Portuguese does not have a simple "you." It has a system — three tiers of formality, a verb that changes person depending on which tier you pick, and, in Portugal specifically, an address pronoun (você) that most speakers would rather not utter at all. This page walks through the PT-PT system, contrasts it sharply with the Brazilian one (where você plays a completely different role), and gives you the practical escape hatch that PT-PT speakers use every day: avoiding the second-person pronoun altogether.
If you have been assuming, based on English instinct, that você is the polite form of "you" — stop. In Portugal, using você can sound cold, condescending, or awkwardly intimate depending on the listener. Getting the address system right is the single biggest way for an English speaker, or a Brazilian, to start sounding European.
The three-tier PT-PT system
European Portuguese distinguishes three levels of address, each paired with a specific verb form.
| Level | Pronoun | Verb form | Use with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Informal | tu | 2nd person singular (tu falas, tu fazes) | friends, family, peers, children, pets |
| Semi-formal / distant | você | 3rd person singular (você fala, você faz) | marked, tricky — see below |
| Formal | o senhor / a senhora | 3rd person singular (o senhor fala, a senhora faz) | elderly strangers, customers, clients, officials, superiors |
The critical mechanical point is that the verb form depends on the pronoun, not on the addressee. When you use você or o senhor, the verb is identical to what you would use for ele (he) or ela (she): você fala and ele fala are the same two words. The pronoun carries the second-person meaning; the verb is third-person-singular. This means a sentence like fala muito bem (without an explicit subject) can mean "he/she speaks very well" or "you speak very well" depending on context.
Tu falas muito bem português.
You speak Portuguese very well. (informal — tu)
Você fala muito bem português.
You speak Portuguese very well. (semi-formal or distant)
A senhora fala muito bem português.
You speak Portuguese very well, madam. (formal)
Ela fala muito bem português.
She speaks Portuguese very well. (verb form identical to *você* and *a senhora*)
The PT-PT vs PT-BR divide
This is the single most confusing difference between European and Brazilian Portuguese, and the source of almost all English-speaker embarrassment. The two systems are essentially mirror images of each other at the você end.
| Brazil (PT-BR) | Portugal (PT-PT) | |
|---|---|---|
| tu | regional (Northeast, South, Rio slang); elsewhere absent | universal informal default — everyone uses this with anyone not deserving respect |
| você | the universal neutral "you" — used with everyone except when respect is owed | semi-formal / distant — often feels cold; widely avoided |
| o senhor | formal "you" | formal "you" |
A Brazilian arriving in Portugal who uses você to a shop assistant, a colleague, or a new friend will often find the response surprisingly cool. A Portuguese person arriving in Brazil who uses tu to a stranger on the street may get strange looks or be marked as foreign. Neither is "wrong" — they are speaking different varieties of the same language.
Tu — the informal default
Tu is the pronoun you will use most of the time with anyone roughly your age, anyone in your family, anyone you are getting to know casually. Its verb forms are distinctive — second person singular, with characteristic -s endings in almost every tense.
| Tense | Form |
|---|---|
| Present | tu falas, tu comes, tu partes |
| Pretérito perfeito | tu falaste, tu comeste, tu partiste |
| Imperfect | tu falavas, tu comias, tu partias |
| Future | tu falarás, tu comerás, tu partirás |
| Conditional | tu falarias, tu comerias, tu partirias |
| Present subjunctive | que tu fales, que tu comas, que tu partas |
| Imperative (affirmative) | fala!, come!, parte! |
Irregular tu forms you will hear constantly: tu és (you are), tu estás (you are/feel), tu tens (you have), tu vais (you go), tu fazes (you do/make), tu vês (you see), tu pões (you put), tu queres (you want), tu sabes (you know), tu dizes (you say), tu dás (you give).
Tu vais ao jantar na sexta?
Are you going to the dinner on Friday?
Não acredito que tu nunca tenhas ido ao Porto.
I can't believe you've never been to Porto.
Tu sabes muito bem do que eu estou a falar.
You know very well what I'm talking about.
