Grammar overview

Grammar describes how Portuguese organises its words and combines them into sentences: what forms they take, how they agree with one another, and in what order they fall. This section sets out the system of European Portuguese methodically but readably — without the heavy jargon of a manual and without the bare schematism of an exam table. Here are the map and the routes; each article explores one territory in depth.

An inflecting Romance language

Portuguese inherited a rich morphology from Latin. Nouns and adjectives vary in gender (masculine and feminine) and number (singular and plural), and agree with each other; articles and many prepositions fuse into characteristic contractions (de + o → do, em + a → na, a + as → às). Knowing these pieces — the parts of speech — is the first step to describing any sentence.

The verb, heart of the system

If there is one domain in which Portuguese is exuberant, it is the verb. Conjugation distinguishes three moods (indicative, subjunctive and imperative), a broad range of tenses, and six grammatical persons. Two features stand out for being uncommon among neighbouring languages: the subjunctive mood, which is alive and frequent, and the personal (inflected) infinitive — an infinitive that takes endings according to its subject (para fazermos “for us to do”, por saberes “because you know”). Alongside these sit the non-finite forms (infinitive, gerund, participle) and a family of irregular verbs that calls for its own attention.

Pronouns, clitics and address

The unstressed personal pronouns — the clitics — are among the most distinctive points of European grammar. Their placement (before, after or inside the verb) follows precise rules, and from it springs mesoclisis (dar-te-ei “I shall give you”), now rare but still alive in careful writing. To this is added a socially sensitive system of forms of address, in which tu, você and o senhor coexist with nuances worth mastering.

Agreement, government and word order

Beyond the forms, grammar deals with the relations between them. Agreement aligns the verb with its subject and the adjective with its noun; government fixes which preposition each verb or noun requires (assistir a “to attend”, gostar de “to like”). Word order, freer than in English, nonetheless follows clear patterns, and it interacts with pronoun placement and with phenomena such as the passive voice, negation and interrogation.

How to read this section

It is best to begin with parts of speech, which supply the descriptive vocabulary, and then move to the verb system, the core of the language. Readers after the tricky points will find articles devoted to pronoun placement, to agreement and government, and to syntax. Finally, a contrastive article gathers the main grammatical differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese. The “See also” links lead to each of these territories.