A1 Text: My Family | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

Describing your family is an A1 staple that drills three things at once: possessives, the verb ter for "having" relatives, and ser for stating facts about people. The structure that confuses English speakers most here is the possessive — in BR it agrees with the family member, not with you, the speaker. This text (informal) lays out a small family and lets us examine each piece.

The text

Minha família é grande. Meus pais moram em Salvador. Tenho três irmãos: dois meninos e uma menina. Meu irmão mais velho é casado e tem dois filhos. Eu sou solteiro. Adoro meus sobrinhos.

Read it for gist first.

Minha família é grande.

My family is big.

Meus pais moram em Salvador.

My parents live in Salvador.

Tenho três irmãos: dois meninos e uma menina.

I have three siblings: two boys and one girl.

Meu irmão mais velho é casado e tem dois filhos.

My older brother is married and has two children.

Eu sou solteiro.

I'm single.

Adoro meus sobrinhos.

I adore my nephews.

Grammar in action

Possessives agree with the thing possessed, not the owner

This is the heart of the text. Minha família, meus pais, meu irmão, meus sobrinhos — the form of the possessive (meu / minha / meus / minhas) is chosen by the gender and number of the noun it modifies, not by the speaker. See possessive pronouns.

Minha mãe e meu pai moram juntos.

My mother and my father live together.

So:

família is feminine singular → minha família
pais is masculine plural → meus pais
irmão is masculine singular → meu irmão
sobrinhos is masculine plural → meus sobrinhos

A man and a woman both say minha mãe and meu pai, because mãe is feminine and pai is masculine — the speaker's own gender is irrelevant. This is the opposite of English, where "my" never changes, and the reverse of the trap many learners expect (they imagine the possessive tracks the owner). It tracks the relative.

Possessor: I	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	meu (pai)	minha (mãe)
Plural	meus (irmãos)	minhas (irmãs)

Possessives often drop the article in BR

In careful European Portuguese you would often hear a minha família, os meus pais — article + possessive. Colloquial BR frequently drops the article before a possessive: minha família, meus pais. Both are correct; the article-less version is the everyday BR norm and is what this text uses. See possessives with articles.

Meus pais moram em Salvador.

My parents live in Salvador.

You will hear a minha mãe too, especially in some regions and registers, and it is not wrong — but for A1 BR, drop the article and you will sound natural.

"Minha família é grande" — SER for description

Ser states an inherent characteristic: the family is big. Size, here, is treated as a defining trait, so it takes ser, not estar. See ser for identity and description.

Minha família é grande, mas a gente é muito unida.

My family is big, but we're very close.

Also note família is a singular collective noun: it takes a singular verb (é, not são), even though it refers to many people — just like English "my family is big."

"Tenho três irmãos" — TER for having relatives

To say you "have" siblings, children, nephews, BR uses ter, exactly as English uses "have". This is one place where BR and English line up cleanly. Três is invariable (it does not change for gender); irmãos, masculine plural, covers a mixed group of brothers and sisters. See ter for possession.

Tenho três irmãos: dois meninos e uma menina.

I have three siblings: two boys and one girl.

Watch the numeral agreement: dois meninos (masculine) but uma menina (feminine). The number "two" has gender in BR (dois / duas) and "one" doubles as the indefinite article (um / uma). English "two" and "a" never change.

"Meu irmão mais velho" — the comparative "mais velho"

"Older / oldest" is mais velho (literally "more old"). BR forms most comparatives with mais + adjective. Velho has an irregular comparative form mais velho used for age — and note BR does not use the synthetic form for people's age the way it does for "better/worse". See irregular comparatives.

Meu irmão mais velho mora sozinho.

My older brother lives on his own.

Velho agrees with irmão (masculine singular). For an older sister it would be minha irmã mais velha. The youngest is mais novo / mais nova (BR prefers mais novo over mais jovem for "younger" within a family).

"É casado" and "Sou solteiro" — SER for marital status

Marital status uses ser: é casado ("is married"), sou solteiro ("I'm single"). BR treats marital status as identity, hence ser, and the adjective agrees in gender: a married woman is casada, a single woman solteira.

Eu sou solteiro, mas meu irmão é casado.

I'm single, but my brother is married.

(One nuance: with estar you can say está casado to stress the current state — "is currently married" — but the default for stating marital status is ser.)

"A gente mora junto" — the colloquial "we"

Though not in the sample text, the most BR way to say "we" as a family unit is a gente, which means "we" but takes third-person singular agreement, like "he/she". See a gente.

A gente mora junto em Salvador.

We live together in Salvador.

A gente mora (3rd singular), never a gente moramos. A gente has almost entirely replaced nós in everyday BR speech — it is the natural choice for talking about your family as a unit, but its verb agreement (singular) catches every learner at first.

"Adoro meus sobrinhos" — ADORAR, a stronger "like"

Adorar ("to adore / love") is a notch warmer than gostar de, and — handily — it takes a direct object with no preposition: adoro meus sobrinhos, not adoro de. Contrast this with gostar, which always needs de.

Adoro meus sobrinhos; são uns amores.

I adore my nephews; they're sweethearts.

Sobrinhos (masculine plural) can mean "nephews" or, for a mixed group, "nephews and nieces". The feminine sobrinhas is nieces specifically.

Vocabulary and expressions

família — family
pais — parents (also "fathers"; pai = father)
mãe — mother
irmão / irmã — brother / sister; irmãos — siblings
filho / filha — son / daughter; filhos — children
sobrinho / sobrinha — nephew / niece
mais velho / mais novo — older / younger
casado / solteiro — married / single
a gente — we (colloquial, takes 3rd-person singular)

Cultural note

Family (família) is central to Brazilian life, and extended families often stay close — geographically and emotionally. It is common to live with or near parents into adulthood, and gatherings (a Sunday almoço with rice, beans, and many relatives) are a fixture. Affectionate language about family is normal and expected; saying adoro meus sobrinhos or calling relatives amores ("sweethearts") is everyday warmth, not gushing.

Common Mistakes

❌ Meu mãe mora em Salvador.

Incorrect — possessive must agree with 'mãe' (feminine), regardless of who is speaking.

✅ Minha mãe mora em Salvador.

My mother lives in Salvador.

❌ Eu sou três irmãos.

Incorrect — using 'ser' for having relatives instead of 'ter'.

✅ Tenho três irmãos.

I have three siblings.

❌ A gente moramos juntos.

Incorrect — 'a gente' takes third-person singular agreement.

✅ A gente mora junto.

We live together.

❌ Adoro de meus sobrinhos.

Incorrect — 'adorar' takes a direct object with no 'de'.

✅ Adoro meus sobrinhos.

I adore my nephews.

❌ Meu irmão é solteira.

Incorrect — the adjective must agree in gender with 'irmão' (masculine).

✅ Meu irmão é solteiro.

My brother is single.

💡

The golden rule of BR possessives: they agree with the relative, not with you. A man and a woman both say minha mãe and meu pai. If you ever match the possessive to the speaker, you have imported an English (or expectation-based) habit that BR does not share.

💡

For family verbs, BR splits the work: ter for who you have (tenho três irmãos), ser for what they are (é casado, sou solteiro), and a gente (singular agreement!) for "we" as a unit. Three small choices that make a family description sound native.

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