Subject pronouns & the spoken person system

What it is

Portuguese has a pronoun for every person, but Brazilian speech uses fewer verb forms than the textbook table suggests. Você (you), ele (he), ela (she) and a gente (we) all share one verb form, and vocês (you, plural), eles and elas (they) share another. Add eu and you have the three forms that carry most conversations: falo, fala, falam. The fourth form, nós with -mos, belongs to writing and careful speech.

Because one verb form can belong to four different subjects, Brazilians say the subject pronoun out loud much more often than Spanish speakers do.

How to form it

• você is the everyday “you” for one person. Its verb is the ele/ela form: você é, você mora. In fast speech it shrinks to cê (Cê mora aqui?), and in text messages to vc.
• o senhor (to a man) and a senhora (to a woman) are the respectful “you”, with the same verb form as você: O senhor fala inglês? They go with the titles Seu + first name and Dona + first name: Seu Antônio, Dona Lúcia.
• a gente literally means “the people”, but as a subject it means “we”, and its verb is singular: a gente mora. You will hear a gente moramos, but it is considered wrong.
• nós is “we” with the -mos form: nós moramos. The -mos form can also stand alone, since it can only mean “we”: Moramos em Natal.
• vocês is “you” for two or more people, with the eles form: vocês são. For a group you treat with respect: os senhores, as senhoras.
• eles means “they” for men or a mixed group; elas is only for women.

When to use it

• Eu sou de Fortaleza. E você?I’m from Fortaleza. And you?everyday “you”
• Bom dia! A senhora fala inglês?Good morning! Do you speak English, ma’am?respectful “you”
• A gente mora em Belém.We live in Belém.“we” in speech
• Nós somos de Belém.We are from Belém.“we” in writing
• Vocês falam espanhol?Do you all speak Spanish?“you”, more than one
• Elas são de Curitiba.They’re from Curitiba.a group of women

Which “you”? Use você with friends, colleagues, people your age and most strangers. Switch to o senhor / a senhora with older people, with customers if you serve them, and with anyone you call Seu or Dona. Some families also use it with parents and grandparents. If an older person tells you Pode me chamar de você, they are inviting you to switch to você.

Contrasts and traps

• Você falas ✗ → você fala. Verb forms ending in -s belong to tu, not to você.
• A gente somos ✗ → a gente é. A gente means “we” but behaves like ele.
• Nos somos ✗ → nós somos. Without the accent, nos means “us”.
• Vocês é ✗ → vocês são. Vocês is plural.
• Keep the subject. Mora aqui? could be about you, him, her or us, so Brazilians ask Você mora aqui? They even repeat the pronoun inside one sentence: Ela é de Natal, mas ela mora em Recife.
• tu is common in the South, the North, parts of the Northeast and casual speech in Rio, usually with the você form of the verb: Tu é daqui? In a few cities you’ll hear tu és. Understand it, but use você yourself.
• vós survives only in prayers and old texts.

If you speak Spanish

Você is not an intimate tú: it is the neutral “you” Brazilians use with almost everyone, and it is conjugated like usted (você fala, never você falas). The respect of usted is carried by o senhor / a senhora. There is no vosotros: vocês works like Latin American ustedes. And watch a gente: it looks like Spanish la gente (people), but it means “we”.