Portuguese prepositions are not hard to understand. They are hard to write, because most of them fuse with the word that follows and you are expected to do it automatically. De plus o is never de o; it is do, always. This guide covers the handful of prepositions that carry almost all the work, the contraction tables worth memorising, the two that mean "to" and are not interchangeable, and the verbs that demand a particular one.
Six prepositions do most of the work
| Preposition | Core sense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| de | of, from; possession, origin, material | o livro do professor |
| em | in, on, at; place and time | estamos na cozinha |
| a | to; the indirect object, and short trips | vou ao mercado |
| para | for, towards; purpose and destination | este café é para ti |
| por | by, through, because of; means and cause | obrigado por tudo |
| com | with | vou com a minha irmã |
The contractions, which are not optional
This is the part that actually costs marks and time. In Portuguese, a preposition standing next to an article merges with it, and the merged form is the only correct spelling. There is no version of the sentence where you leave them apart.
de and em with the definite article
| o | a | os | as | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| de | do | da | dos | das |
| em | no | na | nos | nas |
| a | ao | à | aos | às |
| por | pelo | pela | pelos | pelas |
The one to watch is a plus a, which becomes à with a grave accent. It is pronounced like a plain a, so it is invisible in speech and very visible in writing.
And with the indefinite article and pronouns
- de + um / uma becomes dum / duma. Standard in European Portuguese; Brazilian writing usually keeps de um.
- em + um / uma becomes num / numa, in both varieties.
- de + ele / ela becomes dele / dela, which is also how you say "his" and "her": o carro dele.
- em + este / esse / aquele becomes neste / nesse / naquele.
- de + aqui / ali becomes daqui / dali.
- com is irregular with pronouns: comigo, contigo, connosco (spelled conosco in Brazil).
Para does not contract in standard writing. You will see pra everywhere in speech and informal text, and it is worth recognising, but do not write it in an exam.
"A" and "para" both mean "to", and the difference is real
Both point at a destination. The distinction is how long you are staying.
- a implies you are coming back. Vou ao Porto is a trip.
- para implies you are staying, or at least not planning the return. Vou para o Porto suggests you are moving there.
This distinction is alive in European Portuguese and much weaker in Brazil, where para and colloquial pra cover most journeys. Our own material is European Portuguese, so it keeps the distinction.
Verbs that demand a specific preposition
These are not deducible. They are vocabulary, and they are worth learning as a unit with the verb, the same way you learn a noun with its article:
- gostar de to like. Gosto de café. Never gosto café.
- precisar de to need. Preciso de ajuda.
- pensar em to think about. Penso em ti.
- começar a to start doing. Comecei a ler.
- ajudar a to help do. Ajudou-me a estudar.
- casar com to marry.
Gostar de is the one that catches everybody, because it is high frequency and the English equivalent takes no preposition at all.
How to get these automatic
Prepositions are the wrong thing to study from a table for an hour. They are extremely frequent, which means reading gives you hundreds of correct examples cheaply, and frequency is exactly what turns a rule into a reflex.
- Learn the four contraction rows above. Twenty minutes, once. They are small and they are non-negotiable.
- Read a short story at your level. Then go back and circle every do, da, no, na, ao and à. A single page will have twenty.
- For each one, say what it was built from. Na cozinha is em + a. This takes seconds and it is what moves the table into your reading.
- Collect verb plus preposition pairs as you meet them, not from a list. You will remember gostar de from the sentence you met it in.
Free Portuguese practice
- Portuguese stories in the browser. Tap any word for its meaning, which makes step two above cheap. This is the most useful link on this page for prepositions specifically.
- A Portuguese comprehension test. Read a story, then four questions on it.
- Printable graded readers. One Portuguese story per CEFR level, A1 to C2, free PDFs.
- The A1 Portuguese worksheet. A different topic, ser, estar, ter and haver, at the same level. There is no prepositions sheet yet.
- Which Portuguese grammar to drill first. Those four verbs, and why they come before this page.