Verbs with prepositions (regência I)

What it is

Many Portuguese verbs are linked to what follows by a fixed preposition: precisar de, pensar em, sonhar com. Grammarians call this regência verbal (verb government): the verb "governs" its preposition, and you learn the two as one unit, the way you learn depend on or listen to in English. The preposition often doesn’t match English (think about = pensar em, dream about = sonhar com), and sometimes Portuguese has one where English has none: need something = precisar de algo, like something = gostar de algo.

The preposition also merges with the article or pronoun that comes next (pt-g-021, pt-g-023): de + o = do, em + a = na, em + isso = nisso, de + ele = dele. These contractions are compulsory: gosto do filme, never gosto de o filme.

How to form it

Learn each verb together with its preposition. These are the four big families at B1:

Then merge the preposition with the article or pronoun that follows:

Com doesn’t contract with articles in writing (com o, com a), but it has special forms with pronouns: comigo (with me) and conosco (with us). In speech, com a gente is more common than conosco.

Before an infinitive

The preposition stays when a verb follows: Desisti de correr. Ele insistiu em pagar. Esqueci de ligar. One important exception: in Brazil, precisar drops de before an infinitive: Preciso sair agora. (Preciso de sair sounds European or old-fashioned.) Before a noun or pronoun the de is always there: Preciso de você.

lembrar and esquecer

These two verbs have two patterns. With se they need de: Eu me lembro do nome dele, Ela se esqueceu da chave. Without se they take a direct object: Eu lembro o nome dele, Ela esqueceu a chave. In everyday speech Brazilians also mix the two (lembro do nome, esqueci da chave). That’s fine in conversation, but keep one of the two standard patterns in careful writing.

Try a few before reading on:

When to use it

In questions and relative clauses, the preposition moves to the front together with the question word or relative pronoun. Portuguese never leaves it at the end, as English does in Who did she marry? or What are you thinking about?:

• Com quem a Luana casou? (who did Luana marry?)
• Em que você está pensando? In Brazil you will hear No que você tá pensando? even more often.
• É uma coisa com que eu sonho há anos. (pt-g-061)

Speech and writing. A few verbs have a written-norm preposition that everyday speech drops or changes:

• assistir a (watch): written assisti ao jogo; spoken assisti o jogo.
• responder a: written respondi ao e-mail; spoken respondi o e-mail.
• chegar a / ir a: written cheguei a Salvador; spoken cheguei em Salvador. With casa (home), chegar em casa is what everyone says.
• obedecer a: obedecer aos pais, in speech and writing alike.

In this course, items marked as speech accept the spoken version; written items expect the norm.

Contrasts and traps

• A preposition in Portuguese, none in English: precisar de (need), gostar de (like), desistir de (quit), cuidar de (look after), casar com (marry), ligar para (call someone).
• A preposition in English, none in Portuguese: esperar (wait for), procurar (look for), pedir (ask for), ouvir / escutar (listen to), olhar (look at): Estou esperando o ônibus. Procuro um apartamento.
• Same verb, different preposition, different meaning: contar algo para alguém (tell someone something) vs contar com alguém (count on someone); concordar com alguém (agree with someone) vs concordar em fazer algo (agree to do something); sonhar com (dream about) vs sonhar em + infinitive (dream of doing).
• Don’t skip the contraction: penso nisso, depende dele, confio na Iara, gosto da praia.

If you speak Spanish

Most pairs are the same as in Spanish: depender de, pensar em, confiar em, insistir em, sonhar com, casar com. Watch the spelling: Portuguese em and com end in m. The real traps are the verbs that look the same but take another preposition: gustar → gostar de (the liker is the subject), enamorarse de → apaixonar-se por, preocuparse por → preocupar-se com, llamar a alguien → ligar para alguém, entrar a → entrar em, and parecerse a → parecer com. Portuguese has no "personal a": Preciso de você, Conheci o Kenji.