Subject pronouns are the words that tell you who is doing the action — eu (I), você (you), ele/ela (he/she), and so on. Brazilian Portuguese has reorganized this set so thoroughly that the inventory you actually need is different from the one in European Portuguese textbooks. This page lays out the full Brazilian inventory, contrasts it with European Portuguese, and explains a counterintuitive consequence: Brazilians drop subject pronouns less than Spanish or Italian speakers do.
The Brazilian inventory
| Pronoun | Meaning | Verb form (with falar) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | I | eu falo | universal |
| tu | you (sg) | tu falas / tu fala | regional |
| você | you (sg) | você fala | default everywhere |
| ele / ela | he / she / it | ele fala | universal |
| a gente | we | a gente fala | colloquial, everywhere |
| nós | we | nós falamos | more formal / written |
| vocês | you (pl) | vocês falam | default plural |
| eles / elas | they | eles falam | universal |
Notice what is missing compared to the classic six-person Romance paradigm: there is no vós, and tu is parenthetical. In practice, most Brazilians operate with effectively five distinct verb forms per tense, because você, ele/ela, and a gente all share the third-person-singular form.
Eu trabalho de manhã e ela trabalha à tarde.
I work in the morning and she works in the afternoon.
A gente mora aqui há dois anos.
We've lived here for two years.
eu and ele/ela — the stable poles
Eu and ele/ela behave exactly as you'd expect from any Romance language. Ele and ela also cover English it — Portuguese has no neuter subject pronoun, so an inanimate noun is referred to by ele or ela according to its grammatical gender.
O ônibus atrasou — ele só chegou às nove.
The bus was late — it only arrived at nine. (ônibus is masculine, so 'ele')
você and tu — the "you" question
This is where Brazil diverges most. The default singular you is você, which takes third-person-singular verb forms (você fala, você é, você foi). It is neutral, not formal — a crucial point for Spanish speakers, who expect usted to be respectful. Você is just you.
Você quer um cafezinho?
Do you want a little coffee?
Tu is alive and well, but regional. It is common in the South (Rio Grande do Sul), much of the Northeast, parts of the North (Pará), and pockets of Rio. Crucially, in most of these regions tu is used with third-person verb forms — tu fala, tu vai, tu foi — rather than the prescriptive second-person forms tu falas, tu vais. The prescriptive tu falas survives mainly in formal Rio Grande do Sul speech.
Tu vai na festa hoje?
Are you going to the party today? (Northeastern/Southern colloquial 'tu' with 3sg verb)
In very fast, casual speech você often reduces to cê — written informally, never in formal text.
Cê viu isso?
Did you see that? (casual, reduced 'você')
For the full treatment of these, see você as default and tu regional.
a gente vs. nós — the "we" question
Nós is the traditional we, taking the distinctive first-person-plural verb ending (nós falamos, nós fomos). In everyday speech, however, Brazilians overwhelmingly say a gente, which behaves grammatically as third-person singular even though it means we.
A gente vai ao cinema; você quer vir?
We're going to the movies; do you want to come?
Nós precisamos conversar sobre isso.
We need to talk about this. (slightly more formal / emphatic)
The two are not perfectly interchangeable in register: nós sounds more formal, more written, and slightly more emphatic; a gente is the relaxed default of conversation. Mixing them mid-sentence is a classic error — once you pick a subject, the verb has to agree with it. See nós vs. a gente and the dedicated a gente page.
vocês — the only plural "you"
For plural you, Brazil uses vocês universally, with third-person-plural verbs (vocês falam). There is no informal/formal split in the plural the way Spanish keeps vosotros / ustedes — vocês does it all.
Vocês já almoçaram?
Have you all had lunch yet?
Contrast with European Portuguese
A learner coming from a European Portuguese textbook should rewire three things:
- EU-PT keeps a robust tu/você contrast (tu = informal, você = polite-ish); BR makes você the default and treats tu as regional.
- EU-PT uses nós as the normal we; BR leans on a gente in speech.
- EU-PT still teaches vós in paradigm tables (even if archaic); BR simply omits it.
The upshot: the Brazilian verb paradigm has fewer distinct forms to memorize, because você / ele / ela / a gente all collapse onto the third-person-singular slot.
Why Brazilians drop subject pronouns less
Here's the counterintuitive part. Spanish, Italian, and European Portuguese are strongly pro-drop: because each verb ending uniquely identifies the subject, speakers freely omit the pronoun (hablo already means I speak). Brazilian Portuguese is moving away from this. The reason is exactly the collapse described above: when você fala, ele fala, ela fala, and a gente fala all look identical, the verb form no longer tells you who the subject is. The pronoun has to be present to disambiguate.
Ela fala três línguas, mas ele só fala português.
She speaks three languages, but he only speaks Portuguese. (dropping 'ela'/'ele' here would be genuinely ambiguous)
Eu acho que a gente devia esperar.
I think we should wait. (the pronouns carry information the verb endings no longer do)
So while eu and nós can still be dropped fairly safely (their verb forms are distinctive — falo, falamos), the third-person-singular forms usually keep their pronoun. This is one reason spoken Brazilian feels more pronoun-heavy than Spanish to learners crossing over. See dropping the subject for the details of when omission is safe.
Common Mistakes
❌ Nós vai ao mercado.
Incorrect — nós takes the first-person-plural form vamos.
✅ Nós vamos ao mercado. / A gente vai ao mercado.
We're going to the market.
❌ Você falas muito bem.
Incorrect — você takes third-person-singular forms, not second-person.
✅ Você fala muito bem.
You speak very well.
❌ A gente somos amigos há anos.
Incorrect — a gente is grammatically third-person singular: 'a gente é'.
✅ A gente é amigo há anos. / Nós somos amigos há anos.
We've been friends for years.
❌ Fala três línguas. (meaning 'she speaks three languages')
Risky — with no pronoun, BR listeners can't tell if it's você, ele, ela, or a gente.
✅ Ela fala três línguas.
She speaks three languages.
❌ Vós sois muito gentis.
Incorrect for Brazil — vós is extinct; use vocês.
✅ Vocês são muito gentis.
You all are very kind.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Subject Pronouns with VerbsA1 — The Brazilian Portuguese subject pronouns — including the everyday 'a gente', the regional 'tu', and why Brazilians drop 'vós' but keep pronouns more than other pro-drop languages.
- 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.
- Tu: Regional Use in BRA2 — How tu is used across Brazil — the three regional systems, their verb agreement, and why você is the safe default.
- Dropping Subject Pronouns in BRA2 — Brazilian Portuguese is only partially pro-drop — it drops first-person pronouns freely but usually keeps third-person ones to avoid ambiguity.
- Pronouns in Brazilian Portuguese: OverviewA1 — A map of the whole Brazilian Portuguese pronoun system — subject, object, reflexive, possessive, demonstrative, relative, and indefinite — and how the spoken system has drifted from the prescriptive one.