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Prepositional Pronouns

Where a preposition is followed immediately by a pronoun, the pronoun follows a similar pattern to the indirect object pronouns listed previously.  At times though, the preposition and the pronoun are contracted into a single word. 

For example, ‘with us’ would be translated literally as ‘com nós’, but it is often contracted into a single word:  ‘connosco’ (which is spelt with a single ‘n’ by Brazilians).  Similarly, ‘from him’, which would be ‘de ele’ can be contracted to ‘dele’.  These contractions are optional, and some are used more commonly than others.

So, first of all, I’ll give you another table with the regular prepositional pronouns, following which we will take a look at the most common contractions.

Prepositional Pronouns
EnglishPortuguese
me
mim
us
nós
a gente
you (singular)
ti
si
você
o senhor
a senhora
you (plural)
vocês
him
ele
her
ela
them
eles
elas

Contraction of Preposition ‘with’ and Prepositional Pronouns
EnglishPortugueseNotes
with me
comigo
 
with us
connosco
Spelt ‘conosco’ in Brazil
with you (singular)
contigo
consigo
‘contigo’ is informal, ‘consigo’ is formal; ‘com o senhor’ / ‘com a senhora’ / ‘com você’ are more common than ‘consigo’.
with you (plural)
convosco
 
with him
consigo
 
with her
consigo
 
with them
consigo
Rarely used in this context – ‘com eles / com elas’ are more common

Contraction of Preposition ‘of/from’ and Prepositional Pronouns
EnglishPortugueseNotes
of/from us
da gente
More often, ‘de nós’
of/from you (singular)
do senhor
da senhora
Usually ‘de você’
of/from him
dele
 
of/from her
dela
 
of/from them
deles
delas
 

Contraction of Preposition ‘by/for’ and Prepositional Pronouns
EnglishPortugueseNotes
by/for us
pela gente
‘por nós’ is more common
by/for you (singular)
pelo senhor
pela senhora
‘por você’ is more common

Contraction of Preposition ‘in/on’ and Prepositional Pronouns
EnglishPortugueseNotes
in/on us
na gente
or ‘em nós’
in/on you (singular)
no senhor
na senhora
or ‘em você’
in/on him
nele
 
in/on her
nela
 
in/on them
neles
nelas
 

Comments
Much Appreciated
Written by Jennie on 2006-04-12 22:23:30 IP: 69.220.130.11
I am constantly looking for online resources about the Portuguese language. I very much appreciated this article.
Written by Clare on 2007-09-08 11:57:18 IP: 90.202.165.225
This site deserves a medal! I have looked at many of the free sites, but none of them come close to this one. I can't wait to go to portugal now. 
:zzz Muito Obrigada


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