Coordination | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

Coordination (coordenação) is the syntactic operation that joins two or more elements of equal grammatical rank. You can coordinate nouns (pão e queijo), adjectives (simpático e divertido), verb phrases (chegou e sentou-se), whole clauses (o João canta e a Maria toca), and even full sentences (Está a chover. E está frio.). The unifying feature is equality: neither element depends on the other grammatically, and in most cases you could reorder them without changing grammaticality. This is what distinguishes coordination from subordination, where one clause is embedded inside another as a dependent.

Because coordination is so fundamental, Portuguese develops a rich toolkit around it: a small inventory of high-frequency conjunctions, correlative pairs that bracket and balance, agreement rules that depend on the conjunction, and extensive ellipsis that keeps coordinated structures compact. This page works through each layer — from the simplest e to the subtle gapping and right-node raising that keep coordinate prose from becoming repetitive.

The coordinators: a closed-class inventory

Portuguese coordinators are a small, closed set. Once you know them, you know all of them — there are no productive innovations the way there are in, say, the adverbial system.

Coordinator	Type	Meaning	Register
e	additive	and	neutral
nem	additive negative	nor, and not	neutral
ou	alternative	or	neutral
mas	adversative	but	neutral
porém	adversative	however	formal
contudo	adversative	however, nonetheless	formal
todavia	adversative	nevertheless	formal
entretanto	adversative / temporal	however, meanwhile	formal
pois	explanatory / conclusive	for, so	neutral
porquanto	explanatory	inasmuch as	literary
portanto	conclusive	therefore	neutral
logo	conclusive	so, hence	neutral
assim	conclusive	thus	neutral

The workhorses of everyday Portuguese are e, ou, mas, nem. The formal adversatives (porém, contudo, todavia) are essay register — you write them, you rarely say them. Porquanto is genuinely literary and would sound stilted in speech. The conclusives (portanto, logo, assim) stretch across registers.

Comprei pão e queijo.

I bought bread and cheese.

Não tenho tempo nem paciência.

I have neither time nor patience.

Podes ir de metro ou de autocarro.

You can go by metro or by bus.

Está cansada, mas vai continuar a trabalhar.

She's tired, but she's going to keep working.

What can be coordinated

The general rule: like coordinates with like. Two nouns, two verb phrases, two clauses, two prepositional phrases — but not, under normal circumstances, a noun with a verb phrase, or an adjective with a prepositional phrase. This is the parallelism constraint and it governs all good coordination.

Coordinated nouns

A Ana e o João moram em Braga.

Ana and João live in Braga.

O café, o chá e a água estão na cozinha.

The coffee, the tea, and the water are in the kitchen.

Coordinated adjectives

O apartamento é pequeno, mas acolhedor.

The apartment is small but cosy.

Foi uma decisão difícil e corajosa.

It was a difficult and brave decision.

Coordinated verbs or verb phrases

Acordei e saí imediatamente.

I woke up and left right away.

Chegou, bateu à porta e entrou.

He arrived, knocked at the door, and came in.

Coordinated prepositional phrases

O livro está em cima da mesa ou debaixo da cama.

The book is on the table or under the bed.

Trabalha de manhã e à noite.

She works in the morning and at night.

Coordinated clauses

O sol está a brilhar e as crianças estão no jardim.

The sun is shining and the children are in the garden.

Tentei ligar-te, mas não atendeste.

I tried to call you, but you didn't pick up.

The parallelism is what holds the coordination together — what is on the left of the conjunction should be of the same syntactic category as what is on the right.

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A simple test for good coordination: can you substitute each coordinated element individually into the same sentence and have it work? A Ana mora em Braga and o João mora em Braga both work, so A Ana e o João moram em Braga works. If one of the "coordinated" elements does not fit the slot on its own, the coordination is broken.

Asyndeton: coordination without the coordinator

Asyndeton (assíndeto) is coordination where the conjunction is suppressed. The clauses or phrases are simply set side by side, usually with commas. The effect is rhetorical: rapidity, weight, rhythm.

Vim, vi, venci.

I came, I saw, I conquered.

Chegou, tirou o casaco, sentou-se.

He arrived, took off his coat, sat down.

Tenho frio, fome, sono.

I'm cold, hungry, sleepy.

Asyndeton is standard in lists of three items where the rhythm matters; in longer prose, it tends to feel literary. Writers reach for it to compress a series of actions or states into a single breath.

