Portuguese Pronouns Overview

This page is the map of the Portuguese pronoun system. It does not teach any one type in full — each type has its own dedicated page — but it shows how every pronoun in the language fits together. If you are a beginner, read this page first to get your bearings; then follow the links into each sub-system. If you are an intermediate learner who already knows some pronouns but keeps getting lost in the weeds (when do I use lhe vs o? what's the difference between este and esse? why do people write dá-mo with two pronouns squashed together?), this page will give you the architecture you need.

Portuguese pronouns are harder than English pronouns, for four reasons: (1) Portuguese has far more forms — more persons, more cases, more genders; (2) pronouns agree with what they replace, not just refer to it; (3) their position in the sentence changes depending on context (eu vejo-o vs não o vejo — same meaning, different placement); (4) multiple pronouns can fuse together (dá-me + o → dá-mo). This last feature is particular to European Portuguese and nearly absent from Brazilian Portuguese.

We will go through the seven major categories: personal, demonstrative, possessive, interrogative, relative, indefinite, and the special case of the impersonal se.

1. Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns refer to the people (or things) involved in the discourse. Portuguese distinguishes them by person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), number (singular, plural), case (subject, direct object, indirect object, prepositional, reflexive), and register (familiar tu vs polite você vs ultra-formal o senhor / a senhora).

1.1 The master table

Here is every personal pronoun in European Portuguese, in every case.

1.2 Subject pronouns

Subject pronouns name who does the action: eu, tu, ele, ela, você, nós, vós, eles, elas, vocês. Portuguese is a pro-drop language — because the verb ending already encodes the subject, you usually omit the pronoun.

European Portuguese uses tu actively for informal address among family, friends, colleagues of similar rank, and children. Você is polite but used more cautiously than the Brazilian você: in EP, addressing someone directly with você can sound cold or even slightly condescending depending on the context, which is why Portuguese speakers often avoid any form and use the third-person verb alone: Quer um café? (Do you want a coffee?).

O senhor / a senhora is the more respectful polite form, used with strangers, older people, bosses, and in service contexts.

See Subject Pronouns, Tu vs Você, and Você vs O Senhor.

1.3 Direct object pronouns

Direct object pronouns name the thing or person the verb acts on — the "what" of the sentence.

The third-person forms o, a, os, as change shape when they attach to verbs ending in certain consonants or nasal diphthongs. After verbs ending in -r, -s, -z, these letters drop and the pronoun becomes lo, la, los, las (comprar + o → comprá-lo). After verbs ending in a nasal diphthong (-m, -ão, -õe), the pronoun becomes no, na, nos, nas (compram + o → compram-no). This is a big topic on its own — see Direct Object Contractions.

See Direct Object Pronouns and Direct Object Placement.

1.4 Indirect object pronouns

Indirect object pronouns name the recipient or beneficiary of the action — the "to whom" or "for whom."

Notice that in 1st and 2nd persons, direct and indirect forms are identical (me, te, nos, vos). The difference only appears in the 3rd person: o / a / os / as (direct) vs lhe / lhes (indirect). This is the single most important distinction to internalize.

Compare: Vi-o ontem ("I saw him yesterday" — direct object, o) versus Dei-lhe o livro ("I gave him the book" — indirect object, lhe). Same English word "him," but different Portuguese pronoun depending on the verb's argument structure.

See Indirect Object Pronouns and Indirect Object Placement.

1.5 Combined pronouns (me + o, te + a, lhe + os…)

When a verb takes both a direct and an indirect object, and both are pronouns, European Portuguese fuses them into single forms. This is a hallmark of the language.

These combined forms are active, everyday EP speech. In Brazilian Portuguese they are essentially dead — Brazilians restructure to avoid them. If you want your European Portuguese to sound natural, you must master the combined forms.

See Combined Pronouns, Combined Pronoun Order, and related sub-pages.

1.6 Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns appear when the subject and the object are the same entity — the action "comes back" to the doer.

The 1st and 2nd person reflexives look identical to the object pronouns, but their grammatical role is different. The 3rd person has a unique reflexive form se (not o / a / lhe).

European Portuguese uses many reflexive verbs that English does not: lembrar-se de (to remember), esquecer-se de (to forget), queixar-se (to complain), arrepender-se (to regret), sentar-se (to sit down), deitar-se (to lie down). See Reflexive Pronouns and Reflexive Placement.

1.7 Pronouns after prepositions

When a personal pronoun follows a preposition (a, de, em, para, com, por, sem, contra, sobre…), it uses stressed (prepositional) forms, not the clitics.

Special fused forms with com (with): comigo, contigo, consigo, connosco, convosco. These are not optional — com + mim does not exist; it must be comigo.

Si and consigo deserve their own note. Si is a reflexive prepositional pronoun used with a si mesmo, entre si, etc., and also as a polite "you" in EP — parallel to você but a little more formal and common in the Azores and among older speakers.

See Pronouns After Prepositions, Emphatic a mim, and Comigo, Contigo.

1.8 Clitic placement — the heart of EP syntax

European Portuguese places object and reflexive pronouns after the verb by default, attached with a hyphen. This is called ênclise.

But many elements in a sentence trigger proclisis (pronoun before the verb): negation, many conjunctions, most adverbs, wh-words, certain indefinites. This is the EP grammar point that most trips up learners.

In the synthetic future and conditional, the pronoun goes inside the verb, between stem and ending — mesóclise:

Mesoclisis is a dying feature in speech but survives in formal writing. See Clitic Placement Overview, Ênclise, Próclise, Mesóclise, and EU vs Brazil.

2. Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstratives identify which thing is being talked about, by distance from the speaker and listener. Portuguese has a three-way system — unlike English, which has only two (this, that).

The neuter forms isto, isso, aquilo refer to things without identifying a noun — abstract ideas, situations, unidentified objects.

Demonstratives contract with the prepositions de and em: de + este → deste; em + aquele → naquele; de + isto → disto; etc. See Demonstrative Pronouns, Demonstrative Contractions, and Isto, Isso, Aquilo.

3. Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns (which in Portuguese double as possessive adjectives) agree in gender and number with the thing possessed, not with the possessor.

Note that vosso is the possessive used with vocês in modern EP ("your" for "you all"), even though vós (the subject form) is archaic.

Two key EP-specific points:

1. The definite article is normally used before a possessive: o meu carro (my car), not just meu carro. This is different from Brazilian Portuguese, where the article is often omitted.

2. Seu / sua is ambiguous. It can mean "his," "her," "your (singular formal)," or "their / your (plural)." Because of this ambiguity, EP speakers often prefer dele, dela, deles, delas, de você, de vocês in ordinary speech when the referent is not "you."

See Possessive Pronouns, Possessive with Articles, and Seu Ambiguity.

4. Interrogative pronouns

Interrogatives ask questions. The main forms:

The most confusing pair for English speakers is que vs qual:

• Que asks about the type or nature of something (definition).
• Qual asks about identification among known options (selection).

The distinction is not mechanical, and EP uses qual more loosely than traditional grammars suggest. See Interrogative Que vs Qual.

Note the spelling distinction of porque / porquê / por que / por quê:

• Porque (one word) introduces reasons: porque estou cansado (because I'm tired).
• Porquê (one word, accented) is the standalone why?: Porquê?
• Por que (two words) = "for which / for what" in relatives: os motivos por que saí (the reasons for which I left).
• Por quê (two words, accented) is rare in EP but common in BP.

See Interrogative Quem and Interrogative Quanto.

5. Relative pronouns

Relatives introduce subordinate clauses that describe a noun. They are the "which, who, that" of Portuguese.

Cujo is the cleanest relative in Portuguese — it genuinely means "whose" and agrees with the thing possessed, not the possessor. English speakers often forget it exists because they'd use whose in both spoken and written English; in Portuguese, cujo is literary or formal, while speech often restructures with de quem.

See Relative Que, Relative Quem, Relative O Qual, Relative Cujo, and Relative Onde.

6. Indefinite pronouns

Indefinites refer to unspecified or unknown entities. The core set:

A key negation rule: when a negative indefinite (ninguém, nada, nenhum) appears after the verb, the sentence also needs não: Não vi ninguém = I didn't see anyone. When the negative indefinite appears before the verb, não is dropped: Ninguém veio = No one came. This double-negative pattern is standard in Portuguese, as in most Romance languages.

Todo vs tudo: tudo is a fixed neuter pronoun meaning "everything" (no noun after it). Todo (and its forms) agrees with a noun: todo o dia (all day), todos os livros (all the books). Confusing these is a common beginner error.

See Indefinite Pronouns and Algum vs Nenhum.

7. The impersonal "se"

Se is the most overloaded word in the Portuguese pronoun system. It can be:

1. A reflexive pronoun for 3rd person: ele lava-se (he washes himself).
2. A reciprocal pronoun: eles abraçaram-se (they hugged each other).
3. A passive marker: vendem-se casas (houses are sold / for sale).
4. An impersonal subject marker: fala-se português aqui (Portuguese is spoken here / people speak Portuguese here).

Cases 3 and 4 are often grouped together. The distinction: when the verb agrees with a plural noun (vendem-se casas — 3pl agreement), it is passive se; when the verb stays in the 3sg regardless of context (fala-se de política — "one speaks of politics"), it is impersonal se.

Impersonal se is the standard European way to express English one, they (indefinite), you (generic), and the passive voice in ads and signs. Every shop window with Aluga-se (For rent), Vende-se (For sale), or Procura-se (Wanted) uses this structure.

Quick reference: the whole pronoun system at a glance

European vs Brazilian Portuguese: where they diverge

The pronoun system is where the two Portugueses differ most visibly. A few headline differences:

If you are learning EP, use EP norms. The two varieties are mutually intelligible, but an EP speaker immediately notices when a learner has BP patterns, and vice versa.

Common mistakes across all pronoun types

Key takeaways

• Portuguese pronouns fall into seven categories: personal (with five case-like slots), demonstrative (three-way system), possessive (agreeing with the thing possessed), interrogative, relative, indefinite, and the multi-purpose impersonal se.
• Personal pronouns are the biggest system: subject, direct object, indirect object, reflexive, prepositional, and combined (direct + indirect fused). European Portuguese uses combined pronouns actively (mo, to, lho); Brazilian does not.
• Clitic placement is the distinctive EP grammar point: pronouns go after the verb by default, before the verb when triggered (negation, adverbs, conjunctions, wh-words), and inside the verb in the future and conditional (mesoclisis).
• Demonstratives encode a three-way distance system (este / esse / aquele), plus neuter forms (isto / isso / aquilo) for abstract or unidentified references.
• Possessives take the definite article in EP (o meu carro), and seu / sua is often replaced by de + pronoun to avoid ambiguity.
• Indefinites obey a double-negation rule: postverbal ninguém / nada / nenhum requires preverbal não.
• Se is one of the most versatile words in Portuguese: reflexive, reciprocal, passive, impersonal. Reading se in context is a core EP reading skill.
• From here, dive into each subsystem by following the related links. The All Pronouns Reference provides a printable master table.