Se tu soubesses o que ele me disse ontem...
If you knew what he said to me yesterday...
Who gets tu
- Family members — all of them, regardless of age. You use tu with your grandmother, your father, your uncle. This is a notable PT-PT feature: in parts of the North, some older speakers retain você with grandparents, but the Lisbon standard is tu throughout the family.
- Close friends — without exception.
- Children — always. An adult addressing any child uses tu.
- Peers at school or university — by default.
- Colleagues who are social equals — in most modern Portuguese workplaces, tu is the norm among coworkers once introductions are made, though some traditional companies and public-sector environments retain você or 3rd-person avoidance.
- Pets and animals.
- Strangers roughly your age in casual settings — at a bar, at a concert, at a café, most Portuguese under 40 will use tu with someone they have just met who is clearly a peer.
- In informal writing — texts to friends, personal emails, social media posts.
Avó, tu queres um chá?
Grandma, do you want some tea? (family — tu)
Pá, tu viste o jogo ontem?
Dude, did you see the game yesterday? (peers — tu)
Bom dia, querido. Como é que tu dormiste?
Good morning, darling. How did you sleep? (intimate — tu)
Tu és novo aqui no escritório, não és?
You're new here at the office, aren't you? (friendly peer — tu)
Você — the uncomfortable middle
Here is where PT-PT becomes genuinely tricky, and where most learner guides get it wrong. Você exists in PT-PT, but its social position is awkward. Many Portuguese speakers will actively avoid using it with anyone.
The problem is that você signals distance without respect. It says "I am not close enough to you to use tu, but I am not deferring to you enough to use o senhor." In some contexts this reads as coldness, in others as presumption. Native speakers develop a strong intuition that você is often "wrong somehow" — so they sidestep it.
Where você is actually used
- In some northern rural/traditional communities, você serves as the pronoun for grandparents and elderly relatives where Lisbon would use o senhor or a senhora.
- In written professional communication where neither tu (too intimate) nor o senhor (too formal for the context) works — especially in internal business emails, HR communications, and customer service correspondence.
- In customer service scripts, embedded inside the verb form: Posso ajudá-lo? (literally "Can I help you?" — the -lo here is the object form of você / o senhor).
- By speakers expressing deliberate distance or mild disapproval toward someone — a parent to a misbehaving teenager, an annoyed colleague, an ex.
- Sometimes in TV and advertising, to address a generic viewer without committing to tu intimacy.
- In songs and poetry, for rhythm or rhyme, where tu would not scan.
Posso ajudá-lo, senhor?
Can I help you, sir? (shop setting — uses the 3rd-person object form associated with você/o senhor)
Você já decidiu o que vai fazer?
Have you decided what you're going to do? (distant — possibly in a workplace with an estranged colleague)
Se você achar que é melhor, fazemos como você diz.
If you think it's better, we'll do as you say. (written-formal, avoiding *tu*)
Why native speakers avoid você
Ask a Lisbon native when they last used você and they may struggle to remember. The avoidance strategies are so ingrained that você simply does not come up. Here is what native speakers do instead.
The PT-PT escape hatch: the subjectless 3rd person
This is the single most important skill for addressing strangers in Portugal. When you do not want to commit to tu (too familiar) or o senhor (too formal), and você feels uncomfortable, drop the subject pronoun entirely and use the 3rd-person singular verb. The addressee understands from context that you mean them.
Quer um café?
Would you like a coffee? (no explicit pronoun — works for tu, você, or o senhor)
Pode dizer-me as horas, por favor?
Could you tell me the time, please? (register-neutral, completely natural)
Sabe onde fica a estação?
Do you know where the station is? (perfect for asking a stranger for directions)
Desculpe, onde é a casa de banho?
Excuse me, where is the bathroom? (no pronoun needed)
Gostaria de experimentar?
Would you like to try? (shop assistant, completely neutral)
Prefere mesa de fumadores ou não-fumadores?
