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 | Seu Sua Seus Suas | His, Her/Hers, Your/Yours(formal) |
| Eles, Elas | Seu Sua Seus Suas | Their, Theirs |
As you can see, ele, ela, você, eles, and elas all share the same exact possessive determiners! Since the determiners agree with both the number and the gender of the noun that is being possessed (not with the subject), knowing precisely who we’re talking about is a bit tricky. Without any extra context, we don’t know the subject. Let’s see some examples:
O seu sofá é muito confortável
sofá = masculine noun. This could mean His, Her, Your(formal), or Their sofa is very comfortable.
A sua caldeirada de marisco é de morrer
caldeirada = feminine noun. This could mean His, Her, Your(formal), or Their stew is to die for.
Os seus sapatos são feitos à mão
sapatos = plural, masculine noun. This could mean His, Her, Your(formal), or Their shoes are handmade.
As suas encomendas foram enviadas para trás
encomendas = plural, feminine noun. This could mean His, Her, Your(formal), or Their packages were sent back.
A Better Alternative Using “De”
Confusing, right? Luckily, Portuguese also has another way to talk about possession which makes things a bit clearer. To avoid confusion, you can use these four determiners: dele, dela, deles, delas. These are formed by contracting the preposition deof, from with the third-person subject pronouns (ele, ela, eles, elas), like this:
- deof + elehe, him = delehis
- deof + elashe, her = delaher
- deof + elesthey, them(masc.) = delestheir(masc.)
- deof + elasthey, them(fem.) = delastheir(fem.)
Both ways are correct, but using de + the pronoun is more specific in the way that it references the intended subject.
O seu casaco e a sua t-shirt
His coat and his t-shirt? Her coat and their t-shirt? Who knows?
O casaco e a t-shirt dela
Her coat and t-shirt. There’s no other possibility.
Differences in Usage
There are 2 important differences regarding the use of dele, deles, dela, and delas:
- They are always placed after the noun being possessed
- They agree in gender and number with the subject/person who owns the noun (instead of agreeing with the noun itself)
Because it avoids ambiguity, the third-person possessive with dele, dela, deles and delas is very convenient and more frequently used in everyday life compared to seu, sua, seus and suas.
Examples
dele
Dele (his) is used for the 3rd person singular, referring to a masculine subject. Example:
O cão dele é velho.His dog is old.
dela
Dela (her) is used for the 3rd person singular, referring to a feminine subject. Example:
As calças dela são azuis.Her trousers are blue.
deles
Deles (their) is used for the 3rd person plural, referring to a masculine subject (or when both males and females are being referenced collectively). Example:
As notas deles pioraram este semestre.Their grades worsened this semester.
delas
Delas (their,fem.) is used for the 3rd person plural, referring to feminine subjects only. Example:
Os carros delas são a gasóleo.Their cars run on diesel fuel.
Later in this unit, we’ll review this topic again and get more examples comparing when to use dele vs seu.
Important Sidenote…
Dele(s) and dela(s) are not strictly possessive words. They also show up in other contexts when you need to combine the preposition de with ele(s) or ela(s). For example:
- A Maria gosta delas. – Maria likes them. | Remember that gostar is followed by de. Elas could refer to a group of females or to a plural feminine noun, such as canetas (pens).
- Falam muito bem deles. – They speak very well (highly) of them. | Eles could refer to a group of people, or to a plural masculine noun.
- O Paulo falou dele. – Paulo talked about him. / Paulo talked about it. | Ele could refer to a male, or to a singular masculine noun (“it”).
A good explanation.
No surprise, this is confusing. In the examples, like “o cao dele”, could you not also use “o seu cao”. Likewise for the other examples.
I can see why its important to be able to discriminate when things are ambiguous, like the t-shirt example, but not with the s-possessives and the de-le possessives. If there is no ambiguity, can you use either just as well?
Oh, yes, “o cão dele” is just as valid as “o seu cão”. These are all alternative ways of expressing the same with less ambiguity, but it’s not an either/or situation. You can always use the s-possessives if you know you’ll be understood 🙂
Clever putting the De +le last so that we can understand the distinction and have more options when speaking.
Thank you!! I’m loving these lessons and to me this was explained quite clearly. Obrigada!
I also want to second carrie , This intricate gramar is so well explained
Thanks
All very clear
Thank you
AFTER LEARNING ON OTHER SITES FOR A FEW MONTHS, I AM VERY HAPPY TO HAVE DISCOVERED YOU. THE DIFFERENCE IS STRIKING. THE ATTENTION TO REALLY MAKE US UNDERSTANDING IS THE QUALITY THAT DISTINGUISHES YOU. GREAT WORK AND THANK YOU!. THE SOUND OF RECORDING WITH PICTURES IS STILL DIFFICULT TO GRASP, BUT THE SOUND OF THE ” LOUDSPEAKER” IS OF VERY GOOD QUALITY I HAVE FOUND MY TEACHERS!
Thank you so much for the kind feedback! We’re really happy to hear the site is making a difference for you.
Obrigada! I’m just starting Portuguese and the difference between sua, seu, and dele, dela, etc, were confusing me. This is a great explanation and has helped me a lot. This is a great resource for learning the Portuguese language.
Aw, that’s great! Thank you, I’m so glad we could help!
Os carros delas são a gasóleo. What is the femine subject in the sentence, to me it’s all masculine?
Thanks
Olá. “Delas” refers to the car owners, which are women in this case (since it’s ‘delas’ and not ‘deles’). ‘Carros’ itself is a masculine word, which is why it is preceded by the masculine definite article ‘os’ 🙂
In one of the short demonstration, a Portuguese young man says, “ash shuas cartash” instead of ash suas cartash. I am having trouble with the pronunciation of all of the sh sounds, especially when a word ends in sh and the next word begins with s. Do some Portuguese people say things like “as shuas cartas habitually? Rui’s pronunciation in impeccable. I always wonder where the woman that gives slow examples is from? Her pronunciation is excellent, and difficult to imitate. Her vowels are very clear and distinct.
Olá! The audio examples throughout the website are indeed very clear. Both the regular and slow examples are representative of pronunciation patterns you’d usually find in and around the Lisbon region. The video examples throughout the units and the speakers that record the Shorties are more varied and collectively cover a variety of Portuguese regions.
In the real world, we often speak faster or more lazily than what you hear in the website’s audio examples, as you noted with “ash shuas cartash”. So, there’s a point where nuances such as “ash shuas” vs. “ash suas” can easily get lost, and considering that, I wouldn’t worry so much if you struggle with these consecutive varying ‘sh’/’ss’ sounds, as long as you are still understandable to people 🙂
This is so very helpful. And the ability to add the examples to my Smart Review even more so.
Ah, many thanks for that feedback! 🙂
I’m very confused between the difference of seu, and sua. When I click on the row that shows all the forms, the page displays that seu is a masculine determinate, and sua a feminine determinate, Yet the example sentence below that shows seu and the english translation as her. Could you please help me figure out how I’m supposed to know what gender form I’m to understand these to be?
Olá. This is exactly what’s explained in this Learning Note 🙂 The ‘seu/sua’ determiners agree with the gender/number of the object in discussion, NOT with the subject that possesses it. So, you have to rely solely on context to understand who actually is the subject.
When we need/want an alternative, we use the preposition ‘de’ + appropriate definite articles, which actually agree with the subject, not with the possessed object. This is also explained above in the article.
I think I got it. What was so confusing for me was I was assigning the gender of the word to the person, not the object. Essentially reversing what it was supposed to be…. IF I understand the lesson correctly.