Prepositions: Overview | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

Prepositions are the small connecting words — de, em, a, para, por, com — that glue the rest of the sentence together: they say where something is, where it's going, who it belongs to, and why it happened. In Brazilian Portuguese these words are unremarkable on their own, but they do something English prepositions never do: they fuse with the word that follows. Learning which preposition to use is only half the job; the other half is learning that de + a can never stay apart — it becomes da, always, with no exceptions in standard speech or writing. This page maps the whole system so the individual pages make sense.

The core set

Here are the prepositions you will meet first and use constantly. Each gets its own dedicated page, but it helps to see them together.

Preposition	Core meaning	Rough English
de	possession, origin, material, content	of, from, 's
em	location, time	in, on, at
a	direction, indirect object, clock time	to, at
para	purpose, destination, recipient	for, to
por	cause, path, exchange, agent	for, by, through
com	accompaniment, instrument	with
sem	absence	without
sobre	topic, position above	about, on/over
entre	between, among	between, among
até	limit, "up to / until"	until, up to, even

Eu moro com a minha irmã num apartamento pequeno.

I live with my sister in a small apartment.

A gente conversou sobre política até de madrugada.

We talked about politics until the early hours.

The first thing to master: obligatory contractions

This is the single most important fact about Brazilian prepositions, and it is the one English speakers forget the most. When de, em, a, or por are followed by a definite article (o, a, os, as), the two words merge into one — and you have no choice in the matter. De a casa is not "slightly informal" or "a bit clumsy"; it is simply wrong. It must be da casa.

	o	a	os	as
de	do	da	dos	das
em	no	na	nos	nas
a	ao	à	aos	às
por	pelo	pela	pelos	pelas

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Read this table out loud until it's automatic. Ninety percent of preposition mistakes by English speakers are failures to contract — saying or writing de o, em a, a o instead of do, na, ao.

O carro do meu pai está na garagem.

My dad's car is in the garage. (de + o = do, em + a = na)

Vou ao mercado e depois passo pela farmácia.

I'm going to the market and then I'll stop by the pharmacy. (a + o = ao, por + a = pela)

Note the third row carefully: a + a becomes à with a grave accent. This accent is called crase, and it sounds exactly like a plain a — there is no audible cue. It exists only in writing, which is why even Brazilians argue about it. The preposition a gets its own page where crase is explained in full.

Ela chega às oito e vai direto à reunião.

She arrives at eight and goes straight to the meeting. (a + as = às, a + a = à)

Contractions with demonstratives and pronouns

The fusing doesn't stop at articles. De and em also contract with demonstratives (este, esse, aquele) and with the third-person pronouns (ele, ela).

Preposition +	ele/ela	isso	aquele/aquela	aqui
de	dele / dela	disso	daquele / daquela	daqui
em	nele / nela	nisso	naquele / naquela	—
a	—	—	àquele / àquela	—

This is how Brazilian Portuguese expresses third-person possession. There is no separate word for "his" or "her"; you say o carro dele (literally "the car of-him") and a casa dela ("the house of-her").

Esse celular é dela, não é meu.

That cell phone is hers, not mine. (de + ela = dela)

Eu não sabia disso; ninguém me contou.

I didn't know about that; nobody told me. (de + isso = disso)

Pendurei o quadro naquela parede.

I hung the picture on that wall. (em + aquela = naquela)

Preposition + personal pronoun: comigo, contigo

The preposition com ("with") fuses with the object pronouns in a way that looks irregular but is fully fixed:

com +	form	meaning
mim	comigo	with me
ti	contigo	with you (informal/regional)
nós	conosco	with us

After most other prepositions, the pronouns eu and tu switch to the special object forms mim and ti: para mim, de ti, sem mim. This is covered in detail on the pronouns page.

Vem comigo, vai ser divertido!

Come with me, it's going to be fun!

Esse presente é para mim ou para você?

Is this gift for me or for you?

Why prepositions almost never map one-to-one to English

The hardest thing about prepositions in any language is that they are arbitrary at the edges. A preposition has a core logic, but the specific verb-plus-preposition or noun-plus-preposition combinations are often just conventions you have to absorb. Consider how three different English prepositions all collapse into Portuguese em:

O livro está na mesa.

The book is on the table.

Eu moro no Brasil.

I live in Brazil.

A festa é na segunda.

The party is on Monday.

English uses on, in, and on there; Portuguese uses na/no for all three. Going the other direction, English for splits into Portuguese para (purpose, recipient) and por (cause, exchange) — a distinction that trips up learners for years. The lesson is the same one Spanish learners get with por/para: don't translate the English preposition, learn the Portuguese pattern.

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When you learn a new verb, learn its preposition with it as a single chunk: gostar de, precisar de, pensar em, assistir a. Storing them together saves you from guessing later.

Common Mistakes

The errors below are the transfer mistakes English speakers make most. They are worth rereading once you've studied the individual pages.

❌ O livro de o professor.

Incorrect — de + o must contract.

✅ O livro do professor.

The teacher's book.

❌ Eu moro em o Rio.

Incorrect — em + o must contract.

✅ Eu moro no Rio.

I live in Rio.

❌ Vou a o cinema com ela.

Incorrect — a + o must contract to ao.

✅ Vou ao cinema com ela.

I'm going to the cinema with her.

❌ Esse carro é de ele.

Incorrect — de + ele contracts to dele.

✅ Esse carro é dele.

That car is his.

❌ Você quer ir com eu?

Incorrect — after com, use the fused form comigo.

✅ Você quer ir comigo?

Do you want to go with me?

Key Takeaways

The core prepositions are de, em, a, para, por, com, sem, sobre, entre, até.
De, em, a, and por must contract with a following definite article: do/da, no/na, ao/à, pelo/pela. This is obligatory, not optional.
De and em also contract with pronouns and demonstratives: dele, dela, disso, nele, naquele.
Com fuses into comigo, contigo, conosco.
Don't translate English prepositions word for word — learn the Portuguese verb-plus-preposition chunks instead.

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