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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.

Lesson #39 Preposition De - Portuguesepedia
Bread & Butter of Portuguese Prepositions
The BIG 5

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 oaosas
contracted forms do 
(de + o)
da 
(de + a)
dos 
(de + os)
das 
(de + as)
indefinite articlesumumaunsumas
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:

thisistoeste/sesta/s
contracted forms disto
(de + isto)
deste/s
(de + este/s)
desta/s
(de + esta/s)
thatissoesse/sessa/s
contracted formsdisso
(de + isso)
desse/s
(de + esse/s)
dessa/s
(de + essa/s)
that over thereaquiloaquele/saquela/s
contracted formsdaquilo
(de + aquilo)
daquele/s
(de + aquele/s)
daquela/s
(de + aquela/s)

Other common contractions 

otheroutro/soutra/s
contracted forms doutro/s
(de + outro/s)
doutra/s
(de + outra/s)
somealgum/algunsalguma/s
contracted formsdalgum/dalguns
(de + algum)
dalguma/s
(de + alguma)
someonealguém
contracted formsdalguém
(em + alguém)
here/thereaqui
contracted formsdaqui
(em + aqui)
daí
(de + aí)
he/she/theyele/sela/s
contracted formsdele/s
(de + ele/s)
dela/s
(de + ela/s)
whereonde
contracted formsdonde
(de + onde)
beforeantes
contracted formsdantes
(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:

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