Portuguese made easy - possessive pronouns
What you need to know about personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we , you they etc)
1) The words for "my / your / his / her" etc change according to whether they are describing masculine or feminine / singular or plural words
Compare the following:
My book ( o meu livro); My books (os meus livros); My house ( a minha casa); My houses (as minhas casas)
2) The possesive pronouns agree with the word they are describing and not the person who it belongs to
Compare:
his book (o seu livro); her book ( o seu livro)
3) Study (and memorize!) the following tables:
|
MASCULINE |
FEMININE |
|||
|
singular |
plural |
singular |
plural |
|
|
My / mine |
O meu |
Os meus |
A minha |
As minhas |
|
Your / yours (familiar) |
O teu |
Os teus |
A tua |
As tuas |
|
Your / yours (more formal) |
O seu |
Os seus |
A sua |
As suas |
|
His |
O seu |
Os seus |
A sua |
As suas |
|
Her / hers |
O seu |
Os seus |
A sua |
As suas |
|
Our / ours |
O nosso |
Os nossos |
A nossa |
As nossas |
|
Your / yours (plural) |
O vosso |
Os vossos |
A vossa |
As vossas |
|
their / theirs |
O seu |
Os seus |
A sua |
As suas |
4) Alternative to "his / her / their"
You can see that there is potential confusion between saying for example: "his book" (o seu livro), "her book" (o seu livro) and "their book" ( o seu livro). To avoid this there is an alternative way to say the same thing: dele / delas / deles / delas (literary = "of him / of her / of them"
|
his |
... dele |
|
her |
... dela |
|
their |
... deles |
|
their |
... delas |
Example:
O livro dele. (His book)
O livro dela (Her book)
O livro deles (Their book)
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