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{{Unreferenced|date=September 2017}}
'''Portuguese grammar''', the [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] and [[syntax]] of the [[Portuguese language]], is similar to the [[grammar]] of most other [[Romance languages]]—especially that of [[Differences between Spanish and Portuguese|Spanish]], and even more so to that of [[Galician language|Galician]]. It is a relatively [[synthetic language|synthetic]], [[fusional language]].
 
Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles are moderately [[inflection|inflected]]: there are two [[grammatical gender|genders]] (masculine and feminine) and two [[grammatical number|numbers]] (singular and plural). The case system of the ancestor language, [[Latin]], has been lost, but personal pronouns are still [[declension|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]] [[Derivation (linguistics)|derivational]] suffixes, and most adjectives can take a so-called "superlative" derivational suffix. Adjectives usually follow their respective nouns.
 
Verbs are highly inflected: there are three [[grammatical tense|tenses]] (past, present, future), three [[grammatical mood|moods]] (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), three [[grammatical aspect|aspects]] (perfective, imperfective, and progressive), three [[grammatical voice|voices]] (active, passive, reflexive), and an inflected [[infinitive]]. Most perfect and imperfect tenses are synthetic, totaling 11 [[inflectional paradigm|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 [[subject–verb–object|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 [[pro-drop language|drop object pronouns]] as well, in colloquial varieties. Like Spanish, it has two main [[copula (linguistics)|copular verbs]]: ''ser'' and ''estar''.
 
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 rare feature of Portuguese is [[mesoclisis]], the [[infix]]ing of [[clitic]] [[pronoun]]s in some verbal forms.
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===Null subject language===
As with several other modern Romance languages, Portuguese is a [[null subject language]], ''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:
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==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:
 
:{| class="wikitable"
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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 "ones" (if plural): ''quero um também'' ("I want one too"), ''quero uns maduros'' ("I want 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 names of countries or organizations:
:''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.
 
==Nouns==
Nouns are classified into two [[grammatical gender]]s ("masculine" and "feminine") and are inflected for [[grammatical number]] (singular or [[plural]]). [[Adjective]]s and [[determiner]]s ([[article (grammar)|article]]s, [[demonstrative]]s, [[possessive determiner|possessives]], and [[quantifier (linguistics)|quantifiers]]) must be inflected to [[Agreement (linguistics)|agree]] with the noun in gender and number. Many nouns can take [[diminutive]] or [[augmentative]] suffixes to express size, endearment, or deprecation.
 
Like all western Romance languages, Portuguese does not [[declension|inflect nouns]] to indicate their [[grammatical function]] or [[Grammatical case|case]], relying instead on the use of prepositions (simple and phrasal), on pleonastic objects, or on the context or word order. [[Portuguese personal pronouns|Personal pronouns]], on the other hand, still maintain some vestiges of [[declension]] from the ancestor language, Latin.
 
===Gender and number===
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====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.
 
In many cases, the gender and number of a noun 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, while ''amor'' ("love"), ''pente'' ("comb"), ''pau'' ("stick"), ''café'' ("coffee") are masculine.▼
 
▲In many cases, the gender and number of a noun 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, while ''amor'' ("love"), ''pente'' ("comb"), ''pau'' ("stick"), ''café'' ("coffee") are masculine.
The gender of animate beings often matches the [[biological sex]] (of animals) or [[gender|social gender]] (of humans, but there are many exceptions: ''autoridade'' ("authority"), ''testemunha'' ("witness"), and ''girafa'' ("giraffe"), for example, are always feminine regardless of their sex; whereas ''peixe fêmea'' ("female fish") is usually treated as masculine.
 
On the other hand, the gender of some nouns, as well as of first- and second-person pronouns, is determined semantically by the sex or gender of the referent: ''aquela estudante é nova, mas aquele estudante é velho'' ("this (female) student is new, but that (male) student is old";
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==Prepositions==
Portuguese prepositions are somewhat similar to those of neighboring Romance languages. Some of the prepositions, especially the most frequent ones, have several possible translations in English, as shown in the following tables. Simple prepositions consist of a single word, while compound prepositions are formed by a phrase.
{| border="0"
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The [[English possessive|English]] [[possessive case]] for nouns (apostrophe ''s'', or "Saxon genitive") has no systematic counterpart in Portuguese (nor, for that matter, in any other Romance language except Romanian). Portuguese generally uses ''de'' ("of") to indicate possession (possession is one of several relationships that can be indicated by ''de'').
 
Several prepositions form [[contraction (grammar)|contractions]] with the definite article.
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Personal pronouns are inflected according to their [[Verb argument|syntactic role]]. They have three main types of forms: for the [[subject (grammar)|subject]], for the [[object (grammar)|object]] of a verb, and for the object of a preposition. In the third [[grammatical person|person]], a distinction is also made between simple direct objects, simple indirect objects, and [[reflexive pronoun|reflexive objects]].
 
