Olá. Today we are talking about these two prepositions, de versus em, in relation to means of transport. For example, I drive every day to work or I take my car to work.

So in Portuguese, we will need a preposition preceding the car, in this case. And

as a rule of thumb, when we talk in general,

when you just mention the car or the train, we use “de”, this one. When we talk about a specific car or a specific train, we use “em”. So let’s look at a few examples. So,

no geral, in general, de, eu vou de carro para o trabalho. I drive to work. I take the car, my car to work.

But

em específico, in specific, we use “em” and

usually it will be contracted with the article, okay? So when we use “de”, it’s the basic form, “de”. When we use “em”,

it will contract with the article. Hoje vou para o trabalho no carro da Joana. You see the difference? It’s not just any car,

it’s Joana’s car,

and therefore específico. Okay? Hoje vou para o trabalho no, em, contracted with the article o, because carro is masculine, o carro. No carro da Joana. Whereas here,

eu vou de carro para o trabalho, it’s just the word carro, okay? And therefore, de carro.

Hoje vou para o trabalho no carro da Joana. So in Joana’s car. Outro exemplo geral, de, ela foi de comboio para o Porto, ao Porto. So she took the train to Porto, or she went to Porto by train, as you wish.

As opposed to, ela foi ao Porto no comboio das 7:00.

You see now it’s comboio das 7:00. Here is just comboio, train.

Here is a specific train, the 7:00 train. Okay? Ela foi ao Porto no comboio das 7:00. She took the 7:00 a.m. train to Porto.

Okay, a last example. De, in general, nós fomos a Belém de elétrico. We took the tram to go to Belém.

As opposed to,

nós fomos a Belém no elétrico número 15. We took number 15 to go to Belém. I mean tram number 15. So now it’s a specific tram,

elétrico, and therefore “em”, again, contracted with the article elétrico. It’s a masculine word, o elétrico, no elétrico. So that’s it. Até a próxima.