phone number +243999102434
Oi, Andy, seja bem-vindo ao nosso blog! Street Smart Brazil does not have a WhatsApp group.
Hi Luciana. Thanks for all the informative blog posts. From this one I understood that to say “my money” I can use “o meu dinheiro” or simply “meu dinheiro”.
This led me to believe that both “todo o meu dinheiro” and “todo meu dinheiro” can mean “all my money”, but I was told by a friend that only “todo o meu dinheiro” is correct.
Is this just a hypercorrection based on the difference between “todo o dia” (all day) vs “todo dia” (every day) or is the article really essential in this case?
Oi! This is a great question. My blog post shows the basic uses of the possessive pronouns, but it does not cover all the possible uses. There are situations in which the article is necessary.
With the word “todo” (or toda, todos, todas) we usually use the article, although you will find plenty of examples without the article. If you Google “toda minha vida” or “toda minha paciência”, for example, you will see these expressions used even in songs.
With that said, I recommend using the article in expressions with Todo.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. As an English speaker, learning what the presence or absence of the article in cases like these sounds like to a native speaker is very difficult – the literal “all the my money” seems like nonsense. 🙂
As you said I would, I had already found examples of plain “todo meu dinheiro” and that’s one reason that it came as a surprise when my friend condemned it so forcefully.
Interestingly, even to my untuned ear, I feel “todo o dinheiro meu” sounds “better” than “todo dinheiro meu” but I can’t really put my finger on exactly why. Maybe one day all will become clear and I’ll have mastered the mysterious Portuguese definite article and will know when to use it and when it’s better to lose it.
Thanks again.
What you just said, that something sounds right even though you don’t really know why, is sooooooo awesome! There are many parts of the language that will feel right because you have caught on a pattern even if you are not aware of it. Your ears got used to something, and this is going to help with many parts of the grammar. For example, distinguishing between pretérito perfeito and pretérito imperfeito when using the verbs Ser and Estar comes to my mind. It will happen many other times, and there are some things that I feel are only mastered when one gets that feeling.
Thank you for your comment. It is really motivating for someone at my stage of learning Portuguese.
Good day,
Am I right that the way the adjective pronouns conform to nouns in Portuguese is right in opposite in English? In fact “his” and “her” always refer to the owner of the thing and not the thing itself which is owned, while in Portuguese it always goes with the thing and not the owner.
Thansk a lot mam
Your explanation is the medicine of my confusion 🍣🤗
Wonderful 🙂
Eu costumava verificar continuamente isso e, finalmente, ganhei aqui. Eu constantemente leio seu blog e obtendo muita informação disso e me sinto feliz por estar aqui.
Muito obrigada!
Hi Luciana, if you allow me, I’d like to leave here a invite to all people who are learning portuguese to visit my channel on youtube. I use dedicate sometime posting brazilian songs with portuguese lyrics there because I think It’s very productive to all people learn a new language through music, sorry for my english, I’m brazilian, follow below the link, thank you, Obrigado!
Take a look in my channel on youtube I have good brazilian songs with portuguese lyrics there! I think is a very good way to learn a new language, I’m brazilian and I created this channel to help all people with portuguese.
brazilian songs with portuguese lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-ZB7Xq452X-HZ_Tgd74rQg
I know you are using the Portuguese terminology, but in English it’s better to call them possessive adjectives anyway, because things might get confusing otherwise.
For instance, you mostly talked about adjectival possessive pronouns (which in English are called “possessive adjectives”), in which the articles are optional. But when it comes to substantival possessive pronouns (which in English are referred to as “possessive pronouns”), the articles cannot be left out.
i.e.: Este é meu livro, aquele é o seu. Minha família vai bem, e a sua?
Other than that, your post was great. Keep up the good work 🙂
Obrigada, Aleks.
muito obrigado…. can you take one class about irregular verbs. who can we identity irregular verbs in Portuguese. any logic?
Eu gosto muito disso. Bom trabalho!
Muito obrigada!
Loving this! Keep up the good work. Muito obrigada
Gosto muito de tudo! Obrigada.
Muito obrigada 🙂
Thank you so much for this and the other lessons you have prepared! I have learned so much here!
Alan Weber
Manteca, CA
Obrigada, Alan 🙂