Polysyndeton: repeating the coordinator

The mirror image of asyndeton: polysyndeton (polissíndeto) repeats the coordinator for emphasis. Instead of one e at the end of a list, each element gets its own e or nem.

Comprei pão e queijo e fiambre e azeitonas.

I bought bread and cheese and ham and olives.

Nem ele ouve, nem ele vê, nem ele fala.

He neither hears, nor sees, nor speaks.

E a chuva caía, e o vento soprava, e a noite não acabava.

And the rain fell, and the wind blew, and the night would not end.

The effect is either accumulation (piling up elements for comic or descriptive weight) or solemnity (the biblical rhythm of "and X and Y and Z"). Polysyndeton is a stylistic choice, not a neutral option — use it only when the emphasis is wanted.

Correlative coordinators

Portuguese has several correlative pairs that bracket coordinated elements with matched markers on both sides. These are emphatic constructions, often formal, and they ensure the coordination reads as balanced.

Correlative	Meaning	Register
nem... nem...	neither... nor...	neutral
ou... ou...	either... or...	neutral
não só... mas também...	not only... but also...	formal-neutral
não só... como também...	not only... but also...	formal
tanto... quanto...	both... and... / as much... as...	formal
tanto... como...	both... and...	neutral
quer... quer...	whether... or...	formal
ora... ora...	now... now... (alternating)	literary
já... já...	now... now...	literary

Nem o João nem a Maria estiveram presentes.

Neither João nor Maria was present.

Ou estudas ou trabalhas — não podes fazer as duas coisas a meio.

Either you study or you work — you can't do both half-heartedly.

Não só fala português, mas também escreve com uma clareza impressionante.

Not only does he speak Portuguese, he also writes with impressive clarity.

Tanto os pais como os filhos ficaram satisfeitos com a decisão.

Both the parents and the children were happy with the decision.

Quer chova, quer faça sol, o jogo realiza-se.

Whether it rains or shines, the match will go ahead.

Ora ria, ora chorava — ninguém percebia o que se passava.

Now laughing, now crying — no one could tell what was going on.

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The correlative não só... mas também is a signature move of Portuguese essayistic writing. If you want your prose to sound like educated Portuguese journalism or academic writing, work this pair into your repertoire. In conversation, prefer the simpler e também.

Agreement: verbs with coordinate subjects

When two or more subjects are coordinated, verb agreement depends on the coordinator and sometimes on the semantic relationship between the subjects. This is one of the subtle areas of Portuguese grammar where prescriptive and descriptive rules diverge.

Coordination with e: plural agreement (3pl)

Two singular subjects joined by e take a plural verb. This is the easy case.

O João e a Maria comem fora aos domingos.

João and Maria eat out on Sundays.

O pai e o filho chegaram ao mesmo tempo.

The father and son arrived at the same time.

If the subjects are of different persons, the verb takes the plural form of whichever person is lowest on the hierarchy 1 > 2 > 3. So eu + tu → 1pl (nós); eu + ele → 1pl (nós); tu + ele → 2pl (vós, prescriptively):

Tu e eu vamos ao cinema.

You and I are going to the cinema.

A Ana e eu estamos cansadas.

Ana and I are tired.

Tu e o teu irmão falais muito alto. (formal EP with vós)

You and your brother speak very loudly. (formal EP)

In everyday EP, vós is essentially obsolete, so the last pattern is rare; speakers reorganise with vocês or split the subjects.

Coordination with ou: either 3sg or 3pl

With ou, the choice is less fixed. Prescriptive grammars allow both, and the preference depends on whether the alternatives are genuinely exclusive (favouring 3sg) or cumulative (favouring 3pl).

O João ou a Maria vem buscar-te.

João or Maria will come pick you up. (3sg — only one will come)

O João ou a Maria servem igualmente bem para o cargo.

João or Maria would do equally well for the role. (3pl — either is viable)

In practice, 3sg is the more frequent choice with ou, especially when the speaker has a single referent in mind even if uncertain which. The 3pl reading emerges when the two alternatives are construed collectively.

Coordination with nem: ambivalent, prescriptively 3sg

Nem... nem... is the most debated case. Traditional grammars prefer 3sg (one logical alternative at a time), while spoken EP frequently uses 3pl (the two negative alternatives taken as a set).

Nem o João nem a Maria veio à reunião.

Neither João nor Maria came to the meeting. (prescriptive 3sg)

Nem o João nem a Maria vieram à reunião.

Neither João nor Maria came to the meeting. (descriptive 3pl — very common in speech)

Either is acceptable in modern EP. Style guides and careful written prose prefer the 3sg; natural speech tilts toward 3pl. Learners should recognise both and choose based on the register they are aiming for.

