Before you can speak Portuguese fluently, you need a feel for how Portuguese sentences hang together — what comes first, what comes last, and what you are allowed to leave out. This page is the map. It gives you the big picture of sentence structure in European Portuguese: the default word order, the main sentence types, the essential pieces a sentence needs, and the ways Portuguese differs from English. Everything in the Sentences group of this grammar expands on a piece of what you see here. Read this first, and the rest will make sense in context.
The building blocks
A Portuguese sentence, like an English one, is built from a small number of grammatical roles. Understanding these roles — not just memorizing vocabulary — is what lets you read and build any sentence you need.
Subject — the person or thing that performs the action or is being described. In Portuguese the subject is often dropped when the verb ending makes it clear.
Verb — the action, state, or event. Portuguese verbs carry a lot of information: the ending alone tells you who is doing the action and when.
Object — what the action is done to. Portuguese has direct objects (acted on directly) and indirect objects (the recipient).
Complements — adverbs, prepositional phrases, and other extras that add time, place, manner, and reason.
A Maria come uma maçã.
Maria is eating an apple.
A Maria come uma maçã em casa.
Maria is eating an apple at home.
A Maria come uma maçã em casa todos os dias.
Maria eats an apple at home every day.
In each sentence, a Maria is the subject, come is the verb, uma maçã is the direct object. The additions em casa (at home) and todos os dias (every day) are complements of place and time.
The default order: Subject – Verb – Object (SVO)
The unmarked order of a Portuguese sentence is Subject, Verb, Object — the same as English.
O rapaz leu o livro.
The boy read the book.
A minha avó cozinha bacalhau.
My grandmother cooks salt cod.
Os meus amigos gostam de futebol.
My friends like football.
This default is solid and you will rarely go wrong following it. But Portuguese allows considerable flexibility, and native speakers constantly move pieces around for emphasis, contrast, or rhythm. Once you are comfortable with SVO, you will start noticing sentences like Caiu o livro (the book fell, not the book book-fell), Esse filme, já o vi (that film, I've already seen it), and Onde está ele? (where is he?). These are not exceptions — they are a systematic second layer of the language. For now, stick with SVO and let the flexibility grow in later.
Pro-drop: the subject you do not say
One of the first big differences between English and Portuguese is that Portuguese is a pro-drop language — meaning subject pronouns are routinely left out when the verb ending already tells you who is acting.
Falo português.
I speak Portuguese.
Falas inglês?
Do you speak English?
Vamos ao cinema.
We're going to the cinema.
The verb endings -o, -as, -amos signal I, you, we without needing a separate pronoun. In English, Speak Portuguese without I sounds like a command; in Portuguese, Falo português is the natural way to say I speak Portuguese.
You can include the pronoun when you want to emphasize it — when contrasting yourself with someone else, for instance — but doing so in every sentence is a giveaway that the speaker is thinking in English.
Eu falo português, mas ela fala espanhol.
I speak Portuguese, but she speaks Spanish.
The four main sentence types
Portuguese sentences come in four grammatical types based on what they are doing communicatively.
1. Declarative — making a statement
A declarative sentence states a fact, an opinion, or a piece of information. This is the default sentence type and the one you will use most.
Lisboa é a capital de Portugal.
Lisbon is the capital of Portugal.
O comboio chega às seis.
The train arrives at six.
Não trabalho aos domingos.
I don't work on Sundays.
Declarative sentences end with a period and are spoken with a falling intonation.
2. Interrogative — asking a question
A question asks for information. Portuguese makes questions in two main ways.
Yes/no questions — you expect sim or não. In European Portuguese, the word order is usually the same as a statement, and the question is marked by rising intonation (and a question mark in writing).
A Maria está em casa?
Is Maria at home?
Falas inglês?
Do you speak English?
Podes ajudar-me?
Can you help me?
Notice there is no equivalent of English do as an auxiliary question-marker. You simply raise your voice at the end.
Wh-questions — they start with a question word (quem, o que, onde, quando, como, porquê, qual, quantos) and ask for a specific piece of information.