Do you prefer a smoking or non-smoking table? (restaurant — no pronoun)
Every one of these sentences uses a 3rd-person singular verb form, which in the você / o senhor system doubles as the polite "you" form. By omitting the pronoun, the speaker stays neutral — the sentence works whether the listener expected tu, você, or o senhor. The hearer interprets correctly from context.
O senhor / a senhora — full formal address
For situations where respect is genuinely owed, PT-PT uses o senhor (to a man) or a senhora (to a woman), with 3rd-person singular verb forms. Critically, o senhor takes the definite article — you do not say *senhor alone; you say o senhor.
| Form | Use |
|---|---|
| o senhor | formal address to a man |
| a senhora | formal address to a woman |
| os senhores | formal plural (mixed or male group) |
| as senhoras | formal plural (female group) |
O senhor deseja mais alguma coisa?
Would you like anything else, sir? (waiter, hotel staff — formal)
A senhora pode assinar aqui, se faz favor?
Could you sign here, madam, please? (bank, pharmacy — formal)
Os senhores podem acompanhar-me, por favor.
If you gentlemen could come with me, please. (formal plural — receptionist)
A senhora não se preocupe, nós tratamos disso.
Don't worry, madam, we'll take care of it.
When to use o senhor / a senhora
- Strangers significantly older than you — anyone two decades or more above your age, anyone clearly elderly.
- Customers (if you work in service) — waiters, shop assistants, receptionists default to o senhor / a senhora with every customer.
- Clients and business partners in professional contexts, especially in first meetings.
- Public officials, judges, police officers where they are acting in their official capacity (though police in the street will often address younger citizens with você or 3rd-person).
- In written formal correspondence to recipients whose precise status you don't know.
- When addressing someone with a visible title — you combine the form with the title: o senhor doutor, a senhora professora, o senhor engenheiro.
Boa tarde, senhor Silva, em que posso ser útil?
Good afternoon, Mr. Silva, how can I help? (formal — surname plus senhor)
A senhora doutora pode atender-me hoje?
Could you see me today, doctor? (to a woman lawyer, doctor, or any university graduate)
Obrigada, senhor padre, pela homilia.
Thank you, Father, for the homily. (to a priest — title)
Titles used as address forms
In Portugal, titles saturate the address system. A university graduate — any university graduate — is addressed as senhor doutor or senhora doutora. Getting this right is a specific trap for English speakers, who reserve "Doctor" for medical doctors and PhDs.
| Title | Applies to | Common use |
|---|---|---|
| o senhor doutor / a senhora doutora | any university graduate — lawyers, economists, doctors, engineers with higher degrees | ubiquitous in professional life in Portugal |
| o senhor engenheiro / a senhora engenheira | someone with an engineering degree | in workplaces, on building sites |
| o senhor professor / a senhora professora | teacher (school) or professor (university) | any educator |
| o senhor padre / o senhor cónego | priest / canon | religious contexts |
| o senhor comandante | commander, captain (police, navy, airline) | official settings |
| Vossa Excelência (V. Exa.) | very high officials, diplomats, judges | official correspondence, parliament |
| Vossa Senhoria | archaic / literary; legal documents | older texts, some legal formulae |
Bom dia, senhora doutora. Tenho consulta marcada para as dez.
Good morning, doctor. I have an appointment at ten. (using *doutora* for a medical doctor — could equally be a lawyer)
O senhor engenheiro já viu o projeto revisto?
Have you seen the revised project, sir? (addressing an engineer formally)
Vossa Excelência aprovará a proposta?
Will Your Excellency approve the proposal? (parliamentary / diplomatic)
Peço desculpa, senhor professor, por chegar atrasado.
I apologize, sir, for arriving late. (student to teacher)
Mixing titles with surnames
Adding a surname after the title produces a full formal address that is standard in Portugal.
O senhor doutor Costa atende de manhã.
Dr. Costa sees patients in the morning.
A senhora engenheira Pereira está disponível?
Is Eng. Pereira available?
O senhor Silva veio buscar a encomenda.
Mr. Silva came to pick up the package.
Note that the article o / a is retained even when the surname appears. This is a peculiarity of PT-PT personal address: Portuguese generally uses articles before personal names, and the formal address system follows suit.
