Portuguese Preposition ‘De’

The Portuguese preposition de is a preposition of origin and the Portuguese equivalent of from in English. Additionally, we use de to indicate possession, modify a noun, and express time, among others.

Let’s dive in.

Contracted forms

The preposition de merges with determiners, mostly articles, and demonstratives. Let’s take a look at its contracted forms.  

de + articles

By default, de merges with any article following it:

definite articles	o	a	os	as
contracted forms	do  (de + o)	da  (de + a)	dos  (de + os)	das  (de + as)
indefinite articles	um	uma	uns	umas
contracted forms	dum  (de + um)	duma  (de + uma)	duns  (de + uns)	dumas  (de + umas)

Sometimes we won’t merge de with the indefinite articles. Thus, we often say and write de um instead of dum, or de uma instead of duma. Both are correct. 

de + demonstratives 

When preceding demonstrative determiners, de often melts with them in a contracted form:

this	isto	este/s	esta/s
contracted forms	disto (de + isto)	deste/s (de + este/s)	desta/s (de + esta/s)
that	isso	esse/s	essa/s
contracted forms	disso (de + isso)	desse/s (de + esse/s)	dessa/s (de + essa/s)
that over there	aquilo	aquele/s	aquela/s
contracted forms	daquilo (de + aquilo)	daquele/s (de + aquele/s)	daquela/s (de + aquela/s)

Other common contractions 

other	outro/s	outra/s
contracted forms	doutro/s (de + outro/s)	doutra/s (de + outra/s)
some	algum/alguns	alguma/s
contracted forms	dalgum/dalguns (de + algum)	dalguma/s (de + alguma)
someone	alguém
contracted forms	dalguém (em + alguém)
here/there	aqui	aí
contracted forms	daqui (em + aqui)	daí (de + aí)
he/she/they	ele/s	ela/s
contracted forms	dele/s (de + ele/s)	dela/s (de + ela/s)
where	onde
contracted forms	donde (de + onde)
before	antes
contracted forms	dantes (de + antes)

Usage

Origin

As we said in the introduction, de is first and foremost a preposition of origin: 

Eu venho do Paquistão.  I come from Pakistan. Ela é do Minho.  She’s from the Minho region.

Possession

We use de in genitive constructions to indicate possession, much as we use the suffix’s in English: