A1Lesson 2: Personal Pronouns & Basic Prepositions
Common contractions formed by prepositions and articles
preposition (de/em/por) + definite article (o/a/os/as) = contraction
de + o = do, de + a = da, de + os = dos, de + as = das
em + o = no, em + a = na, em + os = nos, em + as = nas
por + o = pelo, por + a = pela, por + os = pelos, por + as = pelas
Contractions are MANDATORY - never say "de o" or "em a"
Used constantly for locations, possession, and movement
Must match gender and number of the noun
No contractions with indefinite articles (um, uma)
Imagine trying to say "Pedro's house" or "the teacher's name" in Portuguese without contractions – you literally can't. Combinations like a casa do Pedro, o nome da professora, café da manhã (breakfast) and no Brasil (in Brazil) are everywhere. Unlike English, where "of the" stays as two separate words, Portuguese fuses the preposition and the article into one. Skip these contractions and you will sound like you are speaking broken Portuguese – it's like saying "I am at the bank" but with two extra words wedged in. These twelve forms (do, da, dos, das, no, na, nos, nas, pelo, pela, pelos, pelas) appear in almost every sentence, making them absolutely essential from your first day.
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These express possession, origin, and characteristics.
de + o = do (of/from the – masculine singular)
de + a = da (of/from the – feminine singular)
de + os = dos (of/from the – masculine plural)
de + as = das (of/from the – feminine plural)
Possession: O carro do Paulo (Paulo's car)
Origin: Ela é do Brasil (She's from Brazil)
"Estou no hotel" (I'm at the hotel)
"O livro está na mesa" (The book is on the table)
"O gato está no jardim" (The cat is in the garden)
"Estamos na sala" (We're in the living room)
"Eles estão nos parques" (They're in the parks)
"O livro do aluno" (The student's book)
"A casa da Maria" (Maria's house)
"O carro dos pais" (The parents' car)
"A bolsa da professora" (The teacher's bag)
While formal Portuguese avoids contracting with indefinite articles, spoken Brazilian Portuguese often does:
Written: "em uma casa"
Spoken: "numa casa"
Written: "de um amigo"
Spoken: "dum amigo"
With proper names, the contraction depends on whether the article is used:
"Casa de Pedro" (no article, no contraction)
"Casa do Pedro" (with article, must contract)
"Livro de João" OR "Livro do João" (both correct)
Spanish only fuses two preposition–article pairs (a + el = al, de + el = del), so a Spanish speaker can say de la casa without contracting at all. Portuguese makes the contraction mandatory for de, em, por and a with every form of the definite article — sixteen forced combinations in total. That is why learners coming from a Spanish background often forget to contract: their native language only does it in two cases.
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