In short

This lesson gives you the words that point - este, esse, aquele (“this / that”) - and the words that own - meu, teu, seu (“my, your, his”). Both sets behave like the articles from Lesson 2: they agree in gender and number with the noun they attach to, not with you or with the owner. Portuguese also splits “this / that” three ways, not two, and each step matches a place adverb: este … aqui (near me), esse … aí (near you), aquele … ali (away from us both). Get that three-way map and the agreement habit, and you can point at anything and say whose it is.

The rule

Demonstratives: a three-way system

English has two degrees, this and that. European Portuguese has three, keyed to the three people in a conversation:

• este - near the speaker (“this, here by me”).
• esse - near the listener (“that, there by you”).
• aquele - away from both (“that one over there”).

Each of these is a variable word: it takes four forms to agree with the noun (masculine/feminine, singular/plural), exactly like o / a / os / as. So este livro, esta casa, estes livros, estas casas.

Alongside the variable forms there are three invariable neuter demonstratives - isto, isso, aquilo - used when there is no noun to agree with: an unidentified object, a whole situation, or an idea. O que é isto? (“What is this?”), Isso é verdade (“That’s true”). The neuter form never sits in front of a noun: you say este livro, never isto livro.

Demonstratives contract with de, em and a

Recall the contractions from Lesson 2. The prepositions de, em and a fuse with the demonstratives, and this is obligatory:

• de: deste, desse, daquele; neuters disto, disso, daquilo.
• em: neste, nesse, naquele; neuters nisto, nisso, naquilo.
• a: only the aquele-series contracts, taking the grave accent described in the reading & pronunciation guide: àquele, àquela, àquilo (the near forms stay open - a este, a esse).

So “I like this one” is Gosto deste, and “in that city” is nessa cidade.

Possessives agree with the thing owned

A possessive answers “whose?” - meu (my), teu (your, matching tu), seu (your/his/her, matching você / ele / ela), nosso (our), vosso (your, plural). The rule that trips every English speaker:

A possessive agrees with what is owned, never with the owner.

Casa is feminine, so “my house” is a minha casa - feminine - whoever the “I” is. Carro is masculine, so “my car” is o meu carro. English “my” never changes; Portuguese meu / minha / meus / minhas changes to match the noun.

Second habit: European Portuguese keeps the definite article in front of the possessive. Say o meu carro, a minha casa, os teus amigos - not bare meu carro. Drop the article only in a few set cases (direct address - Meu Deus! - and often with close family after ser: Ele é meu irmão).

The seu problem, and dele / dela

Because seu serves você, ele and ela at once, o seu carro can mean “your car”, “his car” or “her car” - genuinely ambiguous. European Portuguese resolves it by putting the owner after the noun with a de + pronoun phrase: de + ele -> dele, de + ela -> dela, de + eles -> deles, de + elas -> delas.

• o carro dele = his car
• o carro dela = her car
• a casa deles = their (masc./mixed) house

In practice EP reserves seu / sua for “your” (the você / o senhor address) and uses dele / dela / deles / delas for “his / her / their”. These forms are invariable in themselves - dele stays dele whatever it owns - because they agree with the owner’s gender, not the noun’s.

Place adverbs match the demonstratives

The three demonstrative degrees line up with a set of place adverbs:

• aqui / cá - here, by me (goes with este).
• aí - there, by you (goes with esse).
• ali / lá - (over) there, away from us (goes with aquele).

Cá and lá lean towards movement and the general direction (“come here”, “I’m going over there”): Anda cá!, Vou lá amanhã. Aqui and ali point at a more precise spot. Use them to reinforce a demonstrative: este livro aqui, aquela casa ali.

Forms & patterns

Variable demonstratives, neuters, and their place adverb:

Demonstrative contractions:

Possessives (agree with the noun owned):

Owner-marking with de + pronoun (invariable; used mainly for his / her / their):

Examples

Common mistakes

• o meu casa -> a minha casa - the possessive agrees with the noun, and casa is feminine; the owner (“I”) is irrelevant.
• meu carro -> o meu carro - European Portuguese keeps the article before the possessive; the bare form sounds Brazilian.
• isto livro -> este livro - the neuter isto / isso / aquilo stands alone; in front of a noun you need the variable este / esse / aquele.
• Using seu for “his / her” and hoping it is clear -> in EP say o carro dele / dela; keep seu / sua for “your” (você).
• Collapsing three degrees into two - esse for everything -> keep este (by me), esse (by you) and aquele (away) distinct; EP hears the difference.
• de este, em esse, a aquele -> deste, nesse, àquele - the contractions from Lesson 2 are obligatory on demonstratives too.
• o carro delo -> o carro dele - the form is de + ele = dele (and de + ela = dela); there is no delo.

Tips

• Anchor the three degrees to the three people talking: este = my zone (aqui), esse = your zone (aí), aquele = out there (ali / lá). Point as you say them and the system sticks.
• Whenever you reach for a possessive, first find the noun’s gender, then pick the ending: casa -> minha, carro -> meu. Owner never enters the calculation.
• Default to dele / dela / deles / delas for “his / her / their”. It is unambiguous and it is what Portuguese speakers actually use to avoid the seu fog.
• Fuse automatically: after de, em or a, a following demonstrative contracts - deste, nesse, àquele, disto. Treat the open spellings as non-existent.
• In Brazil: the article before the possessive is optional and often dropped (meu carro), seu / sua is used freely for “your / his / her”, and the este / esse contrast is weakened - many speakers use esse for “this” too, leaning on aqui / aí to mark distance instead.
• In Brazil: isto / isso / aquilo survive, but isso tends to absorb the job of isto in speech, mirroring the este / esse merger.