Demonstratives and possessives

Demonstratives and possessives are two word classes whose job is to situate: they anchor what we are talking about in space, in time and in the interplay of the persons of discourse. Demonstratives express deixis — they point to something in relation to the speaker, the addressee and what is distant from both. Possessives express possession — they tie an object to one of the grammatical persons. Both are, for the most part, variable words that agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to.

Deixis in three degrees

Portuguese organises its demonstratives into a three-way system, inherited from the three Latin series iste, ipse and ille. Each degree corresponds to one of the three persons of discourse:

Degree	Masc./Fem. sing.	Masc./Fem. plur.	Neuter
1st person (near the speaker)	*este* / *esta*	*estes* / *estas*	*isto*
2nd person (near the addressee)	*esse* / *essa*	*esses* / *essas*	*isso*
3rd person (far from both)	*aquele* / *aquela*	*aqueles* / *aquelas*	*aquilo*

The choice of degree is not arbitrary: este livro is the book in my hand; esse livro is the one beside you; aquele livro is the one away from us both. The same contrast carries over to time (neste momento, “now”; naquele tempo, “back then”) and to the text itself. The demonstratives also correlate with the adverbs of place: aqui and cá (este), aí (esse), ali and lá (aquele).

The forms isto, isso and aquilo are neuter and invariable: they refer to something unidentified, to an idea, or to a stretch of discourse, and they never accompany a noun (Isto é importante, “This is important”; Não digas isso, “Don’t say that”).

Demonstratives and contractions

Like the articles, demonstratives contract obligatorily with the prepositions de and em, and the preposition a fuses with the third-degree forms, which then take a grave accent (the so-called crase):

The opposition between este and esse also has an anaphoric use in careful prose: when picking up two elements already mentioned, este refers to the latter (the one named last) and aquele to the former.

Possession: agreeing with the object, not the owner

Possessives have a form for each grammatical person. The feature that most disorients speakers of a language like English is that the Portuguese possessive agrees in gender and number with the thing possessed, not with the possessor: one says a sua casa (“his/her house”) and o seu carro (“his/her car”) whatever the owner’s sex.

Possessor	Masc. sing.	Fem. sing.	Masc. plur.	Fem. plur.
eu (I)	*meu*	*minha*	*meus*	*minhas*
tu (you, sing.)	*teu*	*tua*	*teus*	*tuas*
ele/ela/você (he/she/you)	*seu*	*sua*	*seus*	*suas*
nós (we)	*nosso*	*nossa*	*nossos*	*nossas*
vós (you, pl.)	*vosso*	*vossa*	*vossos*	*vossas*
eles/elas (they)	*seu*	*sua*	*seus*	*suas*

In European Portuguese the possessive is normally preceded by the definite article when it determines a noun: o meu pai (“my father”), a minha irmã (“my sister”), os nossos amigos (“our friends”). Dropping the article lends an emphatic, archaic or elevated tone (Minha senhora, “Madam”) and is the rule in vocatives and certain fixed expressions (em minha casa, “in my home”; Nossa Senhora, “Our Lady”).

The ambiguity of seu and the dele/dela solution

Because it serves both the 3rd person (ele, ela, eles, elas) and the polite forms of address (você, o senhor), the possessive seu is potentially ambiguous: o seu livro may mean “his book”, “her book” or “your book”. When context does not settle the matter, Portuguese turns to the forms made of the preposition de plus the personal pronoun — dele, dela, deles, delas — which identify the possessor unambiguously.

Reinforcement and combination

Demonstratives can be reinforced by mesmo, próprio or the adverbs of place (este aqui, aquele ali). Demonstratives and possessives combine freely, always after the article: este meu amigo (“this friend of mine”), aquela tua ideia (“that idea of yours”). Possessives also serve as pronouns, dispensing with the noun when it is understood (A minha mala é maior do que a tua, “My suitcase is bigger than yours”) and, with a partitive or affective value, appear in turns of phrase such as um amigo meu (“a friend of mine”) or fazer das suas (“to be up to one’s old tricks”).