If you want to say "his", "her", or "their" in everyday Brazilian Portuguese, the word you actually reach for is not seu — it is dele, dela, deles, or delas. These are the workhorse third-person possessives of spoken Brazil, and they have one enormous advantage over seu: they are never ambiguous. O carro dele can only mean "his car". This page shows you how they are built, where they go in the sentence, and the rule that flips everything you learned on the previous pages — these forms agree with the owner, not with the object.
What they actually are
These are not really new words. They are contractions of the preposition de ("of") plus a subject pronoun:
| de + | contraction | meaning |
|---|---|---|
| de + ele | dele | his / of him |
| de + ela | dela | her / of her |
| de + eles | deles | their / of them (masc. or mixed) |
| de + elas | delas | their / of them (all fem.) |
So o carro dele is literally "the car of him" — the same logic as English "the car of his", but this is the ordinary, unmarked way to say it in Portuguese, not a fancy alternative.
A casa dela fica no fim da rua.
Her house is at the end of the street.
Os filhos deles estudam na mesma escola.
Their kids go to the same school.
They go after the noun
Unlike meu / seu / nosso, which sit before the noun, dele / dela sit after it. The order is: (article) + noun + dele/dela.
O cachorro dela é muito carinhoso.
Her dog is very affectionate.
Esqueci o nome do irmão dele.
I forgot his brother's name.
You normally keep the definite article on the noun: o carro dele, a casa dela, os amigos deles. Dropping the article (carro dele) happens in very casual speech but the articled version is the safe default.
The rule that flips everything: agreement with the owner
This is the conceptual heart of the page. Remember that meu / seu / nosso agree with the thing owned — minha casa is feminine because casa is feminine, regardless of who owns it. Dele / dela do the opposite. They agree with the owner, because ele/ela simply is the owner. The object's gender is irrelevant to them.
O carro dele e a casa dele.
His car and his house. (both 'dele' — the owner is male; carro and casa don't matter)
O carro dela e a casa dela.
Her car and her house. (both 'dela' — the owner is female)
Read those slowly. In o carro dele and a casa dele, the possessive stays dele even though carro is masculine and casa is feminine. The form tracks the male owner. Switch to a female owner and both become dela. This is the mirror image of seu/sua, and it is exactly why dele/dela is unambiguous: the word itself tells you the owner's gender.
| Sentence | What the possessive agrees with |
|---|---|
| a minha casa | the object (casa = fem.) |
| o meu carro | the object (carro = masc.) |
| a casa dele | the owner (ele = male) |
| o carro dela | the owner (ela = female) |
Why Brazilians prefer it for "his/her"
As the previous page explained, seu/sua is ambiguous between "your" and "his/her". Dele/dela sidesteps that entirely. So in real Brazilian speech and most modern writing, "his book" is overwhelmingly o livro dele, not o seu livro.
Peguei emprestado o livro dele e ainda não devolvi.
I borrowed his book and haven't returned it yet.
A opinião dela sobre o filme foi bem diferente da minha.
Her opinion about the movie was quite different from mine.
O aniversário deles é no mesmo dia, que coincidência.
Their birthday is on the same day, what a coincidence.
Compare o livro dele (clear: his book) with o seu livro (could be your book or his book). In conversation, the dele version simply works; the seu version invites a "wait, whose?" So learners should make dele/dela their default for the third person from day one.
Combining with "our", "my", and lists
Dele/dela mixes freely with the other possessives in the same sentence, since they occupy different positions (the others go before the noun, dele goes after).
A minha mochila é maior do que a dele.
My backpack is bigger than his.
Trouxe os meus documentos e os documentos dela também.
I brought my documents and her documents too.
Notice in the first example that a dele stands alone with no following noun — "his (one)". The article a points back to mochila, and dele says whose. This standalone use is common and natural.
Common Mistakes
1. Making dele/dela agree with the object instead of the owner. This is the deepest error — treating dele like seu.
❌ A casa dele (a man) but trying 'dela' because casa is feminine.
Wrong — the form depends on the owner's gender, not the noun's. A man's house is 'a casa dele'.
✅ A casa dele é grande.
His house is big. (owner is male → dele)
2. Putting dele/dela before the noun. It must follow the noun.
❌ Peguei dele livro.
Ungrammatical — dele goes after the noun.
✅ Peguei o livro dele.
I took his book.
3. Forgetting the contraction and writing 'de ele'. De + ele always contracts to dele.
❌ O carro de ele está sujo.
Incorrect — must contract to dele.
✅ O carro dele está sujo.
His car is dirty.
4. Using deles for a single female owner (or delas for a male). Match the owner's number and gender.
❌ A bolsa delas (referring to one woman).
Wrong — one woman is 'dela'; 'delas' is plural.
✅ A bolsa dela é nova.
Her bag is new.
5. Defaulting to seu for 'his/her' and creating ambiguity. In speech, choose dele/dela.
❌ Liguei pro Carlos e usei seu telefone.
Ambiguous — sounds like 'your phone'.
✅ Liguei pro Carlos e usei o telefone dele.
I called Carlos and used his phone.
Key Takeaways
- dele / dela / deles / delas = "his / her / their"; they are contractions of de
- ele/ela/eles/elas.
- They go after the noun: o carro dele, a casa dela.
- They agree with the owner's gender and number, the exact opposite of meu/seu/nosso, which agree with the object.
- They are unambiguous, which is why they are the everyday Brazilian choice for the third person over seu/sua.
- Always keep the contraction: dele, never de ele.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- The 'Seu' Ambiguity ProblemA2 — Why 'seu/sua' can mean 'your', 'his', or 'her' in Brazilian Portuguese, how this ambiguity arises, and the dele/dela strategy speakers use to fix it.
- Possessive Pronouns: Meu, Teu, Seu, NossoA1 — How Brazilian Portuguese possessives work, why they agree with the thing owned, and how the system handles 'my', 'your', 'our', and the tricky 'his/her'.
- Personal Pronouns After PrepositionsA2 — The tonic pronoun set used after prepositions — mim, ti, ele, nós — plus the special fusions comigo and contigo.
- Contractions with 'De'A1 — The full system of 'de' contractions in Brazilian Portuguese — do/da/dos/das, dele/dela, deste/desse/daquele, disso/daquilo, daqui/dali — which are obligatory, which are optional, and when not to contract at all.
- Possessives with Definite Articles in BRA1 — When Brazilian Portuguese puts 'o/a' before a possessive, why the article is optional, and why Brazilians drop the possessive entirely for body parts and close family.
- 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.