Original post by Danmoller | Archived post
Hello there 
In order to understand all these words, there are a few important things to notice:
- There are only 6 words you need to remember: isto, isso, aquilo, este, esse, aquele.
- "Isto, isso, aquilo" work in a way.
- "Este, esse, aquele" work in another way, and these have inflections.
- Everything else, starting with "d", "n" or "à" is formed by contracting these with prepositions (so you can actually understand them as two words together).
So, let's see those in detail:
Isto, isso, aquilo
There are three genderless pronouns that represent things. They replace the nouns, so they are used alone, and they have no plural form. (They cannot be used as "determiners".)
- Isto = this (thing) near the speaker
- Isso = that (thing) near the listener (Brazilians mix isto and isso, both meaning this.)
- Aquilo = that (thing) far from both
See them matching place adverbs here for distance hints:
viewtopic.php?t=1847
.
Examples:
- Eu quero isto. = I want this.
- Ela bebe aquilo. = She drinks that.
Este, esse, aquele
There are three demonstrative pronouns that work like adjectives. They must point to a noun in the sentence, and they inflect according to the gender and number of the noun they are pointing to. So they work like an adjective pronoun (a determiner in English grammar).
Inflections:
- Masculine singular: Este, esse, aquele
- Feminine singular: Esta, essa, aquela
- Masculine plural: Estes, esses, aqueles
- Feminine plural: Estas, essas, aquelas
Examples:
- Este homem, Esta mulher, Estes homens, Estas mulheres (man, woman, men, women)
- Esse carro, essa cor, esses carros, essas cores (car, color, cars, colors)
- Aquele sapato, aquela bota, aqueles sapatos, aquelas botas (shoe, boot, shoes, boots)
When used alone:
These can also be used alone, without a following noun. But then, the noun is implied and they still need to agree with the implied noun. In this case they will mean "this/that one" or "these/those ones". (English has the option of omitting "one(s)" sometimes.)
The distance rules are the same from the previous ones:
- Isto, este - near the speaker
- Isso, esse - near the listener (In Brazil, "este" and "esse" are also mixed up)
- Aquilo, aquele - far from both speaker and listener
How to choose between "isto" and "este": viewtopic.php?t=1851
Contractions
All others are their COMBINATIONS with PREPOSITIONS.
These combinations do not change the meaning of those words, they just add a preposition to them. So, you can actually understand them as two words attached.
The prepositions are demanded by the verbs or by the specific sentence construction, they don't depend on these pronouns at all, but when the following prepositions are used, they are required to combine (1).
Examples of combinations:
de+ isto / isso / aquilo =disto /disso /daquiloem+ isto / isso / aquilo =nisto /nisso /naquiloa+ aquilo =àquilo ("a" only combines with pronouns starting with "a")
These apply the same way with "este / esse / aquele", forming words such as: "deste, dessas, daqueles, nestas, nesses, naquele, àquele, àquelas...."
General Examples:
- Eu penso naquilo. (pensar demands preposition em) = I think about that.
- Ela pensa nisso. = she thinks about this/that.
- Eles gostam disto. (gostar demands preposition de) = they like this/it.
- Eu gosto daqueles sapatos. = I like those shoes.
- Ela gosta desses livros. = she likes these/those books.
- Ele pensa nestas botas. = He thinks of these boots.
- Eles querem isto. = They want it/this. (querer doesn't demand a preposition)
- Eles querem este. (implied masculine noun) = They want this one.
- Elas pensam naquele menino. = They think about that boy.
- Eu vou àquela casa. (ir demands preposition a) = I go to that house.
- Ela quer aqueles. (implied masculine plural noun) = She wants those.
- Ela quer daqueles. (implied masculine plural noun) = She wants from those.
(1) There is a particular case where the combination is not required and the preposition must be loose: when the word it should combine with is the subject of a clause, normally with an infinitive verb:
- Eu o escutei antes de ele aparecer. = I heard him before he appeared.
- Existe a possibilidade de ele chegar mais cedo. = There is the possibility of him arriving earlier.
- Tome o remédio no caso de isto piorar. = Take the medicine in case this gets worse.
Go back to "Prepositions! - All you wanted to know":
viewtopic.php?t=1853
Go back to the Portuguese help Index:
viewtopic.php?t=1829
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