Pronouns After Prepositions (Mim, Ti, Si, Ele, Ela...) | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

Every Portuguese preposition — para, de, em, por, sobre, entre, sem, a, contra, perante, segundo, durante, and dozens of others — takes a special set of pronouns after it. These prepositional pronouns (sometimes called disjunctive or stressed pronouns) are the forms used whenever a pronoun is the object of a preposition: "para mim" (for me), "de ti" (of you), "com ele" (with him), "entre nós" (between us). The paradigm is short — nine forms — but there are two irregularities (mim and ti instead of eu and tu) and one preposition (com) with its own special fused forms. This page lays out the full system.

The paradigm

Person	Subject form	Prepositional form	Meaning
1sg	eu	mim	me
2sg familiar	tu	ti	you
3sg reflexive	—	si	oneself / (colloquially) you (formal)
3sg masc.	ele	ele	him, it
3sg fem.	ela	ela	her, it
3sg formal	você	você	you (formal)
3sg honorific	o senhor / a senhora	o senhor / a senhora	you (very formal)
1pl	nós	nós	us
2pl (archaic)	vós	vós	you (pl., archaic)
2pl modern	vocês	vocês	you all
3pl masc.	eles	eles	them (m.)
3pl fem.	elas	elas	them (f.)

The only forms that differ from the subject pronouns are the first three: mim (instead of eu), ti (instead of tu), and the reflexive si (new form, not a variant of ele/ela). All others are identical to the subject pronouns — ele, ela, nós, vós, eles, elas appear unchanged after prepositions.

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Portuguese's prepositional paradigm is simpler than Spanish's — Spanish has mí (with accent), ti, sí, then switches back to él, ella, nosotros. Portuguese's mim and ti look more different from the subject forms than their Spanish cousins, but the underlying pattern is the same.

The first-person singular: mim

Mim replaces eu after every preposition except com (where the fused form comigo is used — see Comigo, Contigo).

Este presente é para mim?

Is this present for me?

Não tenho nada contra ti, muito menos contra mim.

I have nothing against you, much less against myself.

Sem mim, aquilo nunca teria acontecido.

Without me, that would never have happened.

Eles falam muito de mim às minhas costas.

They talk about me a lot behind my back.

Confiou em mim desde o primeiro dia.

He trusted me from day one.

Isto fica entre ti e mim — não contes a ninguém.

This stays between you and me — don't tell anyone.

Note that mim is used after all the common prepositions: para, de, em, por, sobre, sem, contra, entre, sob, and many more. The only exception, again, is com → comigo.

The second-person singular familiar: ti

Ti replaces tu after every preposition except com (→ contigo).

Este livro é para ti.

This book is for you.

Estou sempre a pensar em ti.

I'm always thinking about you.

Ninguém sabe mais do que tu sobre isto, exceto talvez a tua mãe — e ela aprendeu contigo.

Nobody knows more about this than you, except maybe your mother — and she learned from you.

Sem ti, a festa não é a mesma coisa.

Without you, the party isn't the same.

Queres falar de ti ou preferes que fale eu?

Do you want to talk about yourself, or would you rather I speak?

As with mim, ti is restricted to contexts where you would address the person as tu — i.e., familiar, with friends, family, children. If you're speaking to someone you'd call você, you switch to para si (colloquial) or para você (more neutral).

The third-person reflexive: si

Si is unique to Portuguese's third-person reflexive paradigm. It refers back to the subject when the subject is third person (ele, ela, eles, elas, or an impersonal alguém, uma pessoa).

Ele só pensa em si próprio.

He only thinks of himself.

Ela não confia em si mesma desde aquele fracasso.

She hasn't trusted herself since that failure.

Cada um cuida de si.

Each one takes care of himself.

Não trouxeram comida para si — contavam connosco.

They didn't bring food for themselves — they were counting on us.

O ditador reservou todas as decisões para si.

The dictator reserved all decisions for himself.

Si is strictly reflexive in formal/written European Portuguese. It is frequently reinforced with próprio, própria, mesmo, mesma to avoid ambiguity:

Ela desenhou o retrato para si própria.

She drew the portrait for herself.

Eles guardaram o dinheiro para si mesmos.

They kept the money for themselves.

The colloquial "para si" meaning "for you (formal)"

In colloquial European Portuguese — especially in customer-service contexts, addressing strangers politely, or any situation calling for polite-você — speakers use si non-reflexively to mean "you (formal)":

Este bolo é para si, senhora.

This cake is for you, madam. (colloquial polite, not reflexive)

Tenho uma pergunta para si.

I have a question for you. (polite, stranger)

Reservei uma mesa para si, doutor.

I've reserved a table for you, doctor.

In careful writing, this use is sometimes frowned on — prescriptive grammarians prefer para você. But in practice, "para si" is the most common polite form in Portugal, and learners must recognize and use it.

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European Portuguese speakers use si for polite "you" (like você), but Brazilian speakers almost never do. The whole consigo / para si / sobre si = "with / for / about you" pattern is a distinctively Portuguese habit. In Brazil, para você is universal.