In writing: when to be explicit
Written Portuguese, especially formal correspondence, often needs to commit to a pronoun for clarity. In these cases, PT-PT defaults to o senhor / a senhora and the honorific forms, not você.
Formal business emails and letters
Exmo. Senhor Doutor Silva,\n\nAgradeço a sua disponibilidade. Gostaria de confirmar a reunião para a próxima quinta-feira.
Dear Dr. Silva,\n\nThank you for your availability. I would like to confirm the meeting for next Thursday.
Exma. Senhora,\n\nEncontra-se em anexo o contrato que me enviou. Aguardo as suas observações.
Dear Madam,\n\nAttached please find the contract you sent me. I await your comments.
Informal written messages (to someone you use tu with)
Olá, Ana!\n\nTu queres ir ao cinema no sábado? Ligo-te depois para combinar.
Hi Ana!\n\nDo you want to go to the movies on Saturday? I'll call you later to sort it out.
Epá, já viste a hora? Tu disseste que vinhas às oito.
Hey, have you seen the time? You said you were coming at eight.
Closing a letter by register
- With tu: Beijinhos, Um abraço, Até breve, Beijo grande.
- Neutral / semi-formal: Cumprimentos, Os melhores cumprimentos.
- Formal / with o senhor: Atentamente, Com os melhores cumprimentos, Cordialmente.
Plural address: vocês
For "you all" (plural), PT-PT and PT-BR agree: the standard form is vocês, which takes 3rd-person plural verbs. The old 2nd-person plural pronoun vós is effectively dead in modern spoken PT-PT — it survives in religious texts, literary writing, the extreme North of Portugal, and set phrases.
| Plural | Verb | Use |
|---|---|---|
| vocês | 3rd-person plural (vocês falam) | universal plural "you" — informal and neutral |
| os senhores / as senhoras | 3rd-person plural (os senhores falam) | formal plural |
| vós | 2nd-person plural (vós falais) | literary, archaic, religious, some Northern dialects |
Importantly, vocês in PT-PT does NOT carry the distant / formal feeling that você does in the singular. The plural is just the plural — informal and neutral.
Vocês querem vir jantar lá a casa no domingo?
Do you all want to come to my place for dinner on Sunday?
E vocês, o que é que fizeram no fim de semana?
And you — what did you all do on the weekend?
Os senhores aguardem um momento, por favor.
Gentlemen, please wait a moment. (formal plural)
Vós sabeis que a verdade vos libertará.
You know that the truth will set you free. (religious / literary — vós)
Mixing levels: a common learner trap
Once you pick a level of address, stay with it for the whole conversation. Switching between tu and você mid-sentence, or mixing verb forms, is one of the most visible learner errors.
❌ Tu sabes o que ele lhe disse?
Incorrect — the *tu* form should pair with *te* (second-person clitic), not *lhe* (third-person clitic).
✅ Tu sabes o que ele te disse?
Do you know what he said to you? (consistent *tu*-level with *te* clitic)
❌ Você vais comer connosco?
Incorrect — *você* takes 3rd-person verbs, not 2nd-person: not *vais*, but *vai*.
✅ Você vai comer connosco?
Will you eat with us? (consistent *você*-level with *vai*)
Remember: clitics follow the address level.
- tu → te, ti, contigo
- você / o senhor / a senhora → o, a, lhe, si, consigo
- vocês / os senhores → os, as, lhes
Decision tree for choosing your address form
In real time, you rarely think through this. But when in doubt, work through the questions in order.
- Is this someone I already use tu with? → Use tu. Done.
- Is this a family member or a child? → Use tu. Done.
- Am I under ~35 and is this a peer in a casual setting? → Use tu if the vibe is friendly; otherwise drop the pronoun and use 3rd-person.
- Is this someone clearly older than me, or someone in a position of authority? → Use o senhor / a senhora (with title if appropriate).
- Is this a customer, client, patient, or official? → Use o senhor / a senhora.