Coordination with correlative tanto... como...

This pair reliably triggers plural agreement, because it explicitly coordinates the subjects as a cumulative pair.

Tanto o João como a Maria estudaram medicina.

Both João and Maria studied medicine.

Tanto a empresa como os funcionários beneficiam desta política.

Both the company and the employees benefit from this policy.

Ellipsis in coordination

Portuguese allows extensive ellipsis (elipse) in coordinate structures. Repeated elements can be omitted from the second conjunct when they are recoverable from the first. This is what gives coordinate prose its compactness.

Subject ellipsis (pro-drop across conjuncts)

Because Portuguese is pro-drop, a coordinated sequence with the same subject naturally drops the subject in the second clause.

A Ana chegou e sentou-se.

Ana arrived and sat down.

Acordei cedo, tomei o pequeno-almoço e saí para trabalhar.

I woke up early, had breakfast, and left for work.

Repeating the subject (A Ana chegou e ela sentou-se) sounds overblown unless you are marking contrast.

Verb ellipsis (gapping)

When the same verb is understood in the second conjunct, it can be omitted — often signalled by a comma. This is called gapping.

O João bebe café e a Maria, chá.

João drinks coffee and Maria, tea.

Ontem choveu muito; hoje, nem uma gota.

Yesterday it rained a lot; today, not a drop.

Eu vou para o norte; ela, para o sul.

I'll go north; she, south.

Gapping works best when the two halves of the coordination are clearly parallel. English uses gapping too, but Portuguese tolerates it in a wider range of contexts.

Right-node raising

When two coordinated clauses share an identical final element (an object, a PP, or both), Portuguese can move the shared element to the end, out of both clauses — a construction called right-node raising.

Ela comprou e ele leu o livro.

She bought and he read the book.

Os miúdos correm e os adultos caminham pela marginal.

The kids run and the adults walk along the promenade.

Preciso de falar com, e se possível convencer, o chefe.

I need to speak with — and if possible convince — the boss.

The shared element (o livro, pela marginal, o chefe) appears only once, at the end, but is interpreted as the object/complement of both coordinated verbs. Right-node raising is a compact construction characteristic of careful writing; in speech, it can feel a little formal.

VP ellipsis with também and nem

When a subject performs the same action as another, Portuguese uses também (too) or nem (neither) to elide the VP.

A Ana fala francês, e o João também.

Ana speaks French, and João does too.

Não como carne, e o meu marido também não.

I don't eat meat, and my husband doesn't either.

Ela nunca foi ao Brasil; eu também não.

She has never been to Brazil; neither have I.

The VP after também is implicit — recovered from the first clause. Portuguese também corresponds to English "too" or "also"; the negative form is também não or nem itself.

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Unlike English, Portuguese does not have a "do"-support system for VP ellipsis. You cannot say *eu faço também meaning "I do too" — you just say eu também. The pronoun plus também is the whole response.

Punctuation in coordinate structures

Portuguese punctuation in coordination follows several conventions worth knowing.

No comma before e in ordinary lists

Unlike English (and its famous Oxford comma), Portuguese does not put a comma before e in simple three-item lists.

Comprei pão, queijo e fiambre.

I bought bread, cheese, and ham.

Comma before mas

Adversative mas usually takes a comma before it — the contrast warrants a brief pause.

Estou cansada, mas vou continuar.

I'm tired, but I'll keep going.

Semicolon or period before formal adversatives

Porém, contudo, todavia, entretanto are heavy enough to justify a semicolon or even a full stop, with the adversative opening a new sentence.

O plano era ambicioso; contudo, faltava-lhe financiamento.

The plan was ambitious; however, it lacked funding.

A equipa trabalhou no duro. Porém, os resultados não chegaram.

The team worked hard. However, the results didn't come.

Commas in complex lists

When coordinate items themselves contain commas (dates, descriptions), Portuguese writers often use semicolons between items to avoid confusion.

Estiveram presentes: a Ana, diretora de marketing; o João, chefe de vendas; e o Pedro, consultor externo.

Present: Ana, marketing director; João, sales chief; and Pedro, external consultant.

Coordination and focus

Coordination can itself mark focus. A sentence like O João e a Maria comem fora aos domingos emphasises the pair; Tanto o João como a Maria comem fora aos domingos makes the pair more prominent still; Até o João come fora aos domingos (using the additive focus particle até) flags João as a surprising addition. The coordinator choice, plus any additive focus markers, shapes how the information structure reads.

