Comigo, Contigo (Special Prepositional Forms with 'com')

Portuguese has one preposition — com ("with") — that behaves unlike any other: instead of standing next to the pronoun it governs, it fuses with it into a single word. "com + eu" does not produce com mim but the single-word comigo ("with me"); "com + tu" becomes contigo ("with you-sg"); and so on. These fused forms are used exclusively after com — never after any other preposition — and they are obligatory, not optional. This page lays out the five fused forms, their usage, the contrast between the reflexive consigo and the formal-você consigo (a point of real confusion), and the European vs Brazilian spelling of connosco.

The five forms

For third person non-reflexive — "with him, with her, with them" — Portuguese does not fuse: it uses the ordinary prepositional pronouns after com, exactly as English does:

So the rule is: 1sg, 2sg, reflexive, 1pl, and (archaic) 2pl fuse with com. Everything else — 3sg, 3pl, modern vocês — stays separate.

Comigo: "with me"

Comigo replaces com + eu in every context.

Comigo is used in literal senses ("accompany me," "come with me") and in many idiomatic ones ("get mad at me," "talk to me," "argue with me"). Whenever the verb governs com and the object is 1sg, the result is comigo.

Contigo: "with you" (singular, familiar)

Contigo replaces com + tu — used when you would otherwise address the person as tu. In European Portuguese, where tu is alive and well among friends, family, peers, and children, contigo is common.

Important: contigo is only familiar. If you are speaking formally — to a stranger, to a customer, to an older person — you would not say contigo. The formal equivalents are discussed below.

Consigo: the complicated one

Consigo replaces com + si. Latin secum meant "with oneself" — reflexive. European Portuguese has kept that reflexive meaning but has also developed a second, non-reflexive use that generates real confusion.

1. Reflexive consigo — "with oneself, with himself, with herself"

When the subject acts upon itself with the preposition com, the result is consigo:

In reflexive use, consigo is frequently reinforced with próprio / própria / mesmo / mesma ("himself/herself/itself"), especially when there is any risk of confusion with the second use.

2. Colloquial consigo = com você (with you, formal/polite)

In everyday European Portuguese, speakers routinely use consigo to mean com você — "with you," polite. This use developed because você is grammatically a third-person form (historically reduced from Vossa Mercê, "Your Mercy"). Since você takes 3rd-person verb agreement, it naturally pairs with the 3rd-person prepositional pronoun si, giving the fused form consigo whenever com is involved. The grammar is non-reflexive: the subject is eu, ele, ela, and consigo refers to the addressee.

This is the polite equivalent of contigo — used when you wouldn't dream of saying tu but want an intimate-sounding preposition.

The ambiguity problem

In some sentences, consigo could be read either way:

Context usually resolves the ambiguity. When it doesn't, speakers disambiguate with próprio / mesmo (for reflexive) or switch to com você / com o senhor / com a senhora (for polite "with you").

Connosco: "with us" (EP spelling)

Connosco is the European Portuguese spelling. Brazilian Portuguese writes conosco, with one n. The pronunciation is the same — [kuˈnoʃku] in Portugal — but the orthographic convention differs. European Portuguese keeps the double n to reflect the historical Latin nobiscum.

In textbooks following the 1990 Orthographic Agreement, you will see connosco preserved for Portugal and conosco for Brazil. Stick with connosco in European Portuguese.

Convosco: "with you (plural)" — archaic

Convosco comes from Latin vobiscum and pairs with the 2nd-person plural subject pronoun vós. Since vós itself is archaic in modern European Portuguese (replaced by vocês), convosco is also archaic — you will encounter it in:

• Liturgy and prayer: "O Senhor esteja convosco" ("The Lord be with you")
• Literature and poetry
• Formal oratory and ceremonial speech
• Some northern Portuguese dialects still retain it

For modern "with you all," use com vocês:

A common idiomatic use: "to have something with you"

One of the most useful constructions is "trazer / levar / ter / andar com [algo] + consigo/comigo/contigo" — "to bring / take / have / carry [something] with one":

Here comigo / contigo / consigo corresponds to English "on me / on you / on him" — physical possession or accompaniment.

Emphasis with comigo and friends

Unlike with a mim, a ti, you cannot add an emphatic prepositional phrase to comigo. The fused form already carries the stress — it is a stressed form. If you want to emphasize, you can repeat or add modifiers:

You do not say *comigo a mim — that would be a double stress on the same pronoun, which is ungrammatical.

Why not just say com mim? The ban on *com mim

A reasonable question: why not regularize and say *com mim, *com ti? The short answer is: Portuguese inherited the fused Latin forms and has never given them up. *com mim and *com ti are simply ungrammatical in any variety of Portuguese. The irregularity is 100% — there is no context, no register, no region where *com mim is acceptable.

This is simply a set of five forms you memorize: comigo, contigo, consigo, connosco, convosco.

Comparison with Spanish

Spanish has the same fusion pattern, with parallel forms: conmigo, contigo, consigo. The Spanish set is smaller, however — Spanish does not fuse con + nosotros or con + vosotros (you say con nosotros, con vosotros). So:

• Portuguese comigo = Spanish conmigo ✓
• Portuguese contigo = Spanish contigo ✓
• Portuguese consigo (reflexive) = Spanish consigo ✓
• Portuguese consigo (polite "with you") has no Spanish equivalent — Spanish uses con usted.
• Portuguese connosco ≠ Spanish — Spanish uses con nosotros.
• Portuguese convosco ≠ Spanish — Spanish uses con vosotros.

Spanish speakers must therefore learn to say connosco instead of *con nós, and they must remember that Portuguese consigo can mean "with you (formal)."

Comparison with French

French has no fused forms. Avec stays separate from its pronoun: avec moi, avec toi, avec nous, avec vous, avec lui, avec elle. So for French speakers, the Portuguese fusion feels like a fresh irregularity to memorize.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Saying com mim / com ti

This is the most common error for English and French speakers, and even some Spanish speakers who try to regularize.

Mistake 2: Brazilian spelling conosco in European Portuguese

Mistake 3: Treating consigo as always reflexive (Spanish-speaker error)

Spanish consigo is strictly reflexive; Portuguese consigo has the extra "with you (polite)" meaning. Parse by context: who is the subject, and is the subject acting on themselves?

Mistake 4: Treating consigo as always meaning "with you" (and misunderstanding reflexive uses)

Conversely, learners who only know the polite consigo get confused when they see true reflexive uses.

Here consigo refers back to ele, the subject. The addition of próprio signals reflexivity unambiguously.

Mistake 5: Using convosco in modern conversational Portuguese

Keep convosco for liturgy, poetry, and deliberate archaism.

Mistake 6: Using contigo with someone you address as você

Keep your register consistent: if you are addressing someone politely (o senhor, a senhora, você), use the matching prepositional form (consigo, com o senhor, com você), not the familiar contigo.

Key Takeaways

• Five fused forms: comigo, contigo, consigo, connosco, convosco (the last archaic).
• The fusion is obligatory — *com mim, *com ti are ungrammatical.
• Third-person non-reflexive does not fuse: use com ele, com ela, com você, com eles.
• Consigo has two meanings in EP: reflexive ("with himself/herself") and polite ("with you"). Context and modifiers (próprio, mesmo) usually resolve the ambiguity.
• Connosco (EP) vs conosco (BP) is a spelling difference — same pronunciation.
• Convosco is archaic in modern speech; use com vocês instead.
• These forms are register-neutral (except convosco), so you can use them freely in any context, provided you keep tu/você/o senhor consistent.