Portuguese grammar
Encyclopedia
Portuguese grammar, the morphology
and syntax
of the Portuguese language
, is similar to the grammar
of most other Romance languages
—especially that of Spanish
, and even more so to that of Galician
. It is a relatively synthetic
, fusional language
.
Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles are moderately inflected
: there are two genders
(masculine and feminine) and two numbers
(singular and plural). The case system of the ancestor language, Latin
, has been lost, but personal pronouns are still declined
with three main types of forms: subject, object of verb, and object of preposition. Most nouns and many adjectives can take diminutive
or augmentative
derivational suffixes, and most adjectives can take a so-called "superlative" derivational suffix. Adjectives usually follow the noun.
Verbs are highly inflected: there are three tenses
(past, present, future), three moods
(indicative, subjunctive, imperative), three aspects
(perfective, imperfective, and progressive), two voices (active and passive), and an inflected infinitive
. Most perfect and imperfect tenses are synthetic, totaling 11 conjugational paradigms, while all progressive tenses and passive constructions are periphrastic. As in other Romance languages, there is also an impersonal passive construction, with the agent replaced by an indefinite pronoun. Portuguese is basically an SVO language, although SOV syntax may occur with a few object pronouns, and word order is generally not as rigid as in English. It is a null subject language
, with a tendency to drop object pronouns
as well, in colloquial varieties. It has two copular verbs.
It has a number of grammatical features that distinguish it from most other Romance languages, such as a synthetic pluperfect, a future subjunctive tense, the inflected infinitive, and a present perfect with an iterative sense. A unique feature of Portuguese is mesoclisis, the infix
ing of clitic
pronoun
s in some verbal forms.
, Portuguese classifies most of its lexicon into four word classes: verb
s, noun
s, adjective
s, and adverb
s. These are "open" classes, in the sense that they readily accept new members, by coinage, borrowing
, or compounding. Interjection
s form a smaller open class.
There are also several small closed classes, such as pronoun
s, prepositions, articles
, demonstrative
s, numerals
, conjunction
s, and a few grammatically peculiar words such as eis ("here is"; cf. Latin
ecce and French
voilà), cadê ("where is"), tomara ("let's hope"), and oxalá ("let's hope that").
Within the four main classes there are many semi-regular mechanisms that can be used to derive
new words from existing words, sometimes with change of class; for example, veloz ("fast") → velocíssimo ("very fast"), medir ("to measure") → medição ("measurement"), piloto ("pilot") → pilotar ("to pilot"). Finally, there are several phrase embedding mechanisms that allow arbitrarily complex phrases to behave like nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.
, the object (more specifically, the direct object), and the complement (more specifically, the object complement or objective complement). The most frequent order of these elements in Portuguese is subject–verb–object (SVO, as in examples (1) and (2) below), or, when a complement is present, subject–verb–object-complement (SVOC — examples (3) and (4)): {A Maria}S {ama}V {o Paulo}O, "Maria loves Paulo." {O pedreiro}S {construiu}V {a casa}O, "The mason has constructed the house." {O presidente}S {nomeou}V {Pedro}O {ministro}C, "The president appointed Pedro (as) minister." {Ela}S {achou}V {o livro}O {uma chatice}C, "She found the book a bore."
Any of the three noun elements may be omitted if it can be inferred from the context or from other syntactic clues; but many grammatical rules will still apply as if the omitted part were there.
A clause will often contain a number of adverbs (or adverbial
phrases) that modify the meaning of the verb; they may be inserted between the major components of the clause. Additional nouns can be connected to the verb by means of prepositions; the resulting prepositional phrases
have an adverbial
function. For example:
, i.e., a language whose grammar permits and sometimes mandates the omission of an explicit subject.
In Portuguese, the grammatical person
of the subject is generally reflected by the inflection of the verb. Sometimes, though an explicit subject is not necessary to form a grammatically correct sentence, one may be stated in order to emphasize its importance. Some sentences, however, do not allow a subject at all and in some other cases an explicit subject would sound awkward or unnatural:
As in other null subject SVO languages, the subject is often postponed, mostly in existential sentences, answers to partial question
s and contrast
structures:
Imperative sentences use the imperative mood for the second person. For other grammatical persons and for every negative imperative sentence, the subjunctive is used.
Yes/no question
s have the same structure as declarative sentences, and are marked only by a different tonal pattern (mostly a raised tone near the end of the sentence), represented by a question mark
(«?») in writing. Wh-questions often start with quem ("who"), o que ("what"), qual ("which"), onde ("where"), aonde ("where... to"), quando ("when"), por que ("why"), etc. Quem, o que and qual can be preceded by any preposition, but in this case o que will most times be replaced by que. In oral language, but often also in writing, these words are followed by the interrogative device é que (literally, "is [it] that"; compare French
est-ce que).
Wh-questions sometimes occur without wh-movement
, that is, wh-words remain in situ. In this case, o que and por que are to be replaced by their stressed
counterparts o quê and por quê'.' (There are also four types of "porquês". When it is the first word in a sentence, comes as "por que"; if it be the last word, "por quê"; if meaning "because", porque; and when it's a noun i.e. meaning "the reason of / in this / about this", hence it comes as "porquê"). For example:
In Brazilian Portuguese, the phrase é que is more often omitted.
to yes/no questions. As in Latin
, positive answers are usually made with the inflected verb of the question in the appropriate person and number. Portuguese is one of the few Romance languages keeping this Latin peculiarity. The adverbs já ("already"), ainda ("yet"), and também ("too", "also") are used when one of them appears in the question.
The word sim ("yes") may be used for a positive answer, but, if used alone, it may in certain cases sound unnatural or impolite
. In Brazilian Portuguese, sim can be used after the verb for emphasis
. In European Portuguese, emphasis in answers is added with the duplication of the verb. In both versions of Portuguese, emphasis can also result from syntactical processes that are not restricted to answers, such as the addition of adverbs like muito ("much") or muitíssimo ("very much").
It is also acceptable, though sometimes formal, to use yes before the verb of the question, separated by a pause or, in writing, a comma. The use of sim before the verb does not add emphasis, and may on the contrary be less assertive.
Unlike some other Romance languages or English, the written form of the Portuguese articles is the same, independently of the next word. The noun after the indefinite article may be elided, in which case the article is equivalent to English "one" (if singular) or "a few ones" (if plural): quero um também ("I want one too"), quero uns maduros ("I want a few ripe ones").
The definite article may appear before a noun in certain contexts where it is not used in English, for example before certain proper noun
s, such as country, and organization names:
However:
The article is never used with Portugal, Angola, Cabo Verde, Moçambique and Timor. In general, article usage for proper nouns is largely determined by tradition, and it may vary with dialect.
. This is a relatively recent development, which some Brazilian dialects (e.g. those of the Northeast
) have not adopted. In those dialects of Portuguese that do regularly use definite articles before proper nouns, the article may be omitted for extra formality, or to show distance in a literary narrative.
However:
to indicate their grammatical function
, relying instead on the use of more prepositions (including an accusative preposition), phrasal prepositions, pleonastic objects, or on the context or word order. It has fairly regular noun
inflection rules to indicate number
(singular
or plural
), and many semi-regular ones to express biological sex
or social gender
, size, endearment, deprecation, etc. Nouns are classified into two grammatical gender
s, and adjective
s, article
s and demonstrative
s must be inflected to agree
with the noun in gender and number.
There are two genders
, masculine and feminine, and two numbers
, singular and plural. Articles and adjectives are usually inflected to agree
in gender and number with the nouns or pronouns they refer to. There are no cases; only personal pronouns are still declined
. Diminutive
and augmentative
forms exist for nouns.
s and demonstrative
s, and all articles must be inflected according to the gender
and number
of the noun they reference:
The agreement rules apply also to adjectives used with copulas, e.g. o carro é branco ("the car is white") vs. a casa é branca ("the house is white").
The gender and number of many nouns can be deduced from its ending: the basic pattern is "-o" / "-os" for masculine singular and plural, "-a" / "-as" for feminine. And, indeed, casa ("house"), mala ("suitcase"), pedra ("stone"), and inteligência ("intelligence") are all feminine, while carro ("car"), saco ("bag"), tijolo ("brick"), and aborrecimento ("annoyance") are all masculine. However, the complete rules are quite complex: for instance, nouns ending in -ção are usually feminine, except for augmentatives like bração ("big arm"). And there are many irregular exceptions. For words ending in other letters, there are few rules: flor ("flower"), gente ("folk"), nau ("ship"), maré ("tide") are feminine, amor ("love"), pente ("comb"), pau ("stick"), café ("coffee") are masculine.
The gender of animate beings often matches the biological sex, but there are many exceptions: autoridade ("authority"), testemunha ("witness"), and girafa ("giraffe"), for example, are always feminine regardless of their sex, and so are all respectful treatments such as Vossa Excelência ("Your Excellency"); whereas peixe fêmea ("female fish") is strictly masculine.
On the other hand, the gender of some nouns, as well as of 1st and 2nd person pronouns, is determined semantically by the biological sex of the referent: aquela estudante é nova, mas aquele estudante é velho ("this (female) student is new, but that (male) student is old";
or eu sou brasileiro ("I am Brazilian", said by a man) and eu sou brasileira (the same, said by a woman).
Also, many animate masculine nouns have specific feminine derivative forms to indicate female biological sex: lobo ("wolf" or "male wolf", masculine gender) → loba ("she-wolf", feminine), conde ("count", m.) → condessa ("countess", f.), doutor ("doctor" or "male doctor", m.) → doutora ("female doctor", f.), ator ("actor", m.) → atriz ("actress", f.), etc.. The feminine noun derivations should not be confused with the adjectival gender inflections, which use different (and more regular) rules.
s, which convey the senses of small size, endearment or insignificance. Diminutives are very commonly used in informal language. On the other hand, most uses of diminutives are avoided in written and otherwise formal language.
The most common diminutive endings are -inho and -inha, replacing -o and -a, respectively. Words with the stress
on the last syllable
generally have -zinho or -zinha added, such as café "coffee" and cafezinho "coffee served as a show of Brazilian hospitality". In writing, a c (but not a ç) becomes qu in some words, like pouco ("few") and pouquinho ("very few"), in order to preserve the [k] pronunciation.
