Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): A Maria gosta de mandar mensagens de voz; eu prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail. - Maria likes to send voice messages; I prefer to write her an email.

It doesn’t literally mean the Maria; it’s just a normal, almost default way of saying a person’s name in many varieties of Portuguese from Portugal.

A few notes:

It’s optional: many speakers alternate between Maria and a Maria, often depending on region and formality.
In Brazilian Portuguese, the article before names is much less common and sounds regional or informal in many places. In Portugal, it’s standard in everyday speech.
You do not use the article in direct address (talking to the person):
- Maria, vem cá! – Maria, come here! (no a)

So A Maria gosta… is completely normal European Portuguese.

Why do we say gosta de mandar and not gosta mandar?

The verb gostar almost always needs the preposition de before its complement.

Patterns:

gostar de + noun
- Gosto de chocolate. – I like chocolate.
- A Maria gosta de música. – Maria likes music.
gostar de + infinitive (verb)
- Gosto de ler. – I like to read.
- A Maria gosta de mandar mensagens de voz. – Maria likes sending voice messages.

Without de, gostar mandar is wrong in standard Portuguese. Think of gostar de as a fixed chunk: it’s like saying “to be fond of” in English – you need the of.

What does mandar mean here? I thought it meant “to order / to command”.

Mandar does have the meaning to order / to command:

O chefe mandou o empregado sair. – The boss ordered the employee to leave.

But it also very commonly means to send (especially messages, photos, files, people on an errand, etc.):

Manda-me uma mensagem. – Send me a message.
Vou mandar-te as fotos. – I’m going to send you the photos.
A Maria gosta de mandar mensagens de voz. – Maria likes sending voice messages.

In more formal language, enviar is closer to “to send”, but in everyday speech in Portugal, mandar is extremely common in this sense.

Is mensagens de voz the same as voicemails?

Mensagens de voz literally means voice messages and usually refers to things like:

audio messages on WhatsApp/Telegram
short recordings sent in chat apps
sometimes, recorded audio sent by other means

For voicemail specifically (the system that answers your phone and records messages), Portuguese more often uses:

correio de voz – voicemail
- Deixei-te uma mensagem no correio de voz.

So:

mensagens de voz ≈ voice messages (general)
correio de voz ≈ voicemail system/messages

In casual conversation, there can be overlap, but the sentence you gave sounds more like app/phone voice messages, not traditional voicemail.

Why is there a semicolon (;) instead of a comma or e (and)?

The semicolon here separates two complete sentences that are closely related:

A Maria gosta de mandar mensagens de voz;
eu prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail.

Both parts could stand alone as sentences. The semicolon shows:

a stronger separation than a comma
but a closer link than a full stop

It also marks a contrast: Maria likes X; I prefer Y.

Alternatives that would also be correct:

A Maria gosta de mandar mensagens de voz, mas eu prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail.
A Maria gosta de mandar mensagens de voz. Eu prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail.

The version with mas (but) makes the contrast explicit; with ; it is implied.

Why is there no article before mensagens de voz, but there is an article before A Maria?

Two different issues are happening:

With names:
- As explained earlier, a Maria is a normal way of saying the name in European Portuguese.
With plural, generic nouns:
- In mandar mensagens de voz, we’re talking about voice messages in general, not some specific ones.
- In Portuguese, you often omit the article in this kind of generic plural:
  - Gosto de maçãs. – I like apples.
  - Envio e‑mails todos os dias. – I send emails every day.
  - Gosto de ver filmes. – I like watching films.

So here mensagens de voz means “voice messages (in general)”, so no article is needed.

Why is escrever‑lhe written with a hyphen and not as two words?

In Portuguese, unstressed object pronouns (like me, te, lhe, nos, vos, lhes) often attach to the verb with a hyphen. This is called enclisis.

escrever + lhe → escrever‑lhe
mandar + me → mandar‑me
dizer + te → dizer‑te

In European Portuguese:

If there is no special trigger (like a negation or a question word), the default position is after the verb with a hyphen:
- Eu escrevo‑lhe todos os dias. – I write to her/him every day.
- Prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail.

So escrever‑lhe is one word (verb + clitic pronoun), linked with a hyphen.

What exactly does lhe mean here?

Lhe is an indirect object pronoun. It usually means:

to him
to her
to you (formal singular) – ao senhor / à senhora

It corresponds roughly to a ele / a ela / a você.

