A1 (Beginner)Lesson 3: Prepositions & Contractions
Portuguese prepositions em, de, para, com, and por are small words that control relationships between everything in a sentence, contracting with articles and having multiple meanings that rarely match their English equivalents directly.
Em = in/on/at (location): em casa, no Brasil
De = of/from/about ('s): casa de João, sou de SP
Para = to/for (destination/purpose): para casa, para você
Com = with (together): com amigos, café com leite
Por = by/through/for (reason/path): por favor, pelo parque
De, em and por normally contract with definite articles: de + o = do, em + a = na. Formal writing keeps the preposition separate before an infinitive's subject.
Para often becomes pra/pro in informal speech; the full form is also used.
Learn the verb's preposition: pensar em, gostar de.
preposition + article = contraction | em + o = no | de + a = da | para + o = pro (informal)
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Prepositions are the GPS of Portuguese – without them, nobody knows where anything is going, coming from, or why! You can't even order "café com leite" (coffee with milk) or say you're "de São Paulo" (from São Paulo) without them. Choosing the right preposition clarifies the relationship: Vou para casa (I'm going home) gives a destination, while Passo pela praça (I pass through the square) gives a path. These five words appear very often; learning them helps you form natural, understandable sentences.
"Em" tells you WHERE something is or happens.
in: em casa (at home)
on: em cima (on top)
at: em São Paulo (in São Paulo)
| em + | Result | Example |
|---|---|---|
| o | no | no Brasil (in Brazil) |
"Estou no trabalho" (I'm at work)
"Moro em Copacabana" (I live in Copacabana)
"Na segunda-feira" (On Monday)
"No verão" (In summer)
"Venho do Rio" (I come from Rio)
"A casa da minha mãe" (My mother's house)
"Gosto de pizza" (I like pizza)
"Perto da praia" (Near the beach)
Pra and pro are very common in casual speech; the full form para is also used:
Full form: "para o"
Informal reduction: "pro"
Further reduction in some informal speech: "pa" (pa casa)
"Em" vs "de" for transport:
Vou de carro (I go by car - the means)
Vou no carro (I go in the car - specific car)
Both can be correct!
The contractions pelo, pela, pelos, pelas preserve the medieval preposition per ("through, by") that por eventually replaced as a standalone word. So when you say pela rua (down the street), you're using a fossil of older per la — a preposition that vanished from the language as an independent form but survived inside its contracted forms.
Source: Priberam — pelo.
Infopédia traces por to Latin pro, through the Vulgar Latin form por, and para to per ad, through Old Portuguese pera. They therefore do not simply descend from the same Latin form pro. In modern Portuguese, para covers direction and purpose, while por covers cause, path and exchange.
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