Olá, gente! Hey, everybody! Como estão? How are you?

Prepositions are words that establish a connection between elements in a phrase. They can express temporal, spatial, among other relationships and are very important to the understanding of a text, because they help form a cohesive sentence.

Today we’ll see some of the most usual prepositions in Portuguese and how they complement certain verbs. Let’s go for it!

Some prepositions in Portuguese:

Em (on/in/at): idea of place

• Seu pai está em casa? (Is your dad at home?)
• Minha irmã mora em Paris (My sister lives in Paris)

De (of/from): idea of origin, material, subject

• Eu sou de São Paulo (I’m from São Paulo)
• Essa bota é de couro (This boot is made of leather)
• Nós estávamos falando de você! (We were just speaking of you!)

Para (to/for): idea of finality, objective

• Estou no Canadá para aprender inglês (I am in Canada to learn English)
• Meu pai se exercita para emagrecer (My dad exercises to lose weight)

A (to): idea of direction, movement

• Vamos à praia? (Let’s go to the beach?)
• Você não vai à escola hoje?) (Aren’t you going to school today?)

Sobre (on, about): idea of talking about someone or something

• Sempre que falamos sobre política, nós discutimos (Everytime we talk about politics, we argue)
• Me conte tudo sobre a sua viagem! (Tell me everything about your trip!)

Com (with): idea of company, instrument

• Quer ir no show do Caetano Veloso com a gente? (Do you want to go to Caetano Veloso’s concert with us?)
• Eu corto o queijo com uma faca (I cut the cheese with a knife)

Some verbs and their prepositions:

Gostar + de (like + to)

• Gatos gostam de deitar-se no sol (Cats like to lie in the sun)
• A maioria das pessoas gosta de comer chocolate (Most people like to eat chocolate)

Morar + em (live + in)

• Muitas estrelas de cinema moram em Los Angeles (Many movie stars live in Los Angeles)
• Morar em Londres sempre foi meu sonho (To live in London has always been my dream)

Nascer + em (to be born + in)

• Fidel Castro nasceu em Cuba (Fidel Castro was born in Cuba)
• A presidente do Brasil nasceu em Belo Horizonte (The president of Brasil was born in Belo Horizonte)

Ser/Vir + de (to be/to come + from)

• Sua tia veio de onde? (Where did you aunt come from?)
• Esses produtos são de Portugal (This products are from Portugal)

Falar + de/sobre (talk + about/of)

• Meus pais estão sempre falando de dinheiro (My parents are always talking of money)
• Não é educado falar sobre si mesmo o tempo todo (It’s not polite to talk about youself all the time)

Check out our previous post on contractions to learn more about prepositions and see some examples: https://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/contractions
Tenham um fim de semana divertido! Have a fun weekend!