[[Possessive pronoun]]s are identical to [[possessive adjective]]s. As in other Romance languages, they are inflected to [[agreement (linguistics)|agree]] with the gender of the possessed being or object.
 
There are major differences in personal pronoun usage and forms between EP and BP, especially in spoken BP. Some of the more notable differences:
*Spoken BP tends to reduce or eliminate the use of the familiar second-person singular ''tu'' in favor of ''você''; even when forms of ''tu'' are used, they generally co-occur with third-person singular verbs.
*Correspondingly, original third-person possessive forms ''seu/sua'' shift to mean "your", while postposed ''dele/dela'' (literally "of him/her") are co-opted as third-person possessives.
*Colloquially, first-plural verb forms are often substituted by the pseudo-pronominal ''a gente'' (originally "the people"), along with third-person singular verbs.
*The above changes tend to trigger a much stronger use of subject pronouns in non-emphatic contexts (i.e. BP is moving away from being a [[null-subject language]]).
*Unstressed object pronouns are always placed before the verb in BP, while in EP they often come after the verb (or even [[mesoclisis|between the verb stem and its ending]], in the case of the future and conditional tenses), with various associated phonological adjustments.
*Unstressed third-person object pronouns (''o/a/os/as'') are rare in BP (''eu tenho'' "I have it"; ''eu vi'' or ''eu vi ela'' "I saw her").
 
==Deictics==
 
===Place adverbs===
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:''aí'' = "there" (near you)
:''ali'', ''lá'' (also ''acolá'' and ''além'') = "over there" (far from both of us)
 
The difference between ''aqui'' and ''cá'' tends to be that between stationary location ("in this place") and movement to a destination ("to this place"), respectively: e.g. ''estamos aqui'' "we are here" vs. ''vem para cá'' "come here". The meanings of ''ali'' and ''lá'' tend to separate between places visible to the interlocutors vs. places out of the range of visibility, respectively. ''Além'' is usually followed by ''de'' to form a compound preposition meaning "beyond". ''Acolá'' is infrequent.
 
===Demonstratives===
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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, or simply to emphasize the fact that it is near, as in ''esta sexta!'' ("next Friday!").
 
The noun after a demonstrative can be elided: ''quero esse também'' ("I want that one too"), ''vendi aqueles ontem'' ("I sold those yesterday").
 
In the demonstratives, not only the vowel of the ending, but also the stressed vowel is different for masculine ('''''e'''ste/'''e'''sse/aqu'''e'''le'' with /e/), feminine ('''''e'''sta/'''e'''ssa/aqu'''e'''la'' with {{IPA|/ɛ/}}), and neuter ('''''i'''sto/'''i'''sso/aqu'''i'''lo'' with /i/). (A similar variation occurs in the personal pronouns between masculine '''''e'''le'' /eli/ and feminine '''''e'''la'' {{IPA|/ɛla/}}.)
 
The demonstratives, like the articles, form [[Contraction (grammar)|contractions]] with certain preceding prepositions: ''de'' + ''este'' = ''deste'' ("of this"), ''de'' + ''esse'' = ''desse'' ("of that"), ''em'' + ''aquilo'' = ''naquilo'' ("in that thing"), ''a'' + ''aquela'' = ''àquela'' ("to that").
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==Verbs==
As in most Romance languages, the Portuguese verb is usually [[inflection|inflected]] to agree with the [[Subject (grammar)|subject's]] [[grammatical person]] (with three values, '''1''' = I/we, '''2''' = thou/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); [[Grammatical aspect|aspect]] (completed, interrupted, or continuing); [[subordination (linguistics)|subordination]] and [[conditionality]]; command; and more. As a consequence, a regular Portuguese verb stem can take over 50 distinct suffixes. (For comparison, regular verbs have about 40 distinct forms in Italian and about 30 in modern French.)
 
===Copulae===
 
:''Related article: [[Romance copula]]''
Portuguese, like some [[Romance copula|other Romance languages]], has two main [[Copula (linguistics)|linking verbs]]: ''ser'' and ''estar'' (both translated "to be"). They developed from [[Latin]] <small>SUM</small> and <small>STŌ</small>, respectively (although the infinitive form ''ser'' actually comes from <small>SEDĒRE</small>). Most forms of ''ser'' come from <small>SUM</small> (infinitive <small>ESSE</small>), the only exceptions being the future indicative, the present subjunctive and the imperative.
 
''Ficar'' is also used as a secondary copula, being variously translatable as (1) "to become" or "to get (to be)" (e.g. ''Fiquei rico.'' = "I got rich"; ''Fica quieto!'' = "Be still!"); (2) "to stay" (e.g. ''Fica aí!'' = "Stay there!"); or (3) "to be (permanently) located" (e.g. ''Coimbra fica na Beira'' = "Coimbra is in Beira"). Compare Spanish ''quedar''.
 