Possible endings other than -inho(a) are:
-ito(a), e.g. copo/copito ("glass")
-ico(a), e.g. burro/burrico ("donkey")
-(z)ete, e.g. palácio/palacete ("palace")
-ote, e.g. saia/saiote ("skirt")
-oto, e.g. lebre/lebroto ("hare/leveret")
-ejo, e.g. lugar/lugarejo ("place")
-acho, e.g. rio/riacho ("river")
-ola, e.g. aldeia/aldeola ("village")
-el, e.g. corda/cordel ("rope")
It is also possible to form a diminutive of a diminutive, e.g. "burriquito" (burro + -ico + -ito).
Portuguese diminutive endings are often used not only with nouns but also with adjectives, e.g. tonto/tontinho ("silly" / "a bit silly"), or verde/verdinho ("green" / "nicely green") and occasionally with adverbs, e.g. depressa/depressinha ("quickly") and some other word classes, e.g. obrigadinho– diminutive for the interjection
obrigado "thanks". Even the numeral um (one) can informally become unzinho.
The most common augmentative
s are the masculine -ão and the feminine -ona, although there are others, like -aço(a) e.g. mulher/mulheraça ("woman"); or -eirão, e.g. voz/vozeirão ("voice"), less frequently used. Sometimes the masculine augmentative can be applied to a feminine noun, which then becomes grammatically masculine, but with a feminine meaning, e.g. a mulher / o mulherão ("the woman" / "the big woman").
. Thus "white house" is casa branca but the reverse order branca casa is possible. Some adjectives like bom ("good"), belo ("nice"), and grande ("great", "big") are often prefixed. Indeed, some of these have rather different meanings depending on position: um grande homem means "a great man", um homem grande means "a big man".
They are inflected for gender and number, and have also a "superlative" inflection, which actually enhances the meaning of the adjective without explicitly comparing it ("lindo", beautiful; "lindíssimo", very beautiful). The actual degrees of comparison
are expressed analytically, mostly with the adverb mais "more": mais alto (do) que = "higher than", o mais alto "the highest". However, a few other adjectives (besides mais itself) have suppletive
comparative/superlative forms:
The others adjectives follow this example:
The rules for inflecting adjectives for gender and number are the same as those for nouns. There are a few basic patterns, including:
However, there are a few exceptions, such as:
There is no simple correspondence between English and Portuguese prepositions; the following table is a rough approximation:
The English possessive case
has no systematic counterpart in Portuguese (or, for that matter, in any other Romance language except Romanian and Latin). Portuguese generally uses de ("of") to indicate possession or, indeed, any relation (which must be deciphered from the context).
Several prepositions contract
with the definite article.
1 colloquial
The contractions in the first four rows (with de, em, por, a) are mandatory in all registers. The grave accent in à / às has phonetic value in Portugal and African countries, but not in Brazil (see Portuguese phonology
). In Brazil, the grave accent serves only to indicate the crasis
in written text. The contractions in the last row are common in speech, but not used in formal writing. They may, however, appear when transcribing colloquial speech, for example in comic books. In the latter case, the grave accent
is often omitted in Brazil, and it is also often mistakenly replaced with an acute accent
elsewhere.
The prepositions de and em may also contract with the indefinite article, and with some pronouns that begin with a vowel:
The contractions above are very common in the spoken language, formal or informal, and are also acceptable in formal writing in Portugal. In Brazil, they are avoided in writing, especially those of the preposition de with the indefinite article.
Across clause
boundaries, contractions may occur in colloquial speech, but they are not done in writing, for clarity sake:
The English concept of phrasal verb
(like "set up", "get by", "pick out", etc.) does not exist in Portuguese: as a rule, prepositions are attached to the noun more strongly than to the verb.
For a list of contracted prepositions in Portuguese, see Wikipedia in Portuguese: Contração gramatical.
Personal pronouns are inflected according to their syntactic role
. They have three main types of forms: for the subject
, for the object
of a verb, and for the object of a preposition. In the third person
, a distinction is also made between simple direct objects, simple indirect objects, and reflexive objects
.
Possessive pronoun
s are identical to possessive adjective
s. As in other Romance languages, they are inflected to agree
with the gender of the possessed being.
There seem to be differences in usage between aqui and cá, with the latter being used more often after prepositions: e.g. estamos aqui ("we are here") and vem para cá (lit., "come to here"). Differences also happen in the meaning of ali, lá and acolá (especially, lá seems to be farther than ali), but they are not quite distinct degrees of separation.
s have the same three-way distinction as place adverbs:
In colloquial Brazilian Portuguese, esse is often used interchangeably with este when there is no need to make a distinction. This distinction is usually only made in formal writing or by people with more formal education.
The noun after a demonstrative can be elided: quero esse também ("I want that one too"), vendi aqueles ontem ("I sold those yesterday").
Demonstratives form contractions
with some prepositions, like the articles: de + este = deste ("of this"), de + esse = desse ("of that"), em + aquilo = naquilo ("in that thing"), a + aquela = àquela ("to that").
Demonstrative adjectives are identical to demonstrative pronouns: cf. Aquele carro "That car" with Aquele "That one."
In the demonstratives and in some indefinite pronouns, there is a trace of the neuter gender of Latin. For example, todo and esse are used with masculine referents, toda and essa are used with feminine referents, and tudo and isso are used when there is no definite referent e.g. todo livro or todo o livro, "every book"; toda salada or toda a salada, "every salad"; tudo "everything", and so on:
In terms of agreement
, however, these "neuter" words function as masculine: both todo and tudo take masculine adjectives.
to agree with the subject's
grammatical person
(with three values, 1=I/we, 2=you, 3=he/she/it/they) and grammatical number (singular or plural), and to express various attributes of the action, such as time (past, present, future); completed, frustrated, or continuing; subordination
and conditionality
; command; and more. As a consequence, a regular Portuguese verb stem can take over 50 distinct suffixes. (For comparison, regular French and Italian verbs have about 40 distinct forms.)
Two verbs are used as main copulae, as in some other Romance languages
, the verbs ser and estar ("to be"). They developed from Latin
SUM and STO, although the infinitive form ser actually comes from SEDERE. Most forms of ser come from SUM (infinitive ESSE), the only exceptions being the indicative future, the subjunctive present and the imperative. Ficar is also used as secondary copula, sometimes being translatable as "to become (to be)" or "to get (to be)" (e.g., Fiquei rico. = "I got rich"), some other times as "to stay" (e.g., Fica aí! = "Stay there!"), some other times even as "to be" (e.g., Coimbra fica na Beira = "Coimbra is in Beira" and Fica quieto! = "Be still!").
The distinction between ser and estar is perhaps a little more of a concept of permanent versus temporary, rather than essence versus state. This makes Portuguese closer to Catalan
than to Spanish.
The word meaning "made" is in square brackets here, as it is usually omitted.
The same applies in sentences such as the following, which use ser for the passive voice, with no special exceptions for prohibitions and the like:
Portuguese counts location either as fundamental or not, and accordingly uses ser or ficar and estar:
Note: Questions often include the interrogative structure é que (literally "is that"). The two last examples would probably be uttered as Onde é que é/está/fica...
With adjectives referring to beauty and the like, ser means "to be", and estar means "to look".
As in Spanish, the differentiation between "nature" and "state" makes sense when talking about the states of life and death: Está vivo (He is alive). Está morto (He is dead).
Ser is used with adjectives of fundamental belief (Não sou católico, "I'm not Catholic"), nationality (És português, "You are Portuguese"), sex (É homem, "He's a man"), intelligence (Somos espertos, "We are smart"), etc.
Due to Catholicism being the main religion in most Lusophone countries the use of católico ("Catholic") with estar has a figurative meaning:
With this exception, estar is not used for fundamental belief, nationality, sex, or intelligence. One can nevertheless say Estou abrasileirado. ("I'm Brazilian-influenced." — state) or Estás americanizado. (You are Americanised — state).
is used, as in English, to make subordinate noun clauses that express an action at an indefinite time, and possibly with an indefinite or implicit subject, e.g. queremos cantar ("we would like to sing"), cantar é agradável (lit. "to sing is pleasant"). Many of its uses would be translated into English by the "-ing" nominal form, e.g. mesa para cortar ("cutting table"), cantar é bom ("singing is good"), trabalhe sem parar ("work without pausing")
European Portuguese has the distinct feature of preferentially using the infinitive preceded by the preposition "a" in place of the gerund as the typical method of describing continuing action:
The gerund "-ndo" form is still correct in European Portuguese, but relatively rare (although its adverbial uses and the other participle forms are not uncommon). On the other hand, the "a + infinitive" form is virtually nonexistent in Brazil, and considered an improper use in Brazilian Portuguese.
A distinctive trait of Portuguese grammar (shared with Galician and Sardinian
) is the existence of infinitive verb forms inflected according to the person and number of the subject:
Depending on the context and intended sense, the personal infinitive may be forbidden, required, or optional.
Personal infinitive sentences may often be used interchangeably with finite subordinate clauses. In these cases, finite clauses are usually associated with the more formal register
s of the language.
).
Each conjugation class has its own distinctive set of 50 or so inflection suffixes: cant/ar → cant/ou ("he sang"), vend/er → vend/eu ("he sold"), part/ir → part/iu ("he left"), rep/or → rep/ôs ("he put back") . Some suffixes undergo various regular adjustments depending on the final consonant of the stem, either in pronunciation, in the spelling, or in both. Some verbal inflections also entail a shift in syllable stress: 'canto ("I sing"), can'tamos ("we sing"), canta'rei ("I will sing"). See Portuguese verb conjugation
.
There are a couple hundred verbs with some irregular inflections, and about a dozen or so that are very irregular, including the auxiliaries ser ("to be"), haver ("there to be" or "to have"), ter ("to possess", "to have", "there to be" - in Brazilian Portuguese
), ir ("to go"), and a few others.
In European Portuguese, the gerund is often replaced by the infinitive (preceded by "a") when used to express continuing action.
