Determiners

Let’s talk about relative determiners! There is only one relative determiner – cujo (and its variants). This is a relatively recent change to the terminology, so you may find a lot of articles that list cujo as either a relative pronoun or a quantifier, but this is incorrect. Relative determiners always agree in number and […]

Rita realizes that she has quite a bit in common with Marcelo’s siblings! Listen for lots of possessive pronouns and possessive determiners throughout their conversation.

Luísa can’t decide which dress to wear to a party, so she asks her husband for his opinion.

To master Portuguese, it is essential that we tackle determiners. As you may recall, we have already learned about a few types of determiners in previous units, such as articles, possessives, and demonstratives. So this will be a good opportunity to review, as well as to be introduced to some new types. In this unit, […]

In this lesson, we’ll review a topic we’ve covered before, which is Portuguese demonstratives – este, esta, esse, essa, aquele, and aquela – as well as their plural forms. In Portuguese, demonstrative determiners indicate where something is in relation to to the speaker and listener in terms of place or time, and must agree in […]

In this lesson, we’ll learn about Interrogative determiners are words we use to formulate questions or exclamations, and they are followed by nouns. There are only two of them, but they are quite important! Que Que is equivalent to “what”. Example: There is no plural form of que. Qual / Quais Qual is the singular […]

In this lesson, we’ll have a look at Indefinite determiners are words that express an undefined quality about the noun they’re referencing, similar to “other people”, “another beer”, or “certain things” in English. In Portuguese, indefinite determiners always agree in gender and number with the noun. Other & Another The singular forms of “other” or “another” […]

In this lesson, we’ll compare Portuguese definite articles and indefinite articles. are small words that precede and define a noun. In Portuguese, articles take on different forms to agree in gender and number with the noun they define. In English, we just have the definite article the and the indefinite articles a, an, and some. […]

Menus might be missing at this restaurant’s table, but a courteous waiter is eager to keep a new customer satisfied.

Dele vs seu? When forming 3rd person possessives in European Portuguese, how do we decide when to use dele, dela, deles, delas  vs.  seu, sua, seus, suas? Both ways are correct, so there’s no need to stress. It’s just a matter of whether you’re providing enough clarity / specificity. When in doubt: dele/dela/deles/delas is usually […]

The Ambiguity of Seu, Sua, Seus, and Suas To review, the Portuguese possessive pronouns/determiners for the third-person forms are the following: Subject Possessive Pronoun/Determiner English Equivalent Ele, Ela, Você His, Her/Hers, Your/Yours(formal) Eles, Elas Their, Theirs As you can see, ele, ela, você, eles, and elas all share the same exact possessive determiners! Since the determiners agree […]

Possessive Determiners vs. Possessive Pronouns In this unit, we’re going to learn about possessive determiners and possessive pronouns in European Portuguese, which both serve the function of expressing possession or ownership of something. In English, these are words like my, your, his, her, their, and our (possessive determiners) and mine, yours, his, hers, theirs, and […]