Chegaram todos: o João, a Maria, a Ana, o Pedro.

Everyone arrived: João, Maria, Ana, Pedro.

Até o meu pai veio à festa.

Even my father came to the party.

Tanto os meus pais como os meus sogros vão jantar connosco.

Both my parents and my in-laws are having dinner with us.

Register-sensitive coordinator choice

Because coordinators cluster by register, swapping one for another shifts the whole sentence's formality.

Casual	Neutral	Formal
e	e	e, bem como, ademais (essayistic)
mas	mas, no entanto	porém, contudo, todavia
ou	ou	ou, ou ainda
por isso, então	portanto, logo	por conseguinte, destarte, assim sendo
porque / que	pois	porquanto, uma vez que (subordinate)

Estou cansado, mas vou trabalhar.

I'm tired, but I'm going to work. (neutral)

Estou cansado; porém, vou trabalhar.

I'm tired; however, I'm going to work. (formal)

The propositions are identical; the register is different. Choosing the right coordinator for the situation is part of adult Portuguese competence.

Common Mistakes

❌ O João e a Maria come fora aos domingos.

Incorrect — coordinate plural subject requires plural verb.

✅ O João e a Maria comem fora aos domingos.

João and Maria eat out on Sundays.

Coordinated subjects with e always trigger plural verb agreement. Missing this is a basic agreement error.

❌ Comprei pão, e queijo, e fiambre.

Over-punctuated — ordinary three-item lists don't use the Oxford comma in PT.

✅ Comprei pão, queijo e fiambre.

I bought bread, cheese, and ham.

Portuguese punctuation does not use the Oxford comma. One comma between items, no comma before the final e.

❌ Ela é inteligente e trabalhadora e com sentido de humor.

Broken parallelism — the third item is a prepositional phrase, not an adjective.

✅ Ela é inteligente, trabalhadora e com sentido de humor.

She is intelligent, hard-working, and has a sense of humour.

✅ Ela é inteligente, trabalhadora e bem-humorada.

She is intelligent, hard-working, and good-humoured. (fully parallel)

Keep coordinated elements in the same syntactic category. Mixing adjectives with prepositional phrases breaks parallelism and can be tolerated (as in the first corrected version) only if the list is punctuated as a deliberately varied enumeration.

❌ Não tenho tempo e paciência.

Awkward — negative additive should use nem.

✅ Não tenho tempo nem paciência.

I have neither time nor patience.

With a negated clause, additive coordination should be nem, not e. The nem encodes both the addition and the negation in a single word.

❌ Ou o João ou a Maria ou o Pedro ou a Ana vem à festa.

Overloaded — correlative ou... ou is for two alternatives.

✅ O João, a Maria, o Pedro ou a Ana vem à festa.

João, Maria, Pedro, or Ana will come to the party.

For three or more alternatives, use a list with a single final ou, not a chain of correlative ou... ou....

❌ A Ana fala francês e o João também fala.

Redundant — use VP ellipsis with também.

✅ A Ana fala francês e o João também.

Ana speaks French and João does too.

Portuguese prefers the elided version with também. The full verb repetition sounds translated-from-English.

❌ Tentei ligar mas ninguém atendeu.

Missing comma before mas.

✅ Tentei ligar, mas ninguém atendeu.

I tried to call, but no one answered.

A comma before mas is the default, signalling the adversative pivot. Omitting it is possible when the clauses are very short, but is stylistically weaker.

Key Takeaways

Coordination joins equals. Both conjuncts should be of the same syntactic category (noun + noun, VP + VP, clause + clause).
The core coordinators are e, ou, mas, nem; the formal ones are porém, contudo, todavia; the conclusives are portanto, logo, assim.
Correlative pairs (nem... nem, ou... ou, não só... mas também, tanto... como) bracket coordinated elements for balance and emphasis.
Agreement: e triggers plural; ou can be 3sg or 3pl; nem... nem is ambivalent but prescriptively 3sg.
Ellipsis is pervasive: pro-drop handles repeated subjects, gapping elides repeated verbs, right-node raising shares a final element between conjuncts, também handles VP ellipsis.
Asyndeton (no coordinator) gives rhythmic weight; polysyndeton (repeated coordinator) gives accumulative force.
Punctuation: no Oxford comma with e; comma before mas; semicolon or period before formal adversatives.
Coordinator choice is register-sensitive — mas for everyday speech, porém/contudo/todavia for formal writing.