The participle of regular verbs is used in compound verb tenses, as in ele tinha cantado ("he had sung"). It can also be used as an adjective
:, and in this case it is inflected to agree with the noun's gender and number: um hino cantado ("a sung anthem", masculine
singular
), três árias cantadas ("three sung arias", feminine
plural
). Some verbs have two distinct forms (one regular, one irregular), for these two uses. Additionally, a few verbs have two different verbal participles, a regular one for the active voice, and an irregular one for the passive voice. An example is the verb matar (to kill): Bruto tinha matado César ("Brutus had killed Cesar"), César foi morto por Bruto ("Cesar was killed by Brutus").
verb forms) into the following moods
, tense
s, and non-finite forms
:
The conditional tense is usually called "future of the past" in Brazilian grammars, whereas in Portugal it is usually classified as a separate "conditional mood". Portuguese grammarians call subjunctive "conjuntivo"; Brazilians call it "subjuntivo".
In regular verbs, the personal infinitive is identical to the subjunctive future tense; but they are different in irregular verbs: quando formos ("when we go", subjunctive) versus é melhor irmos ("it is better that we go").
There are also are many compound tenses expressed with inflected forms of the auxiliary verbs ser and estar (variants of "to be"), haver and ter (variants of "to have").
The basic auxiliary verbs of Portuguese are ter (originally "to hold", from Latin tenere, but nowadays meaning "to have"), haver ("to have", from Latin habere; tends to be replaced with ter in most constructions), ser ("to be", from Latin esse), estar ("to be", from Latin stare "to stand"), and ir ("to go", Latin ire), which have analogues in most other Romance languages. Thus, for example, "he had spoken" can be translated as ele havia falado or ele tinha falado. Other auxiliary verbs are ser (also "to be", from Latin esse), ficar ("to remain", "to become"), and ir ("to go").
it is replaced with ter even in this case, as in Tem muito peixe no mar "There are plenty of fish in the sea" (although the latter use is not endorsed by official grammar).
Tenses with ter/haver + past participle (composed tenses):
With no inflexion:
A present perfect also exists (normally called pretérito perfeito composto), but it has a very restricted use, denoting an action or a series of actions which began in the past and are expected to continue into the future, but will stop soon. For instance, the meaning of "Tenho tentado falar com ela" may be closer to "I have been trying to talk to her" than to "I have tried to talk to her", in some contexts. This iterative
sense of the present perfect is quite exceptional among Romance languages. It seems to be a recent construction, since it only allows the verb ter as auxiliary, never haver, and is absent from Galician
.
phrase: (Io) sto lavorando). However, in European Portuguese an alternative construction has appeared, formed with the preposition a followed by the infinitive of the main verb: e.g. Eu estou a trabalhar. This has replaced the ancient syntax in central and northern Portugal. The gerund may also be replaced with a followed by the infinitive in less common verb phrases, such as Ele ficou lá, trabalhando / Ele ficou lá, a trabalhar "He stayed there, working". However, the construction with the gerund is still found in southern and insular Portugal and in Portuguese literature, and it is the rule in Brazil.
Examples:
Sometimes, other tenses of haver are used, though it is infrequent. Example: Quem houver de ficar com a casa, há-de vir para aqui.
The only other tenses commonly used are the conditional/future and their meaning is approximately the same of the present/preterit imperfect described herein.
In EP, a hyphen is put between the monosyllabic forms of haver and de (hei, hás, há, heis and hão).
There are, however, differences of meaning between this construction and the future of the indicative/conditional. The former usually conveys a sense of obligation/necessity (be it logic, circumstantial, of convenience, natural or moral law, ...), duty, certainty or resolution, rather than simple futurity, although that would depend on the context. This is somewhat comparable to the use of shall outside the first person.
Examples:
It has also acquired other meanings - for instance, O que está cá dentro? Dinheiro! O que havia de ser?! could be translated into What is in here? Money! What else?!.
Tenses with multiple auxiliaries:
As in Spanish
, there is also a synthetic passive voice, in which the agent is replaced with the pronoun se, when its identity is not relevant:
The same construction extends to some intransitive verbs, in which case the pronoun se denotes the subject (impersonal passive voice
):
Portuguese subjunctive mood is used mainly in certain kinds of subordinate clauses. There are three synthetic subjunctive inflections, conventionally called "present", "past" and "future". The rules of usage are rather complex, but on a first approximation:
More on the subjunctive mood in Portuguese can be found at Wikibooks: Variation of the Portuguese Verbs.
However, those adjectives were not always derived from the corresponding Portuguese verbs. Most of them were directly derived from the accusatives
of the present participles of Latin verbs, a form which was not retained by Portuguese. Thus, for example, Portuguese mutante ("changing", "varying") does not derive from the Portuguese verb mudar ("to change"), but directly from the Latin accusative present participle mutantem ("changing"). On the other hand, those pairs of words were eventually generalized by Portuguese speakers into a derivation rule, that is somewhat irregular and defective but still productive. So, for example, within the last 500 years we had the derivation pï'poka (Tupi for "to pop the skin") → pipoca (Portuguese for "popcorn") → pipocar ("to pop up all over") → pipocante ("popping up all over").
Similar processes resulted in many other semi-regular derivation rules that turn verbs into words of other classes. For example,
The latter rule is quite productive, to the point that the pervasive -ção ending (derived from Latin -tione) is the most visually striking feature of written Portuguese.
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
and syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
of the Portuguese language
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, is similar to the grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
of most other Romance languages
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
—especially that of Spanish
Differences between Spanish and Portuguese
Although Portuguese and Spanish are closely related, to the point of having a considerable degree of mutual intelligibility, there are also important differences between them, which can pose difficulties for people acquainted with one of the languages who attempt to learn the other...
, and even more so to that of Galician
Galician language
Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
. It is a relatively synthetic
Synthetic language
In linguistic typology, a synthetic language is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a low morpheme-per-word ratio in what is described as an isolating language...
, fusional language
Fusional language
A fusional language is a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by its tendency to overlay many morphemes in a way that can be difficult to segment....
.
Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles are moderately inflected
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
: there are two genders
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
(masculine and feminine) and two numbers
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
(singular and plural). The case system of the ancestor language, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, has been lost, but personal pronouns are still declined
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
with three main types of forms: subject, object of verb, and object of preposition. Most nouns and many adjectives can take diminutive
Diminutive
In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
or augmentative
Augmentative
An augmentative is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size, but also in other attributes...
derivational suffixes, and most adjectives can take a so-called "superlative" derivational suffix. Adjectives usually follow the noun.
Verbs are highly inflected: there are three tenses
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
(past, present, future), three moods
Grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
(indicative, subjunctive, imperative), three aspects
Grammatical aspect
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
(perfective, imperfective, and progressive), two voices (active and passive), and an inflected infinitive
Infinitive
In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
. Most perfect and imperfect tenses are synthetic, totaling 11 conjugational paradigms, while all progressive tenses and passive constructions are periphrastic. As in other Romance languages, there is also an impersonal passive construction, with the agent replaced by an indefinite pronoun. Portuguese is basically an SVO language, although SOV syntax may occur with a few object pronouns, and word order is generally not as rigid as in English. It is a null subject language
Null subject language
In linguistic typology, a null-subject language is a language whose grammar permits an independent clause to lack an explicit subject. Such a clause is then said to have a null subject. Typically, null subject languages express person, number, and/or gender agreement with the referent on the verb,...
, with a tendency to drop object pronouns
Pro-drop language
A pro-drop language is a language in which certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they are in some sense pragmatically inferable...
as well, in colloquial varieties. It has two copular verbs.
It has a number of grammatical features that distinguish it from most other Romance languages, such as a synthetic pluperfect, a future subjunctive tense, the inflected infinitive, and a present perfect with an iterative sense. A unique feature of Portuguese is mesoclisis, the infix
Infix
An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the end of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.-Indonesian:...
ing of clitic
Clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s in some verbal forms.
Word classes
Like most Indo-European languages, including EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Portuguese classifies most of its lexicon into four word classes: verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s, noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s, adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s, and adverb
Adverb
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
s. These are "open" classes, in the sense that they readily accept new members, by coinage, borrowing
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
, or compounding. Interjection
Interjection
In grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...
s form a smaller open class.
There are also several small closed classes, such as pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s, prepositions, articles
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
, demonstrative
Demonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
s, numerals
Number names
In linguistics, number names are specific words in a natural language that represent numbers.In writing, numerals are symbols also representing numbers...
, conjunction
Grammatical conjunction
In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together. A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each...
s, and a few grammatically peculiar words such as eis ("here is"; cf. Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
ecce and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
voilà), cadê ("where is"), tomara ("let's hope"), and oxalá ("let's hope that").
Within the four main classes there are many semi-regular mechanisms that can be used to derive
Derivation (linguistics)
In linguistics, derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine...
new words from existing words, sometimes with change of class; for example, veloz ("fast") → velocíssimo ("very fast"), medir ("to measure") → medição ("measurement"), piloto ("pilot") → pilotar ("to pilot"). Finally, there are several phrase embedding mechanisms that allow arbitrarily complex phrases to behave like nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.
Subject, object, and complement
Following the general Indo-European pattern, the central element of almost any Portuguese clause is a verb, which may directly connect to one, two, or (rarely) three nouns (or noun-like phrases), called the subjectSubject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
, the object (more specifically, the direct object), and the complement (more specifically, the object complement or objective complement). The most frequent order of these elements in Portuguese is subject–verb–object (SVO, as in examples (1) and (2) below), or, when a complement is present, subject–verb–object-complement (SVOC — examples (3) and (4)): {A Maria}S {ama}V {o Paulo}O, "Maria loves Paulo." {O pedreiro}S {construiu}V {a casa}O, "The mason has constructed the house." {O presidente}S {nomeou}V {Pedro}O {ministro}C, "The president appointed Pedro (as) minister." {Ela}S {achou}V {o livro}O {uma chatice}C, "She found the book a bore."
Any of the three noun elements may be omitted if it can be inferred from the context or from other syntactic clues; but many grammatical rules will still apply as if the omitted part were there.
