When something gets passed around as rumor, gossip, or unattributed fact, Brazilians reach for the impersonal third-person plural: a plural verb with no subject at all, meaning "they / people / someone." Falam que vai chover — "They say it's going to rain." Bateram na porta — "Someone knocked on the door." This is arguably the most natural impersonal construction in spoken Brazilian Portuguese, quietly doing the work that English assigns to "they say," "people say," and "someone."
How it works
The structure is striking for its simplicity:
a verb in the third-person plural, with no expressed subject and no implied specific group
There is no eles ("they"), no as pessoas ("people"), nothing. The bare plural ending alone signals an unidentified, generic, or unknown set of doers. Portuguese can do this because the verb ending already carries the person and number, so the subject slot can simply stay empty — and when it stays empty in the plural, the reading is impersonal.
Falam que vai chover amanhã.
They say it's going to rain tomorrow.
Dizem que ela mudou muito depois da viagem.
People say she's changed a lot since the trip.
Bateram na porta.
Someone knocked on the door.
The crucial point: adding eles here would change the meaning. Eles falam que vai chover points to a specific, known group ("they — those people — say..."). Drop eles and the same words become genuinely impersonal ("the word is..."). The absence of the pronoun is what creates the impersonal sense.
Three flavors of meaning
The impersonal 3pl covers a spread of English equivalents depending on the verb:
| Portuguese | English sense | Nuance |
|---|---|---|
| Dizem que... / Falam que... | They say / People say | hearsay, rumor |
| Bateram na porta. | Someone knocked. | a single unknown agent |
| Roubaram meu celular. | My phone got stolen. | unknown culprit; replaces a passive |
Roubaram a minha bicicleta na frente do mercado.
My bike got stolen in front of the supermarket. (lit. 'They stole my bike.')
Me ligaram às três da manhã, mas não atendi.
Someone called me at three in the morning, but I didn't pick up.
Estão dizendo que o show foi cancelado.
People are saying the show got cancelled.
Notice the last example uses the progressive estão dizendo ("are saying"). The impersonal 3pl works in any tense and aspect — disseram (said), vão dizer (will say), estão dizendo (are saying) — and reaches for whichever fits the timing of the rumor.
Why this beats the passive and the se-impersonal in speech
Here is the insight. For rumors and unknown agents, Brazilian Portuguese has three tools — and ranks them clearly by register:
| Construction | Example | Register |
|---|---|---|
| Ser-passive | Foi dito que choverá. | Very formal / written; rare in speech |
| Se-impersonal | Diz-se que vai chover. | Formal / written |
| Impersonal 3pl | Dizem que vai chover. | Everyday, all-purpose, fully natural |
In conversation the 3pl wins almost every time. Foi dito que... and diz-se que... both sound like a newspaper or a lecture; dizem que... is what you actually hear from a neighbor over the fence. So when you want to report something you heard without committing to a source, default to dizem que / falam que / estão dizendo que.
Dizem que o trânsito tá uma loucura hoje.
They say the traffic is crazy today.
Falaram que a loja vai fechar no fim do mês.
People said the shop is going to close at the end of the month.
English comparison
English speakers have the construction already — "they say," "people say," "someone stole my phone" — but English keeps an overt subject ("they," "people," "someone"). Portuguese deletes it. The transfer error runs in the other direction: English speakers insert eles ("Eles dizem que...") to mirror the English "they," accidentally making the sentence point to a specific known group. To get the genuine impersonal, you must leave the subject out. Train yourself to start straight from the verb: Dizem que..., Falaram que..., Roubaram....
There is also a subtle contrast with the agentless English passive. "My phone was stolen" hides the thief with a passive; Brazilian Portuguese hides the thief with an active 3pl — roubaram meu celular. Same communicative effect, opposite grammatical strategy. Reaching for meu celular foi roubado is not wrong, but in speech it sounds noticeably more formal than the breezy roubaram meu celular.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eles dizem que vai chover. (meaning the generic 'they say')
Wrong sense — adding 'eles' makes it a specific known group, not impersonal hearsay.
✅ Dizem que vai chover.
They say it's going to rain.
❌ Foi falado que a reunião foi cancelada. (in casual conversation)
Wrong register / calque — sounds bureaucratic and stilted in speech.
✅ Falaram que a reunião foi cancelada.
They said the meeting was cancelled.
❌ Alguém roubou meu celular. (as the default way to report it)
Not wrong, but Brazilians more naturally drop the subject with the 3pl.
✅ Roubaram meu celular.
My phone got stolen. (lit. 'They stole my phone.')
❌ Diz que vai chover. (intending 'they say', with a 3sg verb)
Ambiguous/incomplete — the impersonal hearsay reading needs the plural 'dizem'.
✅ Dizem que vai chover.
They say it's going to rain.
Key Takeaways
- The impersonal 3pl is a bare third-person plural verb with no subject, meaning "they / people / someone."
- Do not add eles — the empty subject slot is what makes it impersonal.
- It is the everyday Brazilian way to report rumors (dizem que, falam que) and unknown agents (bateram, roubaram).
- It outranks both the ser-passive and the se-impersonal in casual speech, which sound formal by comparison.
- For "someone did X," prefer the 3pl over alguém or a passive: roubaram meu celular.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Passive and Impersonal Voice: OverviewB1 — A map of the many ways Brazilian Portuguese expresses passive and impersonal meaning — and why speakers overwhelmingly avoid the true passive in favor of active circumlocutions.
- Se-ImpersonalB1 — The impersonal se for generic 'one/people' — trabalha-se muito, como se diz — and how it differs from the se-passive.
- A Gente in Impersonal/Generic UseA2 — How a gente works as a generic 'one/people' pronoun (distinct from its 'we' meaning), why the verb stays third-person singular, and how context tells the two apart.
- Ser-Passive (Formal Passive Voice)B1 — How to form the analytic passive with ser plus past participle, why the participle agrees with the subject, and why Brazilians rarely use it in speech.
- 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.
- Reported (Indirect) Speech: OverviewB1 — How to turn someone's exact words into a report in Brazilian Portuguese — the reporting verbs dizer/falar que and perguntar se, plus the pronoun, time, and place shifts that come with changing perspective.