Third-person non-reflexive: ele, ela, você, o senhor / a senhora

When the pronoun after a preposition refers to someone who is not the subject, Portuguese uses the ordinary subject forms: ele, ela, você, o senhor, a senhora.

Falei com ele ontem sobre o projecto.

I spoke with him yesterday about the project.

Esta carta é para ela.

This letter is for her.

Pensei em você durante toda a viagem.

I thought about you during the whole trip. (formal)

Isto é para o senhor assinar.

This is for you (sir) to sign.

Ouvi falar muito bem de si, doutora.

I've heard very good things about you, doctor. (EP polite)

Contrasting "reflexive si" with "non-reflexive ele / ela"

This is a subtle but important distinction. Compare:

Ele olhou para si (próprio) no espelho.

He looked at himself in the mirror. (reflexive — subject and object are the same)

Ele olhou para ele no espelho.

He looked at him in the mirror. (non-reflexive — two different men)

The first sentence says one man looked at his own reflection. The second says one man looked at another man in the mirror. The choice of si vs ele encodes reflexivity.

Similarly:

Ela trouxe a mochila consigo.

She brought the backpack with her(self). (reflexive)

Ela trouxe a mochila com ela.

Ambiguous, but tendency is non-reflexive: she brought the backpack with her (another woman). To be unambiguously reflexive, use 'consigo'.

In practice, com ela is so common that native speakers often use it reflexively too, relying on context. But the careful distinction lives in the grammar.

First-person plural: nós

Nós remains unchanged after prepositions.

Este projecto depende de nós.

This project depends on us.

Entre nós, acho que ele está a mentir.

Between us, I think he's lying.

Eles já não confiam em nós como antes.

They don't trust us like they used to.

Há uma tradição em nós os portugueses de reclamar do tempo.

There's a tradition among us Portuguese of complaining about the weather.

After com, nós fuses to connosco (EP) / conosco (BP).

Second-person plural: vós (archaic) and vocês (modern)

Vós is archaic — used in liturgy, poetry, and formal oratory, or in certain northern dialects. After prepositions it stays as vós:

Deus olhe por vós.

May God watch over you (pl.). (archaic/religious)

Vocês is the modern plural "you," and it remains vocês after all prepositions:

Este presente é para vocês.

This present is for all of you.

Estou a falar de vocês, não de outros.

I'm talking about you, not about others.

Não posso fazer isto sem vocês.

I can't do this without you all.

After com: archaic convosco, modern com vocês.

Third-person plural: eles, elas

Eles (masc./mixed) and elas (fem.) remain unchanged after prepositions.

Passámos a tarde com eles na quinta dos pais.

We spent the afternoon with them at their parents' farm.

Saí sem eles terem acabado o jantar.

I left without them having finished dinner.

Lembro-me sempre delas com muito carinho.

I always remember them (f.) with great affection.

Note the contractions: de + eles → deles, de + elas → delas, em + eles → neles, em + elas → nelas, and similar with o, os, a, as, este, esse, aquele, etc. These are not pronouns changing form — they are contractions of preposition + pronoun/article/demonstrative.

Não me lembro deles — foi há muito tempo.

I don't remember them — it was a long time ago.

Depositei confiança nelas desde o início.

I put trust in them (f.) from the start.

The only exception: com

As emphasized throughout, the preposition com behaves uniquely: it fuses with 1sg, 2sg, reflexive, 1pl, and archaic 2pl into the fused forms comigo, contigo, consigo, connosco, convosco. See Comigo, Contigo for the full treatment.

For third-person non-reflexive com, the pronoun stays separate: com ele, com ela, com você, com eles, com elas.

Common prepositions and examples

Here is a quick reference of frequent prepositions with prepositional pronouns:

Preposition	Example	Translation
para	para mim, para ti, para ele	for me, for you, for him
de	de mim, de ti, dele	of me, of you, of him (contraction)
em	em mim, em ti, nele	in me, in you, in him (contraction)
por	por mim, por ti, por ele	by me, by you, by him
sobre	sobre mim, sobre ti	about me, about you
entre	entre mim e ti	between you and me
sem	sem mim, sem ti	without me, without you
contra	contra mim, contra ti	against me, against you
perante	perante mim, perante si	before me, before oneself
a	a mim, a ti, a ele	to me, to you, to him (emphatic)

"Entre" is special

With the preposition entre ("between"), modern Portuguese allows either prepositional pronouns or — in a few fixed expressions — subject pronouns:

Entre mim e ti não há segredos.

Between you and me there are no secrets. (standard)

Entre eu e tu nada mudou. (regional/colloquial, non-standard)

Between you and me nothing has changed. (some speakers, non-standard)

The standard form is entre mim e ti. The variant entre eu e tu is occasionally heard in spoken Portuguese but is widely considered incorrect in careful speech.

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English speakers often produce "between you and I" in English too, by hypercorrection. The rule is the same in Portuguese: after entre, use the prepositional forms mim, ti, not the subject forms eu, tu.

