Pronouns Comparison of Portuguese and Spanish

1 pronouns

1.1 object pronouns
1.2 clitic personal pronouns
1.3 mesoclisis
1.4 combining pronouns in spanish
1.5 use of stressed pronouns inanimate subjects
1.6 second-person pronouns

pronouns
object pronouns

in portuguese, third-person clitic pronouns have special variants used after types of verb endings, not happen in spanish. default object pronouns o/a/os/as change lo/la/los/las when follow verb ends in ⟨r⟩, ⟨s⟩ or ⟨z⟩, , no/na/nos/nas when follow verb ends in nasal sound.

in brazilian portuguese, these forms uncommon, since pronoun precedes verb (i.e., você o mantenha in above example), , third-person subject pronouns used informally object pronouns (mantenha ele), has been proved present in language since galician-portuguese times. however, has been considered ungrammatical begin sentence object pronoun, above examples are, on rare occasion, used in brazil well.

clitic personal pronouns

european portuguese differs brazilian portuguese regard placement of clitic personal pronouns, , spanish in turn different both of them.

in spanish, clitic pronouns come before verb, except imperative, infinitive, , gerund. in verbal periphrases, precede auxiliary verb.
in spoken brazilian portuguese, clitic pronouns come before main verb. in verbal periphrases, come between auxiliary verb , main verb. occurs imperative, infinitive, gerund, , past participle.
in european portuguese, clitic pronouns may come before or after verb, depending on type of clause. in verbal periphrases, may precede or follow auxiliary verb, or follow main verb (when in infinitive or gerund).


mesoclisis

in portuguese, verbs in future indicative or conditional tense may split morphemes, , clitic pronoun can inserted between them, feature known mesoclisis. occurred in old spanish, no comparable phenomenon takes place in modern spanish:

lo traerá. (spanish)
trá-lo-á. (european portuguese , formal written brazilian portuguese)
he/she bring it.

however, these tenses replaced others in spoken language. future indicative replaced present indicative; conditional replaced imperfect indicative. in colloquial language, portuguese state trá-lo-á vai trazê-lo ( going bring ) or irá trazê-lo ( bring ). in brazilian portuguese, vai trazer ele vernacular use.

combining pronouns in spanish

the spanish construction, se lo dio, means either [he/she] gave [him/her] or [he/she] gave himself/herself . expected pattern former *le lo dio, such construction not exist. unique spanish.

latin: dedit illī illud → dedit illī illum (early vulgar latin) → dit illi illu (late vulgar latin)
spanish: dio (i)lli (el)lo → dio ge lo → diógelo (arch.) → dióselo → se lo dio
portuguese: deu (i)lli (l)o → deu lhe (l)o → deu-lho

thus, modern spanish makes no distinction between reflexive pronoun se , dative personal pronoun se. note did not happen in old spanish: diógelo, gave him , dióselo, gave himself . medieval g sound (similar of french) replaced s in 14th-15th centuries (cf. spanish coger, catch , cosecha, harvest , port. colher , colheita, both lat. colligere).

use of stressed pronouns inanimate subjects

in spanish, stressed pronouns never used inanimate subjects (i.e., things, opposed people or animals), not clarity or disambiguation purposes. portuguese knows no such restriction, stressed pronouns referring inanimate subjects can either used or dropped:

¿dónde están las llaves? están en la mesa. (spanish – pronoun dropped)
onde estão chaves? (elas) estão na mesa. (portuguese – pronoun optional)
keys? on table. (english – pronoun not required)

second-person pronouns

the use of second-person pronouns differs dramatically between spanish , portuguese, , more between european , brazilian portuguese. spanish tú , usted correspond etymologically portuguese tu , você, portuguese has gained third, more formal form o(s) senhor(es), a(s) senhora(s), demoting você equalizing rather respectful register. old familiar forms have been largely lost in portuguese-speaking world, portuguese equalizing forms você or vocês have displaced tu large extent , vós entirely; , tu still used, second-person verb forms historically corresponded replaced same (third-person) forms used você .

in plural, portuguese familiar vós archaic everywhere (as old english second singular thou ), , both subject pronoun , corresponding second-person plural verb forms limited bible, traditional prayers, , spoken varieties of regions of rural portugal; normally, familiar (and equalizing) form vocês, although in portugal second person plural forms retained both object , possessive pronouns (e.g., vocês e vossa família). in case of peninsular spanish, tú, usted, vosotros, , ustedes have more or less kept original functions; if anything, tú displacing usted out of common use , usted coming used formal situations (like o senhor in portuguese). latin american spanish more complicated: vosotros has fallen out of use in favor of ustedes, regions of spanish america use vos singular informal pronoun, displacing tú out of original role greater or lesser extent (see voseo).

spoken brazilian portuguese has dramatically simplified pronoun system, você(s) tending displace other forms. although few parts of brazil still use tu , corresponding second-person singular verb forms, areas either use tu third-person verb forms or (increasingly) drop tu entirely in favor of você. has in turn caused original third-person possessive seu, sua shift second-person use, alongside appearance of new third-person possessive dele, dela (plural deles, delas, ) follows noun (thus paraphrases such o carro dele car , o carro dela car ). formal o senhor increasingly restricted highly formal situations, such of storekeeper addressing customer, or child or teenager addressing adult stranger.

more conservative in regard fluminense dialect of brazilian portuguese (spoken in rio de janeiro, espírito santo , in zona da mata of state of minas gerais) – carioca sociolect. dialect preserves intimate or familiar tu, standard equalizing form você, , respectful or formal o senhor/a senhora, related possessives, such extent speakers use these forms, according context. nevertheless, minority of educated speakers correctly conjugates of tu pronouns formally; otherwise, conjugated você.

standard portuguese usage has vocês , os senhores/as senhoras plurals of você , o senhor/a senhora, vernacular has produced new forms second-person familiar plural function, such gente (compare gente possible colloquial variation of nós, / , should conjugated—but commonly not—as third-person singular), pessoas, pessoal, [meu] povo, cês (eye dialect vocês in colloquial pronunciation), , galera (the latter associated youth slang).

it said gaúcho, nordestino , amazofonia dialects, sociolects elsewhere, such in , around city of santos, have preserved tu; unlike in fluminense, use of você limited, , entirely absent among speakers, , tu takes place. in these areas, verb tu conjugated in third-person form (as você) – except among educated speakers in urban centers such porto alegre and, especially, belém. see brazilian portuguese.