Verbs and the prepositions they demand: gostar de, sonhar com, pensar em

This is the difference between Portuguese that is understandable and Portuguese that is right. Eu gosto café will be understood, and it will also make this sentence sound like a word-for-word translation. The prepositions are unpredictable and they are everywhere: several useful constructions require one, though others — including some patterns with precisar, lembrar, esperar and assistir — do not. Worse, English quietly supplies its own — dream about, think about, marry with nothing at all — and each of those instincts sends you to the wrong word. Learning the verb together with its preposition costs nothing extra and removes an entire category of mistake.

1. The preposition is part of the verb

In English, like takes its object directly: I like coffee. In Portuguese, gostar takes de before a noun or infinitive naming what you like: Gosto de café. (I like coffee.) With the complement understood, you can also reply Gosto.; the verb is not inherently an unfinished sentence.

Many verbs do take their object with nothing in between — Comprei o livro. (I bought the book.) But a large, very frequent set uses a preposition in the constructions here: sonhar com, pensar em, precisar de. Meaning alone does not reliably tell you which pattern to choose, and some verbs have more than one. Store the useful pair together — not just gostar, but gostar de.

2. The de family — the biggest one

Common Pitfalls

• Keep de when naming what you like. ❌ Eu gosto café → ✅ Eu gosto de café. (I like coffee.) Here de links the verb to the explicit noun; with a complement understood, a reply such as Gosto. is possible.

• Contract in this noun phrase. ❌ Gosto de o café → ✅ Gosto do café. (I like the coffee.) Here de + o = do. Separate de o occurs in other constructions, such as before an infinitive clause’s own subject.

• Learn the construction for the intended meaning. To say she married Bruno as her spouse, use ✅ Ela casou com o Bruno. (She married Bruno.); Ela casou o Bruno can instead refer to performing or arranging his marriage. For entering the room, ❌ Entrei a sala → ✅ Entrei na sala. (I went into the room.)

• Do not translate “about” mechanically. For the person in a dream, learn Sonhei com você. (I dreamed about you.), rather than copying “about” as Sonhei sobre você. Penso em você. (I think about you.) is the ordinary having-you-in-mind model; Penso sobre você can express reflection about you and is not inherently ungrammatical. Neither form by itself means “I miss you”.

• Com + mim always fuses. ❌ Conte com mim → ✅ Conte comigo. (Count on me.) There is no version of this with the two words apart.

• Brazilian precisar commonly omits de before an infinitive. ✅ Preciso dormir. (I need to sleep.) is a useful everyday model, but Preciso de dormir is valid too. With a noun, learn ✅ Preciso de descanso. (I need a rest.).

• Choose by construction and register. Assisti ao jogo (I watched the match) is the traditional formal model; Assisti o jogo is common colloquially and can occur in informal writing. Respondi o e-mail also occurs, while Respondi ao e-mail is the model here. Using the form with a does not automatically sound stiff in conversation.