Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Eu dependo de ti e tu dependes de mim.

Eu dependo de ti e tu dependes de mim.

I depend on you, and you depend on me.

Breakdown of Eu dependo de ti e tu dependes de mim.

and

you

mim

me (after prepositions)

Questions & Answers about Eu dependo de ti e tu dependes de mim.

Why do we use mim and ti instead of me and te?

Because they come right after the preposition de. In Portuguese, when a personal pronoun follows a preposition (like de, para, sem, or por), we have to use special stressed pronouns. For me, that is mim, and for the informal you, it is ti.

Why is the preposition de used here instead of a word for on?

In English, we say we depend on someone, but in Portuguese, the verb depender always teams up with the preposition de (which usually means of or from). So, depender de is the required set phrase for to depend on.

Does de combine with mim or ti to form a single word?

No, they stay as separate words: de mim and de ti. The preposition de only squishes together (contracts) with third-person pronouns (making dele or dela) and with articles (making do, da, etc.).

Could I drop the Eu and tu at the beginning of each half of the sentence?