Onde moras?
Where do you live?
O que é isso?
What is that?
Quando chegaste?
When did you arrive?
3. Imperative — giving a command or request
An imperative tells someone to do something. The form depends on who you are addressing and how polite you are being.
Fala mais devagar, por favor.
Speak more slowly, please. (to tu — informal)
Fale mais devagar, por favor.
Speak more slowly, please. (to você / formal)
Não fales assim.
Don't speak like that. (negative imperative)
The imperative uses different verb forms from the indicative. Commands to friends and family use the informal tu form; commands to strangers and in formal settings use the form that matches você.
4. Exclamative — expressing strong feeling
An exclamative expresses surprise, admiration, frustration, or delight. It is often structurally similar to a declarative but delivered with emphasis.
Que dia tão bonito!
What a beautiful day!
Como ela canta bem!
How well she sings!
Que maravilha!
How wonderful!
The words que and como both introduce exclamations, but they target different elements: que + noun or adjective (Que frio! — How cold!), como + clause (Como é difícil! — How hard it is!).
Negative sentences
A negative sentence denies something. Portuguese uses the word não directly before the verb.
Não falo francês.
I don't speak French.
Ela não está aqui.
She isn't here.
Não podemos sair agora.
We can't go out now.
Portuguese also uses double negation — a second negative word in the same sentence does not cancel the não, it reinforces it.
Não vejo ninguém.
I don't see anyone. (literally: I don't see nobody)
Nunca vou a Paris.
I never go to Paris.
Não tenho nada.
I have nothing. (literally: I don't have nothing)
This is the opposite of standard English, where two negatives cancel out. In Portuguese they stack — and the sentence is emphatically negative.
Sentence complexity: simple, compound, complex
Sentences are also classified by how many clauses they contain.
A simple sentence has one main clause — one subject and one main verb.
A menina dorme.
The girl sleeps.
Comprei pão.
I bought bread.
A compound sentence joins two or more independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction like e (and), mas (but), ou (or).
A menina dorme e o menino joga.
The girl is sleeping and the boy is playing.
Estou cansado, mas vou trabalhar.
I'm tired, but I'm going to work.
A complex sentence contains a main clause plus one or more subordinate clauses, which depend on the main clause to make sense.
Quando chegar, ligo-te.
When I arrive, I'll call you.
Dedicated pages in this group cover each type in detail.
Punctuation basics
Portuguese punctuation is similar to English but differs in a few visible ways.
- The comma is used more liberally than in English, especially to set off fronted elements and parenthetical phrases.
- The period ends declarative and imperative sentences. Ellipsis (...) signals an unfinished thought.
- The question mark (?) and exclamation mark (!) appear only at the end of the sentence, not at the beginning as in Spanish (¿, ¡).
- Quotation marks in written Portuguese are often guillemets « » rather than curly quotes. Dialogue in novels is commonly introduced with an em dash (—).
— Queres café? — perguntou ela.
"Do you want coffee?" she asked.
Capitalization
Portuguese capitalizes proper names, the first word of a sentence, and titles of works. Unlike English and German, Portuguese does not capitalize:
- Days of the week: segunda-feira, terça-feira
- Months of the year: janeiro, fevereiro, março
- Names of languages and nationalities (when used as adjectives): falo português, um livro inglês
- Religious terms in most contexts: cristão, muçulmano
Na próxima segunda-feira vamos a Lisboa.
Next Monday we're going to Lisbon.
O meu amigo francês fala muito bem português.
My French friend speaks Portuguese very well.
How Portuguese differs from English at a glance
For an English speaker, five differences stand out when you first meet a Portuguese sentence.
1. You often do not say the subject pronoun. Portuguese is pro-drop. The verb ending does the job of I, he, they.
2. Adjectives usually come after the noun. Uma casa bonita (a beautiful house), not uma bonita casa — though there are exceptions for emphasis and for certain adjectives like bom, grande, pequeno, velho.
