Demonstratives

Damiana and Joel use objects around the office to show you the various demonstratives (this/that/these/those) and a few common adverbs of place (here/there). Learn which word to use when the object is near the speaker, near the listener, or far from both.

Rui and Joel explore the fascinating, every day objects in their hotel room.

A woman shares some gossip about her neighbour, Diana. Notice how different demonstratives are used throughout the dialogue.

Carolina may have gone too far with the Christmas shopping!

Maria is pregnant and just moved in to a new home. She loves cooking and decorating, so she invites her cousin Diogo over for dinner and a tour.

Telma and Filipe practice their Portuguese skills at the dinner table.

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

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 […]

Dona Ana is always trying to help out Fernando and Sara with their baby Bruno… although sometimes that help comes in the form of a lecture!

After exploring all the options, a customer finds the perfect suit and shoes.

As previously mentioned, the preposition can be combined with the articles o, a, os, and as to become ao, à, aos, and às. As far as demonstratives are concerned, a can only form contractions with aquele(s), aquela(s), and aquilo. A + Variable Demonstratives a + aquele = a + aqueles = a + aquela = […]

The preposition can be combined with variable and invariable demonstratives to form a number of very useful contractions. Remember that all the same rules for demonstratives remain valid when they appear in the following contractions. Em + Variable Demonstratives Relative Position Demonstrative Contraction Near the speaker: Near the listener: Away from both: These contractions can be used […]

You learned in The Preposition “De” (from the first Prepositions unit) that de has several different meanings and can be joined together (contracted) with: articles (do, da, dos, das), and pronouns (dele, dela, deles, delas) De + Variable Demonstratives Another very common combination is with demonstratives. Let’s look at the contractions formed by combining with variable demonstratives: […]

In the previous lessons of this unit, you learned about variable demonstratives, which change depending on the gender and number of the objects(s) they describe. Here’s some good news for you: invariable demonstrative pronouns are much easier to learn, because as you can see below, there are only 3 of them. You still have to consider the […]

As we mentioned, when you say this, that, these, or those in Portuguese, you have to be a little more specific… Variable demonstratives are used to indicate all of the following at once: a person or object’s gender the number (one or more) the position in space or time The gender and number part is […]

The European Portuguese demonstratives are este(s), esta(s), esse(s), essa(s), aquele(s), aquela(s), isto, isso, and aquilo. identify a particular person or object and establish its location in relation to the speaker, the listener, or simply within the general context. They can tell us, for example, whether something is close or distant, in either space or time. […]