Interrogative Quem: Who | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

Quem is the question word you use to ask about people: who and whom. It is one of the first interrogatives a learner needs, and the good news is that it is almost completely regular — far simpler than its English equivalents. The complications that exist are not about quem itself but about the little words that go in front of it, so that is where this page spends most of its energy.

The core: quem = who (for people only)

Use quem whenever the answer to your question is a person (or people). It works as both the subject (who did it?) and the object (who did you see?) of a verb. Portuguese does not make the who/whom distinction that fussy English speakers still argue about — there is just quem for both.

Quem é você?

Who are you?

Quem ligou pra mim agora de manhã?

Who called me this morning?

Quem você viu na festa ontem?

Who(m) did you see at the party yesterday?

Notice the third example: in English you have a choice between formal whom did you see and casual who did you see. Portuguese has no such split. Quem covers every case, in every register, with no change in form.

Quem is invariable — there is no plural

This is the single most important fact on the page for English speakers, and it is the kind of thing a textbook often skips. Quem never changes form. There is no plural quens, no feminine version, nothing. Whether you are asking about one person or fifty, the word is quem.

Quem são essas pessoas na foto?

Who are these people in the photo?

Quem vem com a gente pra praia?

Who's coming to the beach with us?

In the first example the verb is plural (são, are), because the answer is plural — but the question word itself stays quem. The verb does the work of signaling number, not the pronoun. When you are not sure how many people are involved (which is most of the time, since that is why you are asking), the verb usually stays singular: Quem quer café? (Who wants coffee?) — even if a whole room raises their hands.

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Quem is invariable. If you ever feel tempted to pluralize it to match several people, stop — Portuguese makes the verb plural instead, never the question word.

Prepositions go BEFORE quem — never stranded at the end

Here is the difference that trips up English speakers the most. In casual English we routinely leave the preposition dangling at the end of the sentence:

Who did you go *with?*
Who is this *for?*
Who were you talking *to?*

Portuguese does not allow this. The preposition must travel to the front of the question, directly in front of quem. So you ask, literally, with whom did you go, for whom is this, to whom were you talking. This sounds stiff and old-fashioned in English, but in Portuguese it is the only normal, everyday way to say it.

Com quem você foi ao cinema?

Who did you go to the movies with?

Pra quem é esse presente?

Who is this present for?

De quem você tá falando?

Who are you talking about?

The logic is worth internalizing: in Portuguese the preposition and quem form a single unbreakable unit — com quem, para quem, de quem, em quem — and that unit sits at the start of the question. English lets the preposition wander to the end; Portuguese keeps it glued to the question word. Once this clicks, a whole family of questions becomes predictable.

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The pattern is preposition + quem at the front of the sentence. Memorize the chunks as units: com quem (with whom), para/pra quem (for whom), de quem (of/about whom), em quem (in whom), a quem (to whom).

"Whose?" is "de quem é...?"

Portuguese has no single word for whose. To ask who owns something, you use de quem — literally of whom — together with the verb ser (to be). The structure is De quem é + [the thing]?

De quem é essa mochila?

Whose backpack is this?

De quem são esses óculos?

Whose glasses are these?

De quem foi a ideia de vir aqui?

Whose idea was it to come here?

The verb agrees with the thing being owned, not with quem: de quem *é essa mochila* (singular thing → singular verb), *de quem são esses óculos* (plural thing → plural verb). The question word stays quem regardless. This is the same of-whom logic English uses in the more formal of whom / possessive constructions, but in Portuguese it is the everyday, only-option way to ask about ownership.

A note on a quem: the "to whom" question

When the verb takes an indirect object — someone you give to, tell to, write to — you front the chunk a quem.

A quem devo entregar os documentos?

To whom should I hand in the documents? / Who should I hand the documents to?

A quem você escreveu?

Who did you write to?

In informal speech, many Brazilians replace a quem with pra quem (pra being colloquial para), because everyday Brazilian Portuguese leans on para for indirect objects: Pra quem você escreveu? This is fully natural in conversation. The a quem form is more careful or written register (formal).

Quick reference

Function	Form	Example
Subject (who did it)	quem	Quem fez isso?
Object (whom)	quem	Quem você ama?
With (with whom)	com quem	Com quem você mora?
For (for whom)	para / pra quem	Pra quem é isso?
About / of (about whom)	de quem	De quem vocês falavam?
To (to whom)	a / pra quem	A quem interessar possa.
Whose	de quem é...?	De quem é o carro?

The phrase A quem interessar possa (To whom it may concern) is a fixed formal/written formula — worth recognizing in letters and notices, even though you will rarely build it yourself.

Common Mistakes

❌ Quens são eles?

Incorrect — quem has no plural form

✅ Quem são eles?

Who are they?

English speakers feel the urge to pluralize the question word to match several people. Resist it — quem is invariable, and the plural shows up only on the verb (são).

❌ Quem você foi ao cinema com?

Incorrect — stranded preposition, copied from English

✅ Com quem você foi ao cinema?

Who did you go to the movies with?

This is the classic English-transfer error: leaving com dangling at the end. In Portuguese the preposition must lead the question.

❌ Quem é esse carro?

Incorrect — this asks 'who is this car', not 'whose'

✅ De quem é esse carro?

Whose car is this?

Without de, you are literally asking who is this car. Ownership always needs de quem é...?

❌ O que ligou pra você?

Incorrect — o que is for things, not people

✅ Quem ligou pra você?

Who called you?

Use quem for people and o que for things. If the answer is a person, it has to be quem.

❌ Quem de vocês quer ir? — Eu e a Ana quer.

Incorrect — plural answer needs plural verb

✅ Quem de vocês quer ir? — Eu e a Ana queremos.

Which of you wants to go? — Ana and I do.

A question with singular quem quer is fine, but once you answer with a plural subject, the answering verb must agree (queremos).

Key Takeaways

Quem = who/whom, for people only, and it never changes form.
Plurality lives on the verb, not on quem: Quem são eles?
Prepositions go in front: com quem, de quem, pra quem, a quem — never stranded at the end as in casual English.
Whose? is de quem é...?, with the verb agreeing with the thing owned.

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