3. Questions have no do auxiliary. You simply raise your voice: Falas inglês?
4. Double negatives are standard. Não vejo nada means I don't see anything, not I do see something.
5. Articles appear where English would leave them out. Gosto do chocolate (I like chocolate — literally I like of-the chocolate), O Pedro é médico (Pedro is a doctor). Definite articles are used with general categories and with people's names.
The rest of this group
The other pages in the Sentences group zoom in on specific structures. A quick map:
- SVO Word Order — the default order in more detail, plus when speakers deviate from it
- Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences — how clauses combine
- Declarative Sentences — making statements of fact
- Yes/No Questions and Wh-Questions — the two kinds of interrogative
- Negative Sentences — não and the system of negative words
- Imperative Sentences — giving commands and making requests
- Exclamative Sentences — expressing strong feeling
- Existential Sentences — há (there is, there are) and related forms
- Conditional Sentences — se clauses and their tenses
- Passive Sentences — moving the object into subject position
- Word Order Flexibility and Subject Inversion — the second layer of Portuguese syntax
- Impersonal Sentences — se constructions where there is no specific subject
- Tag Questions, Echo Questions, Embedded Questions — special question types
Work through them in whatever order best suits your level and needs. At A1, focus on SVO, simple sentences, declaratives, basic yes/no questions, and negation. Everything else will fall into place as you encounter it.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu falo eu português.
Incorrect — subject pronouns are almost always dropped after being established.
✅ Falo português.
I speak Portuguese.
❌ Fala você inglês?
Awkward — using 'você' in every sentence sounds stiff and unnatural in European Portuguese.
✅ Fala inglês?
Do you speak English? (formal context; subject is understood)
❌ Não vejo alguém.
Incorrect — a negated verb must pair with a negative word, not an indefinite.
✅ Não vejo ninguém.
I don't see anyone.
❌ Maria é professora.
Incorrect — Portuguese uses the definite article with people's names.
✅ A Maria é professora.
Maria is a teacher.
❌ Uma bonita casa.
Not wrong, but unusual — most adjectives follow the noun in Portuguese.
✅ Uma casa bonita.
A beautiful house.
❌ Nunca não vou ao cinema.
Incorrect — when the negative word precedes the verb, 'não' is not used.
✅ Nunca vou ao cinema.
I never go to the cinema.
Key Takeaways
- Default order is Subject – Verb – Object, but Portuguese allows considerable flexibility.
- Portuguese is pro-drop: subject pronouns are dropped when the verb ending makes the subject clear.
- Four sentence types: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamative.
- Negation uses não before the verb; double negatives are standard and reinforce negation.
- Sentences can be simple (one clause), compound (two or more independent clauses joined with conjunctions), or complex (main clause plus subordinate clauses).
- Don't translate English word by word — listen for how a native speaker would frame the idea.
Related Topics
- Subject-Verb-Object Word OrderA1 — The default Portuguese sentence order — plus when and why speakers deviate from it.
- Simple SentencesA1 — Single-clause sentences in Portuguese — the smallest complete unit of meaning, with one subject and one main verb.
- Compound SentencesA2 — Two or more independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions like e, mas, ou, porém — each side could stand alone as its own sentence.
- Complex SentencesA2 — Main clauses with dependent subordinate clauses joined by que, quando, se, porque, embora, and other subordinators.
- Declarative SentencesA1 — The default sentence type used to make statements — affirmative or negative — with standard SVO word order.
- Yes/No QuestionsA1 — How to ask questions that expect sim or não — using intonation, the é que frame, and echo-verb answers.
- Negative SentencesA1 — How to make sentences negative in Portuguese — using não, double negation with words like ninguém and nunca, and clitic effects on pronoun placement.
- Imperative Sentences (Commands, Instructions, Requests)A2 — How Portuguese gives orders, makes requests, and softens commands — with a focus on tu/você imperatives, negative forms, and politeness strategies.
- Subject Pronouns with VerbsA1 — Eu, tu, ele/ela, nós, vós, eles/elas and when to include or omit them
- Conjugation BasicsA1 — How Portuguese verbs change form to express person, number, tense, and mood