Pronouns are where Brazilian Portuguese diverges most dramatically from the textbook — and from European Portuguese. The grammar that gets taught in schools describes a system that almost nobody fully uses in speech. This page is a map: it surveys every type of pronoun, shows you the standard inventory, and flags the handful of places where what Brazilians actually say has pulled away from the prescribed forms. Each type has its own dedicated page; treat this as the index.
Subject pronouns
These are the pronouns that act as the subject of a verb. The practical Brazilian set is:
| Pronoun | Meaning | Verb agreement |
|---|---|---|
| eu | I | 1st sg |
| tu | you (sg, regional) | 2nd sg (or 3rd sg colloquially) |
| você | you (sg, default) | 3rd sg |
| ele / ela | he / she / it | 3rd sg |
| a gente | we (colloquial) | 3rd sg |
| nós | we (more formal) | 1st pl |
| vocês | you (pl) | 3rd pl |
| eles / elas | they | 3rd pl |
Two facts jump out at a Spanish or French speaker. First, você — historically a contraction of vossa mercê (your grace) — has become the unmarked, everyday you, and it takes third-person verb forms. Second, a gente (literally the people) is the normal colloquial we, also with a third-person-singular verb.
Você fala inglês?
Do you speak English?
A gente vai à praia no domingo.
We're going to the beach on Sunday.
The forms tu and vós are different stories. Vós is effectively extinct in Brazil. Tu survives strongly in the South, the Northeast, and parts of the North — but it is often used with third-person verb forms (tu vai rather than the prescriptive tu vais). See subject pronouns and você as default.
Object pronouns
Object pronouns come in two families: direct (the thing acted on) and indirect (the recipient).
| Person | Direct object | Indirect object |
|---|---|---|
| 1st sg | me | me |
| 2nd sg | te | te |
| 3rd sg | o / a | lhe |
| 1st pl | nos | nos |
| 3rd pl | os / as | lhes |
Here is the most important truth about spoken Brazilian Portuguese: the third-person direct object clitics o, a, os, as have all but vanished from speech. In their place, Brazilians either repeat a full pronoun (ele, ela) as the object, or drop the object entirely (a "null object").
Você viu o João? — Vi ele ontem.
Did you see João? — I saw him yesterday. (spoken: 'vi ele', not the prescriptive 'vi-o')
Comprei o presente e já embrulhei ___.
I bought the gift and already wrapped it. (the object is simply dropped)
The prescriptive vi-o (I saw him) is correct in formal writing but sounds stiff or even pedantic in conversation. See colloquial direct objects and the lhe → direct-object shift, where many speakers use lhe for you even as a direct object.
Te ligo mais tarde.
I'll call you later. (te is heavily used, including at the start of a sentence)
Reflexive pronouns
Reflexives mark that the subject acts on itself. The practical set is me, te, se, nos — with se covering all third persons (singular and plural) plus você(s) and a gente.
Eu me levantei cedo hoje.
I got up early today.
A gente se viu no shopping.
We saw each other at the mall.
See reflexive pronouns for the full picture, including reciprocal uses.
Possessive pronouns and determiners
Possessives agree in gender and number with the thing owned, not the owner — the opposite of English.
| Owner | Possessive |
|---|---|
| eu | meu / minha / meus / minhas |
| você / ele / ela | seu / sua — or dele / dela |
| nós / a gente | nosso / nossa |
| vocês / eles / elas | seu / sua — or deles / delas |
Because seu is technically ambiguous (it can mean your, his, her, or their), Brazilians overwhelmingly prefer dele / dela / deles / delas for third-person owners, reserving seu for your.
Esse é o carro dela, não o meu.
That's her car, not mine.
See dele / dela for clarity and seu ambiguity.
Demonstrative pronouns
The three-way demonstrative system tracks distance from speaker and listener: este (near me), esse (near you), aquele (far from both). Their neuter forms are isto, isso, aquilo.
Isso aí na sua mão é meu.
That thing in your hand is mine.
