Relative Cujo: Whose (Formal) | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

Cujo is the relative pronoun that means "whose" — the one that connects an owner in the main clause to something they possess in the relative clause: o homem *cuja casa queimou ("the man whose house burned down"). It is elegant, precise, and entirely formal. Two features trip up nearly every learner: *cujo agrees with the thing possessed, not the owner, and it takes no article after it. Master those two points and you have mastered cujo. This page also shows you the colloquial escape hatch Brazilians use to avoid cujo altogether — because in speech, almost no one says it.

Agreement with the possessed, not the owner

This is the heart of cujo and the opposite of what English intuition suggests. English "whose" is invariable and looks back at the owner. Portuguese cujo looks forward to the thing owned and agrees with it in gender and number.

Possessed noun	Form	Example
masculine singular	cujo	o autor cujo livro li
feminine singular	cuja	o homem cuja casa queimou
masculine plural	cujos	a escritora cujos romances admiro
feminine plural	cujas	o artista cujas obras vendem

O homem cuja casa queimou no incêndio recebeu ajuda da prefeitura.

The man whose house burned in the fire received help from the city government.

In that sentence the owner is o homem (masculine), but cuja is feminine — because it agrees with casa ("house," feminine), the thing possessed. The gender of the man is irrelevant.

A escritora cujos romances ganharam prêmios mora no Rio.

The writer whose novels won awards lives in Rio.

Here the owner a escritora is feminine, but cujos is masculine plural — agreeing with romances ("novels"). This is the single most counterintuitive point for English speakers, and it is worth saying out loud: cujo agrees with what comes after it, not with what comes before.

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Think of cujo as a possessive adjective glued to the relative: it behaves like seu/sua/seus/suas, agreeing with the noun it modifies (the possession), never with the possessor. Cuja casa works exactly like sua casa for agreement.

No article after cujo — ever

In English you can say "the man whose the house" — wait, you can't, and neither can Portuguese, but for a different reason. Portuguese learners often insert an article by analogy with other determiners. Cujo is never followed by an article. It directly precedes its noun.

O escritor cujo livro virou filme está em turnê.

The writer whose book became a movie is on tour.

You say cujo livro, never cujo o livro. The cujo form already carries the determining force; an article would be redundant and is flatly ungrammatical.

A empresa cuja sede fica em São Paulo abriu uma filial no Recife.

The company whose headquarters is in São Paulo opened a branch in Recife.

Cujo with a preposition

Because cujo introduces a noun phrase, that phrase can itself be the object of a preposition inside the relative clause. The preposition goes before cujo.

É um problema a cuja solução ninguém chegou ainda.

It's a problem to whose solution no one has yet arrived.

O político em cujas promessas ninguém acredita perdeu a eleição.

The politician in whose promises no one believes lost the election.

These are markedly literary and formal; you will meet them in essays and editorials, not conversation.

Register: formal and written, full stop

Cujo is (formal) / (literary). It is standard and even expected in journalism, academic prose, legal documents, and careful writing — but in everyday Brazilian speech it is vanishingly rare. Speakers feel it as bookish. So how do Brazilians express "whose" when talking? They restructure with que ... dele/dela (literally "that ... his/her").

Formal (cujo)	Colloquial (que...dele/dela)
o homem cuja casa queimou	o homem que a casa dele queimou
a moça cujo pai é médico	a moça que o pai dela é médico
o cara cujo carro foi roubado	o cara que o carro dele foi roubado

Aquele é o cara cujo carro foi roubado ontem.

That's the guy whose car was stolen yesterday. (formal)

Aquele é o cara que o carro dele foi roubado ontem.

That's the guy whose car was stolen yesterday. (colloquial)

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The colloquial que...dele/dela structure is stigmatized in writing — never use it in an essay — but it is overwhelmingly what Brazilians actually say. If you want to sound natural in conversation, this is the construction to reach for; save cujo for when you write. See Possessive Dele / Dela.

Comparison with English

English "whose" is invariable and points back at the owner; cujo inflects and agrees with the thing owned. This reversal is the main hurdle.
English allows "whose" for people and things alike; so does cujo — a empresa cuja sede (a company's headquarters) is fine.
English has no colloquial "whose-dodge" the way Portuguese has que...dele; English just uses "whose" at every register, whereas Portuguese stratifies sharply by formality.

Common Mistakes

❌ O homem cujo a casa queimou recebeu ajuda.

Incorrect — no article after cujo.

✅ O homem cuja casa queimou recebeu ajuda.

The man whose house burned down received help.

❌ A escritora cuja romances ganharam prêmios.

Incorrect — cujo agrees with romances (masc. pl.), not with escritora.

✅ A escritora cujos romances ganharam prêmios.

The writer whose novels won awards.

❌ O homem cujo casa queimou.

Incorrect — casa is feminine, so the form must be cuja.

✅ O homem cuja casa queimou.

The man whose house burned down.

❌ O político que as promessas dele ninguém acredita.

Incorrect mix — either go fully colloquial or use the formal em cujas promessas.

✅ O político em cujas promessas ninguém acredita.

The politician in whose promises no one believes.

Key Takeaways

Cujo / cuja / cujos / cujas means "whose."
It agrees with the thing possessed, not the owner.
It is never followed by an article: cujo livro, never cujo o livro.
Any preposition goes before it: a cuja solução, em cujas promessas.
It is formal/written; in speech Brazilians say que ... dele/dela instead.

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