A clause will often contain a number of adverbs (or adverbial
Adverbial
In grammar an adverbial is a word or a group of words that modifies or tells us something about the sentence or the verb. The word adverbial is also used as an adjective, meaning 'having the same function as an adverb'...
phrases) that modify the meaning of the verb; they may be inserted between the major components of the clause. Additional nouns can be connected to the verb by means of prepositions; the resulting prepositional phrases
Adpositional phrase
An adpositional phrase is a linguistics term defining a syntactic category that includes prepositional phrases and postpositional phrases. Adpositional phrases contain an adposition in the head position and usually a complement such as a noun phrase...
have an adverbial
Adverbial
In grammar an adverbial is a word or a group of words that modifies or tells us something about the sentence or the verb. The word adverbial is also used as an adjective, meaning 'having the same function as an adverb'...
function. For example:
- Ele carregou {sem demora} a mala {para ela} {do carro} {até a porta}, "He carried {without delay} the bag {for her} {from the car} {to the door}."
Null subject language
Portuguese is a null subject languageNull subject language
In linguistic typology, a null-subject language is a language whose grammar permits an independent clause to lack an explicit subject. Such a clause is then said to have a null subject. Typically, null subject languages express person, number, and/or gender agreement with the referent on the verb,...
, i.e., a language whose grammar permits and sometimes mandates the omission of an explicit subject.
In Portuguese, the grammatical person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
of the subject is generally reflected by the inflection of the verb. Sometimes, though an explicit subject is not necessary to form a grammatically correct sentence, one may be stated in order to emphasize its importance. Some sentences, however, do not allow a subject at all and in some other cases an explicit subject would sound awkward or unnatural:
- "I'm going home" can be translated either as Vou para casa or as Eu vou para casa, where eu means "I".
- "It's raining" can be translated as Está a chover but not as Ele está a chover, where ele would correspond to English "it".
- "I'm going home. I'm going to watch TV." only in exceptional circumstances would be translated as Eu vou para casa. Eu vou ver televisão. At least the second eu ("I") should be omitted.
As in other null subject SVO languages, the subject is often postponed, mostly in existential sentences, answers to partial question
Question
A question may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression. This information may be provided with an answer....
s and contrast
Contrast (linguistics)
In semantics, contrast is a relationship between two discourse segments. Contrast is often overtly marked by markers such as but or however, such as in the following examples:# It's raining, but I am not taking an umbrella....
structures:
- Existem muitos ratos aqui! ("There are many mice here")
- Quem é que foi? Fui eu. ("Who was it? It was me.")
- Ela não comeu o bolo, mas comi eu. ("She didn't eat the cake, but I did.")
Types of sentences
Portuguese declarative sentences, as in many languages, are the less marked.Imperative sentences use the imperative mood for the second person. For other grammatical persons and for every negative imperative sentence, the subjunctive is used.
Yes/no question
Question
A question may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression. This information may be provided with an answer....
s have the same structure as declarative sentences, and are marked only by a different tonal pattern (mostly a raised tone near the end of the sentence), represented by a question mark
Question mark
The question mark , is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop at the end of an interrogative sentence in English and many other languages. The question mark is not used for indirect questions...
(«?») in writing. Wh-questions often start with quem ("who"), o que ("what"), qual ("which"), onde ("where"), aonde ("where... to"), quando ("when"), por que ("why"), etc. Quem, o que and qual can be preceded by any preposition, but in this case o que will most times be replaced by que. In oral language, but often also in writing, these words are followed by the interrogative device é que (literally, "is [it] that"; compare French
French grammar
French grammar is the grammar of the French language, which is similar to that of the other Romance languages.French is a moderately inflected language...
est-ce que).
Wh-questions sometimes occur without wh-movement
Wh-movement
Wh-movement is a syntactic phenomenon found in many languages around the world, in which interrogative words or phrases show a special word order. Unlike ordinary phrases, such wh-words appear at the beginning of an interrogative clause...
, that is, wh-words remain in situ. In this case, o que and por que are to be replaced by their stressed
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
counterparts o quê and por quê'.' (There are also four types of "porquês". When it is the first word in a sentence, comes as "por que"; if it be the last word, "por quê"; if meaning "because", porque; and when it's a noun i.e. meaning "the reason of / in this / about this", hence it comes as "porquê"). For example:
- O que é que ela fez?
- "What did she do?"
- Ela fez o quê?
- "What did she do?" or, if emphatic, "She did what?"
- Por quê?
- "Why?"
- Em que dia é que isso aconteceu?
- "On what day did that happen?"
- Isso aconteceu em que dia?
- "On what day did that happen?"
In Brazilian Portuguese, the phrase é que is more often omitted.
Replying
Não ("no") is the natural negative answerAnswer
Generally, an answer is a reply to a question or is a solution, a retaliation, or a response that is relevant to the said question.In law, an answer was originally a solemn assertion in opposition to some one or something, and thus generally any counter-statement or defense, a reply to a question...
to yes/no questions. As in Latin
Latin grammar
The grammar of Latin, like that of other ancient Indo-European languages, is highly inflected; consequently, it allows for a large degree of flexibility in choosing word order...
, positive answers are usually made with the inflected verb of the question in the appropriate person and number. Portuguese is one of the few Romance languages keeping this Latin peculiarity. The adverbs já ("already"), ainda ("yet"), and também ("too", "also") are used when one of them appears in the question.
- Q: Gostaste do filme? A: Gostei. / Não.
- Q: "Did you like the movie?" A: "Yes.", literally, "I liked." / "No."
- Q: Eu não tinha deixado aqui uma chave? A: Tinhas!
- Q: "Didn't I leave here a key?" A: "Yes, you did!"
- Q: Já leste este livro? A: Já. / Ainda não.
- Q: "Have you already read this book?" A: "Yes", literally, "Already." / "Not yet."
The word sim ("yes") may be used for a positive answer, but, if used alone, it may in certain cases sound unnatural or impolite
Politeness
Politeness is best expressed as the practical application of good manners or etiquette. It is a culturally-defined phenomenon, and therefore what is considered polite in one culture can sometimes be quite rude or simply eccentric in another cultural context....
. In Brazilian Portuguese, sim can be used after the verb for emphasis
Emphatic consonant
Emphatic consonant is a term widely used in Semitic linguistics to describe one of a series of obstruent consonants which originally contrasted with series of both voiced and voiceless obstruents. In specific Semitic languages, the members of this series may be realized as pharyngealized,...
. In European Portuguese, emphasis in answers is added with the duplication of the verb. In both versions of Portuguese, emphasis can also result from syntactical processes that are not restricted to answers, such as the addition of adverbs like muito ("much") or muitíssimo ("very much").
It is also acceptable, though sometimes formal, to use yes before the verb of the question, separated by a pause or, in writing, a comma. The use of sim before the verb does not add emphasis, and may on the contrary be less assertive.
- Q: Gostou do filme? A: Gostei, sim!
- Q: "Did you like the movie?" A:"Yes, I did!" (Brazilian Portuguese)
- Q: Gostaste do filme? A: Gostei, gostei!
- Q: "Did you like the movie?" A:"Yes, I did!"; literally, "I Liked, I liked!" (European Portuguese)
- Q: Há comboios a esta hora? A: Há, há!
- Q: "Are there any trains at this time?" A:"Yes, there are!" (European Portuguese)
- Q: Ele gostou do filme? A: Sim, gostou...
- Q:"Did he like the movie?" A:"Yes..." (Both Brazilian and European Portuguese)
Articles
Portuguese has a definite article and an indefinite one, with different forms according to the gender and number of the noun to which they refer:| singular | plural | meaning | |||
| masculine | feminine | masculine | feminine | ||
| definite article | o | a | os | as | the |
| indefinite article | um | uma | uns | umas | a, an; some |
Unlike some other Romance languages or English, the written form of the Portuguese articles is the same, independently of the next word. The noun after the indefinite article may be elided, in which case the article is equivalent to English "one" (if singular) or "a few ones" (if plural): quero um também ("I want one too"), quero uns maduros ("I want a few ripe ones").
The definite article may appear before a noun in certain contexts where it is not used in English, for example before certain proper noun
Proper noun
A proper noun or proper name is a noun representing a unique entity , as distinguished from a common noun, which represents a class of entities —for example, city, planet, person or corporation)...
s, such as country, and organization names:
- Ele visitou o Brasil, a China e a Itália, "He visited Brazil, China, and Italy"
- Ele visitou o Rio, "He visited Rio de Janeiro".
- A IBM patrocinou o MoMA, "IBM sponsored MoMA"
- Ele foi para o São Paulo, "He went to the São Paulo (soccer team)".
However:
- Ele visitou Portugal e Moçambique, "He visited Portugal and Mozambique"
- Ele foi para São Paulo, "He went to São Paulo (city or state)".
The article is never used with Portugal, Angola, Cabo Verde, Moçambique and Timor. In general, article usage for proper nouns is largely determined by tradition, and it may vary with dialect.
Article before personal names
In many varieties of the language, including all European varieties, personal names are normally preceded by a definite article, a trait which Portuguese shares with CatalanCatalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
. This is a relatively recent development, which some Brazilian dialects (e.g. those of the Northeast
Northeast Region, Brazil
The Northeast Region of Brazil is composed of the following states: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, and it represents 18.26% of the Brazilian territory....
) have not adopted. In those dialects of Portuguese that do regularly use definite articles before proper nouns, the article may be omitted for extra formality, or to show distance in a literary narrative.
- A Maria saiu, "Maria left" (informal)
- A Sr.ª Maria saiu, "Ms.Ms.Ms. or Ms is an English honorific used with the last name or full name of a woman. According to The Emily Post Institute, Ms...
Maria left" (formal)
However:
- Maria Teixeira saiu, "Maria Teixeira left" (formal and mostly written)
Nouns
Like all western Romance languages, Portuguese does not inflect nounsDeclension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
to indicate their grammatical function
Grammatical function
In linguistics, grammatical functions refer to functional relationships between participants in a proposition...
, relying instead on the use of more prepositions (including an accusative preposition), phrasal prepositions, pleonastic objects, or on the context or word order. It has fairly regular noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
inflection rules to indicate number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
(singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
or plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
), and many semi-regular ones to express biological sex
Sex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
or social gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
, size, endearment, deprecation, etc. Nouns are classified into two grammatical gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
s, and adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s, article
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
s and demonstrative
Demonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
s must be inflected to agree
Agreement (linguistics)
In languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates....
with the noun in gender and number.
There are two genders
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, masculine and feminine, and two numbers
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, singular and plural. Articles and adjectives are usually inflected to agree
Agreement (linguistics)
In languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates....
in gender and number with the nouns or pronouns they refer to. There are no cases; only personal pronouns are still declined
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
. Diminutive
Diminutive
In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
and augmentative
Augmentative
An augmentative is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size, but also in other attributes...
forms exist for nouns.