In your sentence:

escrever‑lhe um e‑mail ≈ escrever um e‑mail a ela – to write her an email

Important points about lhe:

It does not work as a direct object (I see him = vejo‑o, not vejo‑lhe in standard Portuguese).
It is used mainly for indirect objects (to/for someone).

So here, lhe = “to her” (referring back to Maria).

Could I say eu prefiro escrever um e‑mail para ela instead of escrever‑lhe um e‑mail?

Yes, that is also grammatically correct:

Eu prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail.
Eu prefiro escrever um e‑mail para ela.

Both mean essentially the same: I prefer to write her an email.

Differences in feel:

escrever‑lhe is more compact and more typical when the person has already been mentioned (like A Maria in the first clause).
para ela is a bit more explicit; you might use it:
- for emphasis
- to avoid ambiguity (if lhe could refer to more than one person)
- in more informal speech where people avoid clitics

You cannot combine them:

❌ prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail para ela (double marking – wrong)
✔️ prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail
✔️ prefiro escrever um e‑mail para ela

Where can lhe go in the sentence? Could I say eu lhe prefiro escrever um e‑mail?

In European Portuguese, in a simple affirmative sentence like this, lhe does not go before the main verb. So:

❌ Eu lhe prefiro escrever um e‑mail. – incorrect in European Portuguese.

Correct options in European Portuguese:

Eu prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail. (most natural)
In some other structures, you might see:
- Vou escrever‑lhe um e‑mail. – I’m going to write her an email.
- Vou‑lhe escrever um e‑mail. – also possible: pronoun attached to the auxiliary.

Basic rule of thumb (European Portuguese):

In neutral affirmative clauses, pronouns tend to go after the verb with a hyphen (enclisis):
- Escrevo‑lhe amanhã. – I’ll write to her tomorrow.
They go before the verb (proclisis) mainly when there is a trigger word like:
- não, nunca, ninguém, que, se, quando, porque, etc.
- Não lhe escrevo hoje. – I won’t write to her today.
- Quando lhe escrevi, ela já sabia. – When I wrote to her, she already knew.

In Brazilian Portuguese, eu lhe prefiro escrever um e‑mail is strange too; you would more likely hear eu prefiro lhe escrever um e‑mail, but that pronoun placement is not standard in Portugal.

Does preferir need de like gostar de?

No. Preferir does not take de before an infinitive:

Prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail. – I prefer to write her an email.
Prefiro mandar mensagens de voz. – I prefer sending voice messages.

You do use a or a… do que when explicitly comparing two things:

Prefiro café a chá. – I prefer coffee to tea.
Prefiro mandar mensagens de voz a escrever e‑mails. – I prefer sending voice messages to writing emails.

But when it’s just preferir + verb, there is no de:

Prefiro ler. – I prefer to read.
Prefiro sair cedo. – I prefer to leave early.

Do I have to say eu before prefiro, or could I just say prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail?

You do not have to say eu. Subject pronouns are often dropped in Portuguese because the verb ending already shows the person:

Prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail. – I prefer to write her an email.
Gosto de mandar mensagens de voz. – I like sending voice messages.

In your sentence, eu is used mainly for contrast with A Maria:

A Maria gosta de mandar mensagens de voz; eu prefiro escrever‑lhe um e‑mail.

The eu helps underline “she likes that, but I prefer this.” Without eu, the contrast is slightly weaker but still understandable from context.

Why is it mensagens de voz and not something like voz mensagens?

Portuguese usually places the main noun first, followed by a modifier (often an adjective or a de + noun phrase):

mensagens de voz – voice messages
copo de água – glass of water
telefone de casa – home phone
sapatos de couro – leather shoes

Putting voz before mensagens would sound very wrong (voz mensagens is not a valid phrase).

So the pattern is:

[noun] + de + [noun]
- mensagens de voz – literally messages of voice = voice messages.

This de‑phrase works a bit like “of” / noun modifiers in English, but the order is fixed as in Portuguese: noun + de + noun.

Is e‑mail really used in Portugal, or would people say something else?

Yes, e‑mail (or email) is very common in Portugal in everyday language.

You may see different spellings:

e‑mail – traditional spelling, still very common.
email – also frequent, especially informally.
More formal/technical term: correio eletrónico (Portugal spelling after the spelling reform; formerly eletrónico vs electrónico).

In speech, people almost always say something like:

[ê‑mail] – close to the English pronunciation.

So escrever‑lhe um e‑mail is natural and idiomatic in European Portuguese.