Articles and Contractions in Portuguese: Do, No, Pelo and Dum

Portuguese has definite and indefinite articles, and it often merges prepositions with them into single words.

Articles

	Masculine	Feminine
the (singular)	o	a
the (plural)	os	as
a, an	um	uma
some	uns	umas

Contractions

The prepositions de, em, a and por combine with the articles:

Preposition	+ o	+ a	+ os	+ as
de (of, from)	do	da	dos	das
em (in, on)	no	na	nos	nas
a (to)	ao	à	aos	às
por (by, through)	pelo	pela	pelos	pelas

With indefinite articles:

Preposition	+ um	+ uma
de	dum	duma
em	num	numa

The dum/duma forms are more common in Portugal and in writing, while de um is fine in speech.

Examples

• O livro do Pedro. — Pedro's book.
• Moro no Rio. — I live in Rio.
• Vou ao cinema. — I'm going to the cinema.
• Passei pela rua. — I went through the street.
• Falamos da viagem. — We talked about the trip.
• Estou numa loja. — I'm in a shop.

With demonstratives

De and em also contract with este/esse/aquele:

	de	em
este	deste	neste
esse	desse	nesse
aquele	daquele	naquele
isto / isso / aquilo	disto / disso / daquilo	nisto / nisso / naquilo

Examples: Gosto disso. (I like that.) Moro neste prédio. (I live in this building.)

Article use

Portuguese uses the definite article more than English:

• A vida é bela. — Life is beautiful.
• Gosto do café. — I like coffee.
• O Brasil é grande. — Brazil is big.
• A Maria chegou. — Maria arrived.

Before possessives, the article is often used too: o meu livro. It is usual in Portugal and optional in Brazil.

Common mistakes

1. Writing "de o" instead of "do".
2. Forgetting the crase in à, às.
3. Dropping the article where Portuguese needs it.

Tips

1. Learn the table by heart.
2. Practise with places: no, na, ao, à.
3. Use the dictionary to check forms.

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