"Segundo, conforme" and the exception for subject pronouns

A handful of prepositions (or preposition-like words) — segundo ("according to"), conforme ("as, according to"), exceto ("except"), salvo ("except, save"), menos ("except") — allow subject pronouns rather than prepositional pronouns:

Segundo eu, isto não faz sentido.

According to me, this makes no sense.

Conforme tu disseste, não há dinheiro.

As you said, there's no money.

Toda a gente foi convidada exceto eu.

Everyone was invited except me.

Ninguém sabia, salvo tu.

Nobody knew, except you.

This quirk is historical: these words are not pure prepositions — they introduce small clauses and therefore take subject forms. It's a small exception to memorize.

Register notes

Mim, ti, si, nós, eles, elas are register-neutral — used at every level of formality.
Si as polite "you" is (colloquial) or (regional: Portugal) — extremely common in European Portuguese but rare in Brazilian.
Vós is (archaic) or (literary, religious).
O senhor / a senhora is (formal).

Comparison with Spanish

Spanish has mí, ti, sí (accent-marked to distinguish from si "if") — exactly parallel to Portuguese mim, ti, si. The remainder of the Spanish paradigm uses subject forms: él, ella, usted, nosotros, vosotros, ellos, ellas. Differences:

Spanish mí has an accent; Portuguese mim does not.
Portuguese mim ends in -m (a nasal); Spanish mí ends in a vowel. They are etymologically the same but spell differently.
Portuguese si has the extra polite "you" use that Spanish does not.
Portuguese nós = Spanish nosotros (Portuguese does not have a gender-marked form like Spanish nosotras).
Portuguese uses connosco, convosco (fused forms); Spanish uses con nosotros, con vosotros (unfused).

Comparison with French

French has disjunctive pronouns moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles, which are used after prepositions and for emphasis. The functions are parallel to Portuguese prepositional pronouns, but the forms are completely different:

pour moi = para mim
sans toi = sem ti
avec lui = com ele
entre nous = entre nós

French has no reflexive pronoun like si — reflexivity is expressed through the clitic se, and after prepositions French uses soi in impersonal contexts only (chacun pour soi ≈ cada um para si).

Comparison with English

English uses the object form of pronouns after prepositions: for me, to you, about him, with us, on them. There is no separate "prepositional" paradigm — English has only two cases (nominative and accusative/oblique), and the accusative does double duty for direct object, indirect object, and prepositional object. Portuguese, by contrast, has distinct forms for each.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Using subject pronouns after prepositions

❌ Este livro é para eu.

Incorrect — after 'para', use 'mim'.

✅ Este livro é para mim.

This book is for me.

❌ Isto é de tu.

Incorrect — use 'de ti'.

✅ Isto é de ti.

This is from you.

Mistake 2: Using para mim when a verb follows (personal infinitive trap)

This is one of the most frequent traps for English speakers. "For me to do something" is expressed in Portuguese with the personal infinitive, with eu — not para mim fazer:

❌ Este é o momento para mim falar.

Incorrect — 'para + mim' doesn't work when a verb follows.

✅ Este é o momento para eu falar.

This is the moment for me to speak.

❌ É importante para mim estudar.

Incorrect — use 'para eu estudar' (personal infinitive).

✅ É importante para eu estudar.

It's important for me to study.

The rule: para + pronoun + verb uses subject pronouns (para eu, para tu, para ele); para + pronoun (with no verb) uses prepositional pronouns (para mim, para ti, para ele). See Personal Infinitive.

Mistake 3: Forgetting that com has its own forms

❌ Vem com mim.

Incorrect — 'com' fuses: use 'comigo'.

✅ Vem comigo.

Come with me.

Mistake 4: Using si as a non-reflexive third person in writing

❌ (narrative, written) A Ana olhou para si, e o João olhou para si também.

Ambiguous — if João looked at Ana, the second 'si' is wrong; it should be 'para ela'.

✅ A Ana olhou para si, e o João olhou para ela.

Ana looked at herself, and João looked at her.

Si always refers back to the subject in careful writing. If the referent is a different third person, use ele/ela.

Mistake 5: Hypercorrection with entre eu e tu

❌ Entre eu e tu, isto é um disparate.

Non-standard — use prepositional forms.

✅ Entre mim e ti, isto é um disparate.

Between you and me, this is nonsense.

Mistake 6: Using accent-marked mí (Spanish influence)

❌ Para mí, isto é óbvio.

That's Spanish — Portuguese writes 'mim' with no accent.

✅ Para mim, isto é óbvio.

For me, this is obvious.

Key Takeaways

The prepositional paradigm has three special forms: mim (1sg), ti (2sg familiar), si (3sg reflexive, also polite "you" in EP).
All other persons use the same form as the subject: ele, ela, você, nós, vós, vocês, eles, elas.
The preposition com has its own fused forms: comigo, contigo, consigo, connosco, convosco.
Before an infinitive verb (para eu falar), use subject pronouns, not prepositional ones.
Si is reflexive — reinforced with próprio/mesmo when needed. In EP, it also serves as polite "you" in colloquial speech.
Prepositional pronouns are the building blocks of the emphatic construction (see Emphatic Prepositional Pronouns).