Gender and number
Most adjectiveAdjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s and demonstrative
Demonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
s, and all articles must be inflected according to the gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
and number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
of the noun they reference:
- esta linda casa branca ("this nice white house")
- este lindo carro branco ("this nice white car")
- estas lindas aves brancas ("these nice white birds")
- estes lindos gatos brancos ("these nice white cats")
The agreement rules apply also to adjectives used with copulas, e.g. o carro é branco ("the car is white") vs. a casa é branca ("the house is white").
Gender determination
As in all Romance languages, the grammatical gender of inanimate entities is quite arbitrary, and often different from that used in sister languages: thus, for example, Portuguese árvore ("tree") and flor ("flower") are feminine, while Spanish árbol and Italian fiore are masculine; Portuguese mar ("sea") and mapa ("map") are masculine, while French mer and mappe are feminine; and so on.The gender and number of many nouns can be deduced from its ending: the basic pattern is "-o" / "-os" for masculine singular and plural, "-a" / "-as" for feminine. And, indeed, casa ("house"), mala ("suitcase"), pedra ("stone"), and inteligência ("intelligence") are all feminine, while carro ("car"), saco ("bag"), tijolo ("brick"), and aborrecimento ("annoyance") are all masculine. However, the complete rules are quite complex: for instance, nouns ending in -ção are usually feminine, except for augmentatives like bração ("big arm"). And there are many irregular exceptions. For words ending in other letters, there are few rules: flor ("flower"), gente ("folk"), nau ("ship"), maré ("tide") are feminine, amor ("love"), pente ("comb"), pau ("stick"), café ("coffee") are masculine.
The gender of animate beings often matches the biological sex, but there are many exceptions: autoridade ("authority"), testemunha ("witness"), and girafa ("giraffe"), for example, are always feminine regardless of their sex, and so are all respectful treatments such as Vossa Excelência ("Your Excellency"); whereas peixe fêmea ("female fish") is strictly masculine.
On the other hand, the gender of some nouns, as well as of 1st and 2nd person pronouns, is determined semantically by the biological sex of the referent: aquela estudante é nova, mas aquele estudante é velho ("this (female) student is new, but that (male) student is old";
or eu sou brasileiro ("I am Brazilian", said by a man) and eu sou brasileira (the same, said by a woman).
Also, many animate masculine nouns have specific feminine derivative forms to indicate female biological sex: lobo ("wolf" or "male wolf", masculine gender) → loba ("she-wolf", feminine), conde ("count", m.) → condessa ("countess", f.), doutor ("doctor" or "male doctor", m.) → doutora ("female doctor", f.), ator ("actor", m.) → atriz ("actress", f.), etc.. The feminine noun derivations should not be confused with the adjectival gender inflections, which use different (and more regular) rules.
Diminutives and augmentatives
The Portuguese language is abundant in the use of diminutiveDiminutive
In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
s, which convey the senses of small size, endearment or insignificance. Diminutives are very commonly used in informal language. On the other hand, most uses of diminutives are avoided in written and otherwise formal language.
The most common diminutive endings are -inho and -inha, replacing -o and -a, respectively. Words with the stress
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
on the last syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
generally have -zinho or -zinha added, such as café "coffee" and cafezinho "coffee served as a show of Brazilian hospitality". In writing, a c (but not a ç) becomes qu in some words, like pouco ("few") and pouquinho ("very few"), in order to preserve the [k] pronunciation.
Possible endings other than -inho(a) are:
-ito(a), e.g. copo/copito ("glass")
-ico(a), e.g. burro/burrico ("donkey")
-(z)ete, e.g. palácio/palacete ("palace")
-ote, e.g. saia/saiote ("skirt")
-oto, e.g. lebre/lebroto ("hare/leveret")
-ejo, e.g. lugar/lugarejo ("place")
-acho, e.g. rio/riacho ("river")
-ola, e.g. aldeia/aldeola ("village")
-el, e.g. corda/cordel ("rope")
It is also possible to form a diminutive of a diminutive, e.g. "burriquito" (burro + -ico + -ito).
Portuguese diminutive endings are often used not only with nouns but also with adjectives, e.g. tonto/tontinho ("silly" / "a bit silly"), or verde/verdinho ("green" / "nicely green") and occasionally with adverbs, e.g. depressa/depressinha ("quickly") and some other word classes, e.g. obrigadinho– diminutive for the interjection
Interjection
In grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...
obrigado "thanks". Even the numeral um (one) can informally become unzinho.
The most common augmentative
Augmentative
An augmentative is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size, but also in other attributes...
s are the masculine -ão and the feminine -ona, although there are others, like -aço(a) e.g. mulher/mulheraça ("woman"); or -eirão, e.g. voz/vozeirão ("voice"), less frequently used. Sometimes the masculine augmentative can be applied to a feminine noun, which then becomes grammatically masculine, but with a feminine meaning, e.g. a mulher / o mulherão ("the woman" / "the big woman").
Adjectives
Adjectives normally follow the nouns which they modifyGrammatical modifier
In grammar, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure; the removal of the modifier typically doesn't affect the grammaticality of the sentence....
. Thus "white house" is casa branca but the reverse order branca casa is possible. Some adjectives like bom ("good"), belo ("nice"), and grande ("great", "big") are often prefixed. Indeed, some of these have rather different meanings depending on position: um grande homem means "a great man", um homem grande means "a big man".
They are inflected for gender and number, and have also a "superlative" inflection, which actually enhances the meaning of the adjective without explicitly comparing it ("lindo", beautiful; "lindíssimo", very beautiful). The actual degrees of comparison
Three degrees of comparison
In English grammar, the degree of comparison of an adjective or adverb describes the relational value of one thing with something in another clause of a sentence...
are expressed analytically, mostly with the adverb mais "more": mais alto (do) que = "higher than", o mais alto "the highest". However, a few other adjectives (besides mais itself) have suppletive
Suppletion
In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is traditionally understood as the use of one word as the inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. For those learning a language, suppletive forms will be seen as "irregular" or even "highly irregular". The term "suppletion" implies...
comparative/superlative forms:
| Adjective | Comparative | Superlative (absolut) | Superlative (relative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| bom (good) | melhor (better) | o melhor (the best) | ótimo (very good) |
| mau (bad) | pior (worse) | o pior (the worst) | péssimo (very bad) |
| pequeno (small) | menor (smaller) | o menor (the smallest) | mínimo (very small) |
| grande (big) | maior (bigger) | o maior (the biggest) | máximo (very big) |
The others adjectives follow this example:
| Adjective | Comparative | Superlative (absolut) | Superlative (relative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| belo (pretty) | mais belo (prettier) | o mais belo (the prettiest) | belíssimo (very pretty) |
| caro (expensive) | mais caro (more expensive) | o mais caro (the most expensive) | caríssimo (very expensive) |
The rules for inflecting adjectives for gender and number are the same as those for nouns. There are a few basic patterns, including:
- (masc.singl., fem.singl., masc.pl., fem.pl.):
- branco, branca, brancos, brancas ("white")
- francês, francesa, franceses, francesas ("French")
- verde, verde, verdes, verdes ("green")
- feliz, feliz, felizes, felizes ("happy")
- superior, superior, superiores, superiores ("superior")
- motor, motriz, motores, motrizes ("motorised")
- azul, azul, azuis, azuis ("blue")
- grandão, grandona, grandões, grandonas ("rather big")
However, there are a few exceptions, such as:
- bom, boa, bons, boas ("good")
- lilás, lilás, lilás, lilás ("lilac")
Prepositions
Portuguese prepositions are somewhat similar to those of neighboring Romance languages; but there are some conspicuous differences.There is no simple correspondence between English and Portuguese prepositions; the following table is a rough approximation:
- a = used before indirect objectObject (grammar)An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
, it can also mean "to", "at", "in", "on", etc, or used before direct object (accusative preposition) for topicalization.
- até = "until"
- com = "with"
- de = "of", "from", "about", etc.
- debaixo de = "under", "below"
- desde = "from", "since"
- em = "in", "on", "at"a
- entre = "between", "among"
- por = "by", "for", "through"
- para = "for", "to", "in order to"
- sem = "without"
- sobre = "on", "above", "on top of", "about"
- sob = "under" (mostly literary)
- a partir de = "from"
- acerca de = "about"
- através de = "through"
- dentro de = "inside"
- em baixo de = "under"
- em cima de = "above", "on"
- junto com = "(together)with"
- para com = "to"
- vindo de = "from ,since"
The English possessive case
Possessive case
The possessive case of a language is a grammatical case used to indicate a relationship of possession. It is not the same as the genitive case, which can express a wider range of relationships, though the two have similar meanings in many languages.See Possession for a survey of the different...
has no systematic counterpart in Portuguese (or, for that matter, in any other Romance language except Romanian and Latin). Portuguese generally uses de ("of") to indicate possession or, indeed, any relation (which must be deciphered from the context).
Several prepositions contract
Contraction (grammar)
A contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters....
with the definite article.
| preposition | article | |||
| o | a | os | as | |
| de | do | da | dos | das |
| em | no | na | nos | nas |
| por | pelo | pela | pelos | pelas |
| a | ao | à | aos | às |
| para | prò1, pro1 | prà1, pra1 | pròs1, pros1 | pràs1, pras1 |
1 colloquial
The contractions in the first four rows (with de, em, por, a) are mandatory in all registers. The grave accent in à / às has phonetic value in Portugal and African countries, but not in Brazil (see Portuguese phonology
Portuguese phonology
The phonology of Portuguese can vary considerably between dialects, in extreme cases leading to difficulties in intelligibility. This article focuses on the pronunciations that are generally regarded as standard...
). In Brazil, the grave accent serves only to indicate the crasis
Crasis
Crasis is a type of contraction in which two vowels or diphthongs merge into one new vowel or diphthong — making one word out of two. Crasis occurs in Portuguese and Arabic as well as in Ancient Greek, where it was first described.-French:...
in written text. The contractions in the last row are common in speech, but not used in formal writing. They may, however, appear when transcribing colloquial speech, for example in comic books. In the latter case, the grave accent
Grave accent
The grave accent is a diacritical mark used in written Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch, French, Greek , Italian, Mohawk, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, Welsh, Romansh, and other languages.-Greek:The grave accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient...
is often omitted in Brazil, and it is also often mistakenly replaced with an acute accent
Acute accent
The acute accent is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts.-Apex:An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels.-Greek:...
elsewhere.