In speech the este / esse distinction collapses — most Brazilians use esse for both "this" and "that near you," reserving aquele for "that over there." See este vs. esse.
Relative pronouns
Relatives link clauses: que (that/which/who — by far the most common), quem (who, after prepositions), cujo (whose), and o qual (which, formal).
A pessoa que me ligou não deixou recado.
The person who called me didn't leave a message.
Que does the work of English that, which, and who combined and is rarely droppable the way English drops that. See relative pronouns overview.
Indefinite and interrogative pronouns
Indefinites cover somebody/nobody/something: alguém, ninguém, algo, alguma coisa, tudo, nada, alguns, nenhum. Note that Portuguese uses double negation freely — não vi ninguém (literally I didn't see nobody) is standard and correct.
Não tem ninguém em casa.
There's nobody home.
Interrogatives — quem, que, o que, qual, quanto — get their own cluster of pages under questions and pronouns.
How the spoken system has drifted
Pull these threads together and a pattern emerges. Brazilian Portuguese has reorganized its pronoun system away from both European Portuguese and the prescriptive grammar:
- Simpler personal system: você replaced tu as the default you; a gente competes with nós for we. A learner can be perfectly fluent using only eu, você, ele/ela, a gente, vocês, eles/elas.
- Collapsed direct objects: the o/a clitics are retreating to formal writing; speech uses ele/ela as objects or drops them.
- Clitic placement is unstable: Brazil overwhelmingly prefers proclisis (clitic before the verb — me dá, te amo) even at the start of a sentence, where the prescriptive rule demands enclisis (dá-me, amo-te). This is one of the clearest fault lines between the written norm and real speech. See clitic placement overview.
Common Mistakes
❌ Vossa pronúncia está ótima — vós sois um bom aluno.
Incorrect for modern Brazil — vós is extinct; this sounds like a 16th-century sermon.
✅ Sua pronúncia está ótima — você é um bom aluno.
Your pronunciation is great — you're a good student.
❌ Eu vi-o no mercado.
Grammatically correct but sounds bookish in conversation; spoken BR avoids the o-clitic.
✅ Eu vi ele no mercado.
I saw him at the market. (natural spoken Brazilian)
❌ A gente vamos sair hoje.
Incorrect — a gente always takes a third-person-singular verb.
✅ A gente vai sair hoje.
We're going out today.
❌ Esse é o livro de seu, não de mim.
Incorrect — possessive is seu (no 'de'), and after a preposition the form is mim, not de mim here.
✅ Esse livro é seu, não meu.
This book is yours, not mine.
❌ Não vi alguém na festa.
Incorrect — a negated sentence needs the negative pronoun ninguém, not alguém.
✅ Não vi ninguém na festa.
I didn't see anyone at the party.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Subject Pronouns in Brazilian PortugueseA1 — The full Brazilian Portuguese subject pronoun inventory — eu, tu, você, ele/ela, a gente, nós, vocês, eles/elas — how it differs from European Portuguese, and why Brazilians drop subject pronouns less than other Romance speakers.
- Você as Default 2sgA1 — Why você — not tu — is the everyday second-person singular in Brazil, how it takes third-person verb forms, the reduced form cê, and why it is neutral rather than formal (formality is carried by o senhor / a senhora).
- 'A Gente' as Colloquial 'Nós'A1 — How a gente became the everyday word for we in Brazil — and why it takes a singular verb.
- BR Colloquial Direct Object: 'Vi Ele' / 'Te Vi'A2 — The direct object system Brazilians actually speak — proclitic me/te, subject pronouns as objects, and dropping the object entirely.
- Dele / Dela / Deles / Delas: BR's 3rd Person PossessivesA1 — How Brazilian Portuguese uses 'de + ele/ela' to say 'his/her/their' clearly, why these forms follow the noun, and why they agree with the owner rather than the object.
- Clitic Placement: OverviewB1 — The three positions for clitic pronouns — proclisis, enclisis, mesoclisis — and why Brazilian speech and the prescriptive rulebook pull in opposite directions.