- None of the above, and I am unsure? → Drop the pronoun and use 3rd-person singular verbs. This is always safe.
Note that você does not appear in this flowchart at all. That is deliberate: for PT-PT, you essentially never need você, and the situations where it fits are niche enough that learners should not prioritize them.
Regional variation in PT-PT
Within Portugal, there are real regional differences in address practice, though they all operate inside the same basic system.
- Lisbon and central Portugal: tu for intimates and peers, o senhor / a senhora for formal, heavy use of 3rd-person-without-pronoun for neutral strangers. Você very rare.
- Northern Portugal (Minho, Trás-os-Montes, parts of the Douro): você appears more often, especially with grandparents, older relatives, and some semi-formal relationships where Lisbon would default to o senhor. This is not "wrong" — it is a regional pattern. Northern speakers also sometimes preserve vós in rural speech.
- Algarve and Alentejo: broadly like Lisbon, with some local flavour.
- Madeira and Azores: island varieties retain some features lost on the mainland; Madeirense sometimes uses vocemecê (archaic version of você) with elders.
Common mistakes
❌ Você quer um café? (to a Portuguese shopkeeper you just met)
In PT-PT, *você* here sounds either cold or presumptuous — not the neutral politeness it is in Brazil.
✅ Quer um café? (or: O senhor quer um café?)
Would you like a coffee? (no pronoun, or o senhor if formal)
❌ Tu é professor? (mixing tu pronoun with 3rd-person verb)
Wrong — *tu* always takes the 2nd-person verb form *és*.
✅ Tu és professor?
Are you a teacher?
❌ Obrigado, você.
In PT-PT you would never end a polite thank-you with *você* like this. It reads as odd, almost confrontational.
✅ Muito obrigado. (Or: Muito obrigado, senhor doutor.)
Thank you very much. (Or with a title for full politeness.)
❌ Como você está, senhor Silva?
Mixing *você* with a formal title is a register clash — pick one or the other.
✅ Como está, senhor Silva?
How are you, Mr. Silva? (no pronoun; the title carries the respect)
❌ Tu vai sair?
Mixing tu-subject with você-verb. Either say *tu vais sair?* or *vais sair?* with no subject pronoun.
✅ Tu vais sair?
Are you going out?
❌ Pode me ajudar?
In PT-PT, clitics in declaratives follow the verb (enclisis): *pode ajudar-me?*.
✅ Pode ajudar-me?
Can you help me? (verb-clitic order; register-neutral 3rd-person)
Key takeaways
- PT-PT has three address tiers: tu (informal), você (semi-formal / distant, widely avoided), o senhor / a senhora (formal).
- tu is your default with family, friends, peers, children, and pets. It takes 2nd-person singular verbs (tu falas, tu és, tu tens).
- você is awkward in PT-PT — unlike in Brazil. Learn to recognize it but avoid producing it until you have strong social intuition.
- o senhor / a senhora is used with elders, customers, clients, officials. It takes 3rd-person singular verbs.
- When in doubt, drop the subject pronoun entirely and use the 3rd-person singular verb form — the universal PT-PT escape hatch.
- Titles saturate the system: senhor doutor, senhora professora, senhor engenheiro — doutor covers any university graduate, not just PhDs or medical doctors.
- Plural: vocês is the universal informal / neutral plural "you." Vós is effectively dead outside literary and religious contexts.
- Once you pick a tier, stay consistent: clitics, possessives, and verb forms must all match.
Related Topics
- Pronoun Placement DifferencesB1 — Enclisis in Portugal, proclisis in Brazil — the clitic placement system that is probably the single most visible grammatical divergence between PT-PT and BR-PT, with attention to mesoclisis and the licensers that override the default.
- Written vs Spoken PortugueseB1 — How European Portuguese grammar, vocabulary, and phonology diverge between the written page and the spoken conversation — and how to navigate the gap.
- Academic Writing StyleB2 — Conventions for European Portuguese academic writing — impersonal voice, hedging, formal connectives, citation norms, and the rhythms of the *resumo* and scholarly essay.