Possessive Pronouns / Pronomes Possessivos

Possessive pronouns are used to show ownership. They indicate who the owner of a certain thing is. Those Pronouns can accompany, describe or replace a noun. Example:

O Meu carro novo My car is new (observe that meu accompanies and describes the noun carro)

In Portuguese the possessive pronouns have feminine, masculine, singular and plural forms. Usually those pronouns agree in gender and number with the thing possessed, not with the person that possesses. But there is an important exception for the possessive pronouns dele / deles / dela / delas. They agree in gender and number with the person. Possessive pronouns can be used alone, without the noun theyre referring to. In this case, they are accompanied by definite articles (except with verb ser). Example:

O Meu carro novo. O seu velho My car is new. Yours is old. (In the first sentence meu accompanies and describe the object carro. In the second sentence

observe that seu is masculine, replaces the word carro and it is used along with the definite article o) Study the possessive pronouns in the chart below. English My / mine Your / yours His / Her/ hers / its Our / ours Their / theirs Masculine Meu Seu / Meus / Seus Dele Nosso / Nossos Nossa Feminine Minha / Minhas

Sua

/ Suas Dela / Nossas

Deles

Delas

Examples: Observe that in all examples below the possessive pronouns agree with the thing possessed and are used before the noun. O Meu pai My father O Seu pai Your father O Nosso pai Our father

A Minha me My mother

A Sua me Your mother A Nossa me Our mother Examples: Note that in the examples below the possessive pronouns are used without article, because they come after verb to be O carro meu. The car is mine O carro seu. The car is yours. O carro dele. The car is his. O carro dela. The car is hers. O carro nosso. The car is ours. O carro deles. The car is theirs. O carro delas. The car is theirs. More Examples: Note that in the examples below the possessive pronouns are used with definite articles A minha casa verde. A sua vermelha. My house is green. Yours is red. A sua casa verde. A minha vermelha. Your house is green. Mine is red. A nossa casa branca. A dele azul. Our house is white. His is blue.

A nossa casa branca. A dela azul. Our house is white. Hers is blue. Note I The possessive pronouns seu /seus /sua / suas can be used to refer to your (yours), his, her (hers) and their (theirs) causing ambiguities, because you dont know if the pronoun is referring to you or to other person. In some cases to avoid ambiguity of the nouns ownership, the possessive pronouns dele / deles / dela /delas are used to refer to his - dele, her/hers - dela, their/theirs - deles, their/theirs, but for feminine group - delas. These pronouns agree in gender and number with the person who owns the thing, because these possessive pronouns always refer to the person and not to the object. Examples: Ele no encontrou o seu amigo. He did not meet your/his friend. This sentence has an ambiguity because you dont know if the person is referring to your or his friend. If the person is referring to his friend is better to say:

Ele no encontrou o amigo dele. He did not meet his friend. - You can observe that dele agrees in gender and number with ele and comes after noun. More examples: O Seu pai Your father O Pai dele His father O Pai dela Her father O Pai deles Their father O Pai delas Their father Note II The possessive pronouns teu /teus /tua / tuas can also be used to refer to your and yours. And in this case, they also agree in gender and number with the thing possessed. Examples: O teu pai Your father O teu carro Your car

A tua me Your mother A tua casa Your house

Note III Usually Portuguese grammar books recommend that it is not necessary to use possessive pronouns before body parts, especially when they are used to complement the verb. But colloquially is very common to use possessive pronouns along with body parts. Example: Eu parti o dente. (I broke my tooth). You can observe that there is no possessive pronoun along with the bodys part.

Exerccios de Portugus POSSESSIVOS Lusa, onde trabalha __________ irm?_____________ irm trabalha no banco. ( ele) Onde est a filha___________? A filha__________ est aqui. (ns) Gostamos dos___________ amigos. (eles) A Mariana e o Lus vo para a Europa. Os filhos ___________ vo ficar nos Estados Unidos. ( ele/ ela) No quero as chaves_______. Quero as chaves__________. ( ele) Est a conversar com o pai __________ ( ela) Est a conversar com a me__________ Quero conversar com ________ professor de portugus. Queremos conversar com __________ professor de portugus. ________ amigas querem falar comigo. Maria, onde fica a _________ casa? Onde voc comprou ___________ livros? Onde est ___________ carro? Onde comprou ___________ livros?