The prepositions de and em may also contract with the indefinite article, and with some pronouns that begin with a vowel:
- de + um/uma/uns/umas = dum/duma/duns/dumas ("of a", "from a")
- em + um/uma/uns/umas = num/numa/nuns/numas ("in a", "on a", "at a")
The contractions above are very common in the spoken language, formal or informal, and are also acceptable in formal writing in Portugal. In Brazil, they are avoided in writing, especially those of the preposition de with the indefinite article.
Across clause
Clause
In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...
boundaries, contractions may occur in colloquial speech, but they are not done in writing, for clarity sake:
- Fui, apesar da loja estar fechada. (informal only)
- Fui, apesar de a loja estar fechada. (formal or informal)
- "I went, even though the shop was closed."
The English concept of phrasal verb
Phrasal verb
A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition, any of which are part of the syntax of the sentence, and so are a complete semantic unit. Sentences may contain direct and indirect objects in addition to the phrasal...
(like "set up", "get by", "pick out", etc.) does not exist in Portuguese: as a rule, prepositions are attached to the noun more strongly than to the verb.
For a list of contracted prepositions in Portuguese, see Wikipedia in Portuguese: Contração gramatical.
Personal pronouns and possessives
Pronouns are often inflected for gender and number, although many have irregular inflections.Personal pronouns are inflected according to their syntactic role
Verb argument
In linguistics, a verb argument is a phrase that appears in a syntactic relationship with the verb in a clause. In English, for example, the two most important arguments are the subject and the direct object....
. They have three main types of forms: for the subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
, for the object
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
of a verb, and for the object of a preposition. In the third person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
, a distinction is also made between simple direct objects, simple indirect objects, and reflexive objects
Reflexive pronoun
A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that is preceded by the noun, adjective, adverb or pronoun to which it refers within the same clause. In generative grammar, a reflexive pronoun is an anaphor that must be bound by its antecedent...
.
Possessive pronoun
Possessive pronoun
A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that substitutes for a noun phrase that begins with a possessive determiner . For example, in the sentence These glasses are mine, not yours, the words mine and yours are possessive pronouns and stand for my glasses and your glasses, respectively...
s are identical to possessive adjective
Possessive adjective
Possessive adjectives, also known as possessive determiners, are a part of speech that modifies a noun by attributing possession to someone or something...
s. As in other Romance languages, they are inflected to agree
Agreement (linguistics)
In languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates....
with the gender of the possessed being.
Place adverbs
Adverbs of place show a three-way distinction between close to the speaker, close to the listener, and far from both:- aqui, cá = "here"
- aí = "there" (near you)
- ali, lá (also acolá and além) = "over there" (far from both of us)
There seem to be differences in usage between aqui and cá, with the latter being used more often after prepositions: e.g. estamos aqui ("we are here") and vem para cá (lit., "come to here"). Differences also happen in the meaning of ali, lá and acolá (especially, lá seems to be farther than ali), but they are not quite distinct degrees of separation.
Demonstratives
DemonstrativeDemonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
s have the same three-way distinction as place adverbs:
- este lápis - "this pencil" (near me)
- esse lápis - "that pencil" (near you)
- aquele lápis - "that pencil" (over there, away from both of us)
In colloquial Brazilian Portuguese, esse is often used interchangeably with este when there is no need to make a distinction. This distinction is usually only made in formal writing or by people with more formal education.
The noun after a demonstrative can be elided: quero esse também ("I want that one too"), vendi aqueles ontem ("I sold those yesterday").
Demonstratives form contractions
Contraction (grammar)
A contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters....
with some prepositions, like the articles: de + este = deste ("of this"), de + esse = desse ("of that"), em + aquilo = naquilo ("in that thing"), a + aquela = àquela ("to that").
Demonstrative adjectives are identical to demonstrative pronouns: cf. Aquele carro "That car" with Aquele "That one."
Indefinite pronouns
The indefinite pronouns todo, toda, todos, todas are followed by the definite article in European Portuguese, and also elsewhere when they mean "whole". Otherwise, articles and indefinite pronouns are mutually exclusive.In the demonstratives and in some indefinite pronouns, there is a trace of the neuter gender of Latin. For example, todo and esse are used with masculine referents, toda and essa are used with feminine referents, and tudo and isso are used when there is no definite referent e.g. todo livro or todo o livro, "every book"; toda salada or toda a salada, "every salad"; tudo "everything", and so on:
- este, esta, estes, estas ("this", "these"); isto ("this thing")
- esse, essa, esses, essas ("that", "those"); isso ("that thing")
- aquele, aquela, aqueles, aquelas ("that", "those"); aquilo ("that thing")
- algum, alguma, alguns, algumas ("some"); algo ("something")
- nenhum, nenhuma, nenhuns, nenhumas ("no"); nada ("nothing")
- todo, toda, todos, todas ("every", "all"); tudo ("everything")
In terms of agreement
Agreement (linguistics)
In languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates....
, however, these "neuter" words function as masculine: both todo and tudo take masculine adjectives.
Verbs
As in most Romance languages, the Portuguese verb is usually inflectedInflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
to agree with the subject's
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
grammatical person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
(with three values, 1=I/we, 2=you, 3=he/she/it/they) and grammatical number (singular or plural), and to express various attributes of the action, such as time (past, present, future); completed, frustrated, or continuing; subordination
Subordination (linguistics)
In linguistics, subordination is a complex syntactic construction in which one or more clauses are dependent on the main clause, such as The dog ran home after it had played with the ball. The italicized text is the subordinate clause...
and conditionality
Conditionality
Conditionality is a concept in international development, political economy and international relations and describes the use of conditions attached to a loan, debt relief, bilateral aid or membership of international organizations, typically by the international financial institutions, regional...
; command; and more. As a consequence, a regular Portuguese verb stem can take over 50 distinct suffixes. (For comparison, regular French and Italian verbs have about 40 distinct forms.)
Copulae
- Related article: Romance copulaRomance copulaThe copula or copulae in all Romance languages largely derive from the Latin verbs "to be" ; "to stand" ; and "to sit"...
Two verbs are used as main copulae, as in some other Romance languages
Romance copula
The copula or copulae in all Romance languages largely derive from the Latin verbs "to be" ; "to stand" ; and "to sit"...
, the verbs ser and estar ("to be"). They developed from Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
SUM and STO, although the infinitive form ser actually comes from SEDERE. Most forms of ser come from SUM (infinitive ESSE), the only exceptions being the indicative future, the subjunctive present and the imperative. Ficar is also used as secondary copula, sometimes being translatable as "to become (to be)" or "to get (to be)" (e.g., Fiquei rico. = "I got rich"), some other times as "to stay" (e.g., Fica aí! = "Stay there!"), some other times even as "to be" (e.g., Coimbra fica na Beira = "Coimbra is in Beira" and Fica quieto! = "Be still!").
The distinction between ser and estar is perhaps a little more of a concept of permanent versus temporary, rather than essence versus state. This makes Portuguese closer to Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
than to Spanish.
- A cadeira é [feita] de madeira = "The chair is made of wood"
The word meaning "made" is in square brackets here, as it is usually omitted.
- Sou casado. = "I'm married."
- Estou casado. = "I'm married now."
The same applies in sentences such as the following, which use ser for the passive voice, with no special exceptions for prohibitions and the like:
- É proibido fumar neste voo = "No smoking on this flight" (lit. "it is forbidden to...")
Portuguese counts location either as fundamental or not, and accordingly uses ser or ficar and estar:
- Onde é/fica a casa dela? = "Where is her house?"
- Onde está o carro dela? = "Where is her car?"
Note: Questions often include the interrogative structure é que (literally "is that"). The two last examples would probably be uttered as Onde é que é/está/fica...
Nuance
- Estou tonta = "I'm dizzy"
- Sou tonta = "I'm silly"
- É sujo = "It's dirty" (i.e. "It's a dirty place" — characteristic)
- Está sujo = "It's dirty" (i.e. "(right now) The place is dirty" — state)
- É aberta = "She's open" (i.e. "She's an open sort of person" — characteristic)
- Está aberta = "It's open" (probably referring to a door or window — state)
- Ele é triste = "He is sad" (i.e. gloomy — characteristic)
- (Ele) Está triste = "He is sad" (i.e. feeling down — state)
- Como és? = "What are you like?" (i.e. "describe yourself" — characteristics)
- Como estás? = "How are you?" (i.e. "how are you doing?" — state)
With adjectives referring to beauty and the like, ser means "to be", and estar means "to look".
- Que linda ela é! = "Wow, she's so beautiful" (characteristic)
- Que linda ela está! = "Wow, she's looking so beautiful" (state)
As in Spanish, the differentiation between "nature" and "state" makes sense when talking about the states of life and death: Está vivo (He is alive). Está morto (He is dead).
Ser is used with adjectives of fundamental belief (Não sou católico, "I'm not Catholic"), nationality (És português, "You are Portuguese"), sex (É homem, "He's a man"), intelligence (Somos espertos, "We are smart"), etc.
Due to Catholicism being the main religion in most Lusophone countries the use of católico ("Catholic") with estar has a figurative meaning:
- Eu não estou muito católico = "I'm not feeling very dependable/trustworthy." (possibly ill or drunk)
- O tempo hoje não está muito católico = "The weather's not very nice today."
With this exception, estar is not used for fundamental belief, nationality, sex, or intelligence. One can nevertheless say Estou abrasileirado. ("I'm Brazilian-influenced." — state) or Estás americanizado. (You are Americanised — state).
Infinitive form
The infinitiveInfinitive
In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
is used, as in English, to make subordinate noun clauses that express an action at an indefinite time, and possibly with an indefinite or implicit subject, e.g. queremos cantar ("we would like to sing"), cantar é agradável (lit. "to sing is pleasant"). Many of its uses would be translated into English by the "-ing" nominal form, e.g. mesa para cortar ("cutting table"), cantar é bom ("singing is good"), trabalhe sem parar ("work without pausing")
European Portuguese has the distinct feature of preferentially using the infinitive preceded by the preposition "a" in place of the gerund as the typical method of describing continuing action:
- Estou lendo.
