Colloquial contractions: pra, pro, numa, dessa

Out loud, Brazilians often contract common combinations of a preposition and the word after it — para a praia comes out pra praia, and em uma festa becomes numa festa. Miss the contraction and you'll be hunting for words that were never pronounced. The good news: half of these (num, numa, dessa, disso…) are perfectly standard, so you get to use them; the other half (pra, pro) you just need to recognize, switching back to the full form when you write carefully.

Back in Lesson 2 you learned the contractions Portuguese makes official — de + o = do, em + a = na, and friends. Out loud, though, Brazilians often shorten common combinations of prepositions and the words that follow. Let's sort the extras into two piles: the ones you should use, and the ones you only need to recognize.

Pile 1 — Standard: also valid in writing

em / de + an indefinite article (um, uma):

Standard contractions (go ahead and use them)

• "Moro numa rua tranquila." (I live on a quiet street.)

• "Preciso dum favor." (I need a favor.)

• "Eu gosto disso." (I like that.)

• "Dessa vez eu pago." (This time I'm paying.)

Casual pra / pro (just recognize them)

• "Pra onde você vai?" (Where are you going?)

• "Isso é pra você." (This is for you.)

• "Vamos pro parque?" (Shall we go to the park?)

• "Flores pras meninas." (Flowers for the girls.)

Keep pronouns separate in ordinary writing

Write pra mim, pra você, pra ela as two words in informal texts. Some speakers merge the sounds in forms like "prela"; that doesn't make it a standard spelling. In formal writing, use para mim / para você / para ela.

num / numa / dum / duma are all correct

Some people imagine de um is "proper" and dum is "sloppy" — not true. Num/numa and dum/duma are perfectly correct; keeping de um / de uma in a formal text is a style choice, not a rule. Before an infinitive's subject, formal writing keeps the preposition separate: antes de um aluno chegar, antes de isso acontecer.

Don't over-correct

Both pra and para a can occur in conversation. Pra is very common in relaxed speech; the full form is also valid, especially for emphasis or clarity.

One spelling, please

You may spot pra written as prá or p'ra in older books and song sheets. Modern Brazilian writing has settled on plain pra and pro — no accent, no apostrophe.

Brazilians fuse words so eagerly that a few contractions have hardened into everyday words you'd never suspect. The adverb embora — as in vou embora ("I'm off") — is simply em boa hora ("in a good hour") crushed together, an old wish for good fortune that wore down into a single word. So every time you announce you're leaving, you're quietly using a contraction far older and bolder than pra.

Sources: Origem da Palavra, Dicio