The distinction between ''ser'' and ''estar'' tends to be oriented along a permanent-versus-temporary axis, rather than one of essence versus state. In this respect, Portuguese is more similar to [[Catalan language|Catalan]] than to Spanish.
*''A cadeira é [feita] de madeira'' = "The chair is made of wood"
In this example the word ''feita'' ("made") is in square brackets, as it is usually omitted.
*''Sou casado.'' = "I'm married."
*''Estou casado.'' = "I'm married now."
 
The same applies in sentences that use ''ser'' to form the passive voice, such as the following:
* ''É proibido fumar neste voo'' = "No smoking on this flight" (lit. "It is forbidden to...")
 
Portuguese counts location as either fundamental or incidental, and accordingly uses ''ser'' or ''ficar'' for the former, and ''estar'' for the latter:
*''Onde é/fica a casa dela?'' = "Where is her house?"
*''Onde está o carro dela?'' = "Where is her car?"
 
====Change of adjective meaning====
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===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''. The verb ''ficar'' ("to remain", "to become") also has an auxiliary-like use in combination with the past participle or gerund of another verb.
 
====Compound perfect====
In other Romance languages, the compound perfect is usually constructed with a verb derived from Latin ''habēre'' "to have". This used to be the case in Portuguese also, but in recent centuries the verb ''ter'' (from Latin ''tenēre'' "to hold") has been steadily overtaking ''haver'' in both functions—to mean "to have", and as the auxiliary for perfect tenses—although ''haver'' is still used with some frequency in writing and in formal spoken registers. In colloquial European Portuguese, ''haver'' is only used impersonally (with the sense of "there to be") and in the construction ''haver-de'' with the effect of a future tense, often with an implication of promise (''hei-de voltar'' "I will return"). In spoken [[Brazilian Portuguese]] even the impersonal ''haver'' is replaced with ''ter'', 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{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}).
 
Tenses with ''ter''/''haver'' + past participle (compound tenses):
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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 [[iteration|iterative]] sense of the present perfect is 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 language|Galician]].
 
====Progressive tenses====
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:''quando estiver falando/ a falar'' ("when you are speaking" [in the future])
:''estar falando/ a falar'' ("to be speaking")
 
====Periphrastic construction with ''haver''====
As in most Romance languages, the simple future indicative and the conditional are formed by appending the present or the imperfect of the verb ''haver'', respectively, to the infinitive. In Portuguese, the form of ''haver'' can also be used before the verb, together with the proposition ''de''. This is usually limited to spoken language.
 
Examples:
* ''Eu disse que havia de voltar'' for ''Eu disse que voltaria'' ("I said I would return")
* ''Vós haveis de (or "heis-de") vencer'' for ''Vós vencereis'' ("You will win")
 
Infrequently, other tenses of ''haver'' are used, as in ''Quem houver de ficar com a casa, há-de vir para aqui'' "Whoever might stay at the house will/should come here".
 
The monosyllabic forms of ''haver'' (''hei'', ''hás'', ''há'', ''heis'', ''hão'') are no longer joined to the following ''de'' with a hyphen.
 
The periphrastic construction with ''haver'' usually conveys a sense of obligation or necessity, rather than simple futurity.
Examples in EP:
*''Hei-de lá ir amanhã'' (promise, "I will go there tomorrow") versus ''Irei lá amanhã'' (less emphatic, almost an expectation, "I'm going 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 here is 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 a hypothetical question, while the former could be asking for advice or an opinion about what ought to have been done.
 
The ''haver de'' + infinitive construction has also acquired other meanings, including one of supposition, as in ''O que está cá dentro? Dinheiro! O que havia de ser?!'' "What is in here? Money! What else?!"
 
In Brazil, the meaning is stronger, e.g. ''hei de ir lá amanhã'' implies strong determination ("I <u>will</u> go there tomorrow!").
 
====Other compound tenses====
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An active clause with a transitive verb and direct object can be transformed into a [[grammatical voice|passive]] clause much the same as is done in English: the original object becomes the subject; the verb is replaced by ''ser'' (in the same mood and tense) followed by the past participle of the original verb; and the original subject may become an adverbial complement with the preposition ''por'' ("by"):
 
:''O rato comeu o queijo'' ("The rat ate the cheese")
:''O queijo foi comido pelo rato'' ("The cheese was eaten by the rat")
 
:''Aquela senhora cantará a ária'' ("That lady will sing the aria")
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*''Ela levá-'''lo'''-ia'' ("''She take-'''it'''-would''" – "She would take it").
*''{{Not a typo|Eles}} dar-'''no'''-'''lo'''-ão'' ("''They give-'''us'''-'''it'''-will''" – "They will give it to us").
 
===Causatives===
The verb ''fazer'' is used to express the [[causative]], as in ''Eu fiz José comer os bolos''. Note that this is different from other Western Romance languages in that, like English, the causee can come between the causative verb ''fazer'' and the infinitive lexical verb. Other languages, such as French, do not permit such a construction (compare ''Je ferai manger les gâteaux à Jean'', I make.FUT eat the cakes PREP Jean, "I will make Jean eat the cakes".<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Dixon|2000|p=35}}</ref>
 
==See also==
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_grammar"