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 |
|
English |
Portuguese |
me |
mim |
us |
nós |
you (singular) |
ti |
you (plural) |
vocês |
him |
ele |
her |
ela |
them |
eles |
Contraction of Preposition ‘with’ and Prepositional Pronouns |
||
English |
Portuguese |
Notes |
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 |
|
Contraction of Preposition ‘of/from’ and Prepositional Pronouns |
||
English |
Portuguese |
Notes |
of/from us |
da gente |
More often, ‘de nós’. |
of/from you (singular) |
do senhor da senhora |
Alternatively ‘de você’. |
of/from him |
dele |
|
of/from her |
dela |
|
of/from them |
deles delas |
|
Contraction of Preposition ‘by/for’ and Prepositional Pronouns |
||
English |
Portuguese |
Notes |
by/for us |
pela gente |
‘por nós’ is more common. |
by/for you (singular) |
pelo senhor |
Or ‘por você’. |
Contraction of Preposition ‘in/on’ and Prepositional Pronouns |
||
English |
Portuguese |
Notes |
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 |
|