- "I am reading." (Brazilian Portuguese)
- Estou a ler.
- "I am reading." (European Portuguese)
- Estavam dormindo.
- "They were sleeping." (Brazilian Portuguese)
- Estavam a dormir.
- "They were sleeping." (European Portuguese)
The gerund "-ndo" form is still correct in European Portuguese, but relatively rare (although its adverbial uses and the other participle forms are not uncommon). On the other hand, the "a + infinitive" form is virtually nonexistent in Brazil, and considered an improper use in Brazilian Portuguese.
A distinctive trait of Portuguese grammar (shared with Galician and Sardinian
Sardinian language
Sardinian is a Romance language spoken and written on most of the island of Sardinia . It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum....
) is the existence of infinitive verb forms inflected according to the person and number of the subject:
- É melhor voltar, "It is better to go back" (impersonal)
- É melhor voltares, "It is better that you go back"
- É melhor voltarmos, "It is better that we go back"
Depending on the context and intended sense, the personal infinitive may be forbidden, required, or optional.
Personal infinitive sentences may often be used interchangeably with finite subordinate clauses. In these cases, finite clauses are usually associated with the more formal register
Diglossia
In linguistics, diglossia refers to a situation in which two dialects or languages are used by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety , a second, highly codified variety is used in certain situations such as literature, formal...
s of the language.
Conjugation classes
Verbs are divided into three main conjugation classes according to the ending of their infinitive form, which may be either -ar, -er, or -ir. There is also the irregular verb pôr ("to put") and its prefixed derivatives, which for historical reasons many grammarians still place in the -er conjugation class (it used to be poer). Most stems belong to the -ar conjugation class, which is the only one open to neologisms such as clicar ("to click" with a mouseMouse (computing)
In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons...
).
Each conjugation class has its own distinctive set of 50 or so inflection suffixes: cant/ar → cant/ou ("he sang"), vend/er → vend/eu ("he sold"), part/ir → part/iu ("he left"), rep/or → rep/ôs ("he put back") . Some suffixes undergo various regular adjustments depending on the final consonant of the stem, either in pronunciation, in the spelling, or in both. Some verbal inflections also entail a shift in syllable stress: 'canto ("I sing"), can'tamos ("we sing"), canta'rei ("I will sing"). See Portuguese verb conjugation
Portuguese verb conjugation
Portuguese verbs display a high degree of inflection. A typical regular verb has over fifty different forms, expressing up to six different grammatical tenses and three moods...
.
There are a couple hundred verbs with some irregular inflections, and about a dozen or so that are very irregular, including the auxiliaries ser ("to be"), haver ("there to be" or "to have"), ter ("to possess", "to have", "there to be" - in Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by most of the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....
), ir ("to go"), and a few others.
Gerund and participle forms
The gerund form of a verb always ends with -ndo. It is used to make compound tenses expressing continuing action, e.g. ele está cantando ("he is singing"), ele estava cantando ("he was singing"); or as an adverb, e.g. ele trabalha cantando ("he works while singing"). It is never inflected for person or number.In European Portuguese, the gerund is often replaced by the infinitive (preceded by "a") when used to express continuing action.
The participle of regular verbs is used in compound verb tenses, as in ele tinha cantado ("he had sung"). It can also be used as an adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
:, and in this case it is inflected to agree with the noun's gender and number: um hino cantado ("a sung anthem", masculine
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
), três árias cantadas ("three sung arias", feminine
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
). Some verbs have two distinct forms (one regular, one irregular), for these two uses. Additionally, a few verbs have two different verbal participles, a regular one for the active voice, and an irregular one for the passive voice. An example is the verb matar (to kill): Bruto tinha matado César ("Brutus had killed Cesar"), César foi morto por Bruto ("Cesar was killed by Brutus").
Synthetic moods and tenses
Grammarians usually classify the verbal inflections (i.e. the syntheticSynthetic language
In linguistic typology, a synthetic language is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a low morpheme-per-word ratio in what is described as an isolating language...
verb forms) into the following moods
Grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
, tense
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
s, and non-finite forms
Non-finite verb
In linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person...
:
- indicative mood, used in the main clauseClauseIn grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...
s of declarative sentences:- present tensePresent tenseThe present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...
: cantas, "you sing" - past tensePast tenseThe past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
s:- perfect past tense: cantaste, "you sang"
- imperfect past tense: cantavas, "you were singing"
- pluperfect past tense: cantaras, "you had sung"
- future tenseFuture tenseIn grammar, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future .-Expressions of future tense:The concept of the future,...
: cantarás, "you will sing" - conditional tense: cantarias, "you would sing"
- present tense
- subjunctive moodSubjunctive moodIn grammar, the subjunctive mood is a verb mood typically used in subordinate clauses to express various states of irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred....
used in certain subordinate clauses:- subjunctive present tense: que cantes, "that you sing"
- subjunctive past tense: se cantasses, "if you sang/would sing"
- subjunctive future tense: se cantares, "if you sing/should sing"
- imperative moodImperative moodThe imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
: used to express a command, advice, encouragement, etc.:- affirmative: canta! ("sing!")
- negative: não cantes!" ("don't sing!")
- infinitive formInfinitiveIn grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
:- impersonal: cantar, "to sing"
- personal: cantares, "you to sing", "that you sing" or "your singing"
- gerund formGerundIn linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....
: cantando, "singing" - past (or passive) participle formParticipleIn linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
: cantado, "sung"
The conditional tense is usually called "future of the past" in Brazilian grammars, whereas in Portugal it is usually classified as a separate "conditional mood". Portuguese grammarians call subjunctive "conjuntivo"; Brazilians call it "subjuntivo".
In regular verbs, the personal infinitive is identical to the subjunctive future tense; but they are different in irregular verbs: quando formos ("when we go", subjunctive) versus é melhor irmos ("it is better that we go").
There are also are many compound tenses expressed with inflected forms of the auxiliary verbs ser and estar (variants of "to be"), haver and ter (variants of "to have").
Compound forms
Like all Romance languages, Portuguese has many compound verb tenses, consisting of an auxiliary verb (inflected in any of the above forms) combined with the gerund, participle or infinitive of the principal verb.The basic auxiliary verbs of Portuguese are ter (originally "to hold", from Latin tenere, but nowadays meaning "to have"), haver ("to have", from Latin habere; tends to be replaced with ter in most constructions), ser ("to be", from Latin esse), estar ("to be", from Latin stare "to stand"), and ir ("to go", Latin ire), which have analogues in most other Romance languages. Thus, for example, "he had spoken" can be translated as ele havia falado or ele tinha falado. Other auxiliary verbs are ser (also "to be", from Latin esse), ficar ("to remain", "to become"), and ir ("to go").
Compound perfect
In other Romance languages, compound perfect are constructed with a verb derived from Latin habere. This used to be the case in Portuguese, too, but in recent centuries the verb ter, from Latin tenere, has been steadily overtaking haver, although the latter is still used with some frequency in writing and in formal spoken registers. While ter is used as auxiliary by other Iberian languages, it is much more pervasive in Portuguese. In fact, there has been a general shift from haver, which in Old Portuguese literally meant "to have", towards ter, which used to mean "to hold", but has now taken the meaning of "to have". In colloquial European Portuguese, haver is only used impersonally, with the sense of "there to be", and in spoken Brazilian PortugueseBrazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by most of the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....
it is replaced with ter even in this case, as in Tem muito peixe no mar "There are plenty of fish in the sea" (although the latter use is not endorsed by official grammar).
Tenses with ter/haver + past participle (composed tenses):
- Indicative preterit perfect - temos falado ("we have spoken" as in "we have spoken quite a lot lately" - there is an iterative notion. Haver is not used nowadays. This tense may also be equivalent to the simple preterit for some fixed expressions, such as Tenho dito/concluído)
- Indicative pluperfect - tínhamos/havíamos falado ("we had spoken")
- Indicative anterior pluperfect - tivéramos/houvéramos falado ("we had spoken", literary use only)
- Indicative future perfect teremos/haveremos falado ("we will have spoken")
- Conditional perfect - teríamos/haveríamos falado ("we would have spoken")
- Subjunctive preterit perfect - desde que tenhamos/hajamos falado ("provided that we have spoken")
- Subjunctive pluperfect - se/que tivéssemos/houvéssemos falado ("if/that we had spoken")
- Subjunctive future perfect - se/quando tivermos/houvermos falado ("if/when we have spoken")
- Personal infinitive perfect - termos/havermos falado ("to have spoken")
With no inflexion:
- Impersonal infinitive perfect - ter/haver falado ("to have spoken")
- Gerund perfect - tendo/havendo falado ("having spoken")
Compound vs. simple pluperfect
In addition to the compound forms for completed past actions, Portuguese also retains a synthetic pluperfect: so ele tinha falado and ele havia falado ("he had spoken") can also be expressed as ele falara. However, the pluperfect is losing ground to the compound forms. While pluperfect forms like falara are generally understood, they are generally limited to regional use (in some regions of Portugal) or written speech. In BP, its use is even less frequent.Preterite vs. present perfect
The simple past (or pretérito perfeito simples in Portuguese) is widely used, sometimes corresponding to the present perfect of English (this happens in many dialects of American Spanish, too).A present perfect also exists (normally called pretérito perfeito composto), but it has a very restricted use, denoting an action or a series of actions which began in the past and are expected to continue into the future, but will stop soon. For instance, the meaning of "Tenho tentado falar com ela" may be closer to "I have been trying to talk to her" than to "I have tried to talk to her", in some contexts. This iterative
Iteration
Iteration means the act of repeating a process usually with the aim of approaching a desired goal or target or result. Each repetition of the process is also called an "iteration," and the results of one iteration are used as the starting point for the next iteration.-Mathematics:Iteration in...
sense of the present perfect is quite exceptional among Romance languages. It seems to be a recent construction, since it only allows the verb ter as auxiliary, never haver, and is absent from Galician
Galician language
Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
.
Progressive tenses
Portuguese originally constructed progressive tenses with a conjugated form of the verb "to be", followed by the gerund of the main verb, like English: e.g. Eu estou trabalhando "I am working" (cf. also the corresponding ItalianItalian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
phrase: (Io) sto lavorando). However, in European Portuguese an alternative construction has appeared, formed with the preposition a followed by the infinitive of the main verb: e.g. Eu estou a trabalhar. This has replaced the ancient syntax in central and northern Portugal. The gerund may also be replaced with a followed by the infinitive in less common verb phrases, such as Ele ficou lá, trabalhando / Ele ficou lá, a trabalhar "He stayed there, working". However, the construction with the gerund is still found in southern and insular Portugal and in Portuguese literature, and it is the rule in Brazil.
- estou falando or estou a falar ("I am speaking")
- estava falando/ a falar (imperfectivePerfective aspectThe perfective aspect , sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed as a simple whole, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. The perfective aspect is equivalent to the aspectual component of past perfective forms...
: "I was speaking" [at the moment]) - estive falando/ a falar (perfective: "I was speaking [for a while]" / "I have been speaking" [for a while])
- estivera falando/ a falar ("I had been speaking")
- estarei falando/ a falar ("I will be speaking")
- esteja falando/ a falar ("be speaking"; or "am" or "is speaking")
- se estivesse falando/ a falar ("if I were speaking")
- quando estiver falando/ a falar ("when you are speaking" [in the future])
- estar falando/ a falar ("to be speaking")
Periphrastic construction with haver
Like in most romance languages, the simple future of the indicative and the conditional are formed by appending the present and the preterit imperfect of the verb haver to the infinitive, respectively. In Portuguese, it can also be used before the verb, together with the proposition de. This is usually limited to oral speech.Examples:
- Eu disse que havia de voltar for Eu disse que voltaria ("I said I should return")
- Vós haveis de (or "heis-de") vencer for Vós vencereis ("You shall win")
Sometimes, other tenses of haver are used, though it is infrequent. Example: Quem houver de ficar com a casa, há-de vir para aqui.
The only other tenses commonly used are the conditional/future and their meaning is approximately the same of the present/preterit imperfect described herein.
In EP, a hyphen is put between the monosyllabic forms of haver and de (hei, hás, há, heis and hão).
There are, however, differences of meaning between this construction and the future of the indicative/conditional. The former usually conveys a sense of obligation/necessity (be it logic, circumstantial, of convenience, natural or moral law, ...), duty, certainty or resolution, rather than simple futurity, although that would depend on the context. This is somewhat comparable to the use of shall outside the first person.
Examples:
- Hei-de lá ir amanhã (promise, "I will go there tomorrow") versus Irei lá amanhã (less emphatic, almost an expectation, "I shall go there tomorrow")
- Havemos de cá voltar (promise, but in an uncertain future, "We will return here") versus Voltaremos cá (prediction or statement of an arrangement). Depending on the context, it can also be an invitation: Gostei de te ter aqui, hás-de cá voltar ("I've enjoyed having you here, you should return").
- Havias de ter visto a reacção dela ("You should have seen her reaction") versus Terias visto a reacção dela ("You would have seen her reaction"). The meaning is here quite different.
- Que havia eu de fazer? ("What should I (was I to) do?") versus Que faria eu? ("What would I do?"). The latter is merely an hypothetical question, the former could be asking for an advice or opinion about what ought to have been done.
It has also acquired other meanings - for instance, O que está cá dentro? Dinheiro! O que havia de ser?! could be translated into What is in here? Money! What else?!.
Other compound tenses
Tenses with ir + infinitive- vamos falar ("we will speak", "we are going to speak")
- íamos falar ("we were going to speak")
- iríamos falar ("we would speak", "we would be going to speak")
Tenses with multiple auxiliaries:
- teríamos estado falando/a falar ("we would have been speaking")
- tenho estado falando/a falar ("I have been speaking (until now)")
Passive voice
It is possible to construct passive variants of clauses with transitive verb and object. The rules for it are basically as in English; namely, the original object becomes the subject; the original subject becomes an adverbial complement with preposition por ("by"); and the verb is replaced by its past participle, preceded by the copular verb ser ("to be") inflected in the original mood and tense:- O rato comeu o queijo ("The mouse ate the cheese")
- O queijo foi comido pelo rato ("The cheese was eaten by the mouse")
- Aquela senhora cantará a ária ("That lady will sing the aria")
- A ária será cantada por aquela senhora ("The aria will be sung by that lady")
- Se você cantasse a aria, ele ficaria ("If you were to sing the aria, he would stay")
- Se a ária fosse cantada por você, ele ficaria ("If the aria were to be sung by you, he would stay")
As in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, there is also a synthetic passive voice, in which the agent is replaced with the pronoun se, when its identity is not relevant:
- Fizeram-se planos e criaram-se esperanças. ("Plans were made and hopes were created.")
The same construction extends to some intransitive verbs, in which case the pronoun se denotes the subject (impersonal passive voice
Impersonal passive voice
The impersonal passive voice is a verb voice that decreases the valency of an intransitive verb to zero.The impersonal passive deletes the subject of an intransitive verb. In place of the verb's subject, the construction instead may include a syntactic placeholder, also called a dummy. This...
):
- Comeu-se, bebeu-se e bailou-se. ("There was eating, drinking, and dancing.")
Subjunctive mood
- Related article: Subjunctive.
Portuguese subjunctive mood is used mainly in certain kinds of subordinate clauses. There are three synthetic subjunctive inflections, conventionally called "present", "past" and "future". The rules of usage are rather complex, but on a first approximation:
- The present subjunctive tense is used in clauses, often introduced with que ("that"), which express wishes, orders, possibilities, etc.:
-
- quero que cante, "I want her/him to sing"
- supondo que cante, "assuming that he/she will sing"
- ele será pago, cante ou não, "he will be paid, whether he sings or not"
- The past subjunctive tense is used for adverbial subordinate clauses, introduced with se ("if") or equivalent, that are conditions for main cause in the conditional tense. It is also used for nominal clauses, introduced with que, that were the object of frustrated past wishes or commands:
- se cantasse, seria famoso ("if he would sing, he would be famous") OR ("if he might have sung, he would be famous")
- se cantasse, teríamos aplaudido ("if she had sung, we would have applauded")
- esperávamos que cantasse ("we had hoped that he would sing")
- não esperávamos que cantasse ("we didn't think that he would sing")
- The future subjunctive tense is an uncommon feature among Indo-European languages. It is used in adverbial subordinate clauses, usually introduced by se ("if") or quando ("when"), or in adjectival subordinate clauses, that express a neutral or expected condition for a present- or future-tense main clause:
- se cantarmos, seremos pagos ("If we (should) sing, we will be paid")
- se cantarmos, ele fica ("If we (should) sing, he stays")
- quando cantarmos, ele escutará ("When we (should) sing, he will listen")
- Often, the option between indicative and subjunctive depends on whether the speaker does or does not endorse the propositionPropositionIn logic and philosophy, the term proposition refers to either the "content" or "meaning" of a meaningful declarative sentence or the pattern of symbols, marks, or sounds that make up a meaningful declarative sentence...
expressed by the subordinate clause:
- Often, the option between indicative and subjunctive depends on whether the speaker does or does not endorse the proposition
-
- Admito que ele roubou a bicicleta. ("I admit that he stole the bicycle.")
- Admito que ele possa ter roubado a bicicleta. ("I admit that he could have stolen the bicycle.")
- In relative sentences, the option between indicative and subjunctive depends on whether the speaker does or does not identify a single object with the propertyProperty (philosophy)In modern philosophy, logic, and mathematics a property is an attribute of an object; a red object is said to have the property of redness. The property may be considered a form of object in its own right, able to possess other properties. A property however differs from individual objects in that...
expressed by the subordinate clause:
- In relative sentences, the option between indicative and subjunctive depends on whether the speaker does or does not identify a single object with the property
-
- Ando à procura de um cão que fala! ("I'm looking for a certain dog which can speak!")
- Ando à procura de um cão que fale! ("I'm looking for any dog that speaks!")
More on the subjunctive mood in Portuguese can be found at Wikibooks: Variation of the Portuguese Verbs.
Verbal derivatives
Portuguese has also many adjectives which consist of a verbal stem plus an ending in -nte, which are applied to nouns that perform that action; e.g. dançar ("to dance") ~ areia dançante ("dancing sand"), ferver ("to boil") ~ água fervente ("boiling water"), and many others.However, those adjectives were not always derived from the corresponding Portuguese verbs. Most of them were directly derived from the accusatives
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
of the present participles of Latin verbs, a form which was not retained by Portuguese. Thus, for example, Portuguese mutante ("changing", "varying") does not derive from the Portuguese verb mudar ("to change"), but directly from the Latin accusative present participle mutantem ("changing"). On the other hand, those pairs of words were eventually generalized by Portuguese speakers into a derivation rule, that is somewhat irregular and defective but still productive. So, for example, within the last 500 years we had the derivation pï'poka (Tupi for "to pop the skin") → pipoca (Portuguese for "popcorn") → pipocar ("to pop up all over") → pipocante ("popping up all over").
Similar processes resulted in many other semi-regular derivation rules that turn verbs into words of other classes. For example,
- clicar ("to click") → clicável ("clickable")
- vender ("to sell") → vendedor ("seller")
- encantar ("to enchant") → encantamento ("enchantment")
- destilar ("to distill") → destilação ("distillation")
The latter rule is quite productive, to the point that the pervasive -ção ending (derived from Latin -tione) is the most visually striking feature of written Portuguese.
See also
- Portuguese personal pronouns
- Portuguese verb conjugationPortuguese verb conjugationPortuguese verbs display a high degree of inflection. A typical regular verb has over fifty different forms, expressing up to six different grammatical tenses and three moods...
- Subjunctive moodSubjunctive moodIn grammar, the subjunctive mood is a verb mood typically used in subordinate clauses to express various states of irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred....
- Differences between Spanish and PortugueseDifferences between Spanish and PortugueseAlthough Portuguese and Spanish are closely related, to the point of having a considerable degree of mutual intelligibility, there are also important differences between them, which can pose difficulties for people acquainted with one of the languages who attempt to learn the other...
- Wikipedia in Portuguese: List of contracted prepositions
- Wikibooks: Variation of the Portuguese Verbs