B1 · Formal and informal you · about 4 minutes
Address without a pronoun
The politest address contains no word for « you » at all.
Do you know this already?
“New to me”: the explanation first, then practice. “Test myself”: 3 short questions – get at least two right and you go straight to the harder exercises.
Words you will need1
They appear in this topic’s examples and exercises and are new at this point on the learning path.
- assinarto sign
Missing a word? Look it up in the dictionary
Understand
RememberNo pronoun is the politest address.
- Signal words
- o senhor
- a senhora
- o doutor
- a professora
The form
The forms and what they mean
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in Portuguese.
| Would you like a coffee? | Quer um café? |
| Would you like a coffee, Ana? | A Ana quer um café? |
| Have you arrived, Mr Silva? | O senhor Silva já chegou? |
| Do you have a moment, doctor? | A doutora tem um momento? |
| How are you? | Como está? |
| Do you need help? | Precisa de ajuda? |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
Leaving out the pronoun is the politest solution.
Quer sentar-se?Would you like to sit down?
The name with its article replaces the pronoun.
A Ana já almoçou?Have you had lunch yet, Ana?
Titles and roles take the article.
O doutor pode ver isto?Could you have a look at this, doctor?
The verb is in the third person in every case.
Precisa de mais alguma coisa?Do you need anything else?
Example sentences
Quer que eu telefone mais tarde?Would you like me to call later?
O senhor Costa já assinou?Have you signed yet, Mr Costa?
A Maria mora aqui há muito tempo?Have you lived here long, Maria?
1 more example sentences
Faz favor, pode dizer-me as horas?Excuse me, could you tell me the time?
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The name in an address takes *the article* and the third person: a Ana quer? Saying Ana, queres? is the familiar form — which may be right, and is a different decision. And a Ana queres? mixes the two and says nothing at all.
Quick check
A warm-up: 2 questions, answered straight away. They do not count towards your progress.
Practise
One lesson, one clear goal: you pass with 80% right on the first try. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
Now write it yourself4 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
Your progress
What your lesson on this topic shows:
The lesson decides this, not a button: passed at 80% on the first try, mastered when you pass it again on another day.
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The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
In Portugal você is often felt as too direct towards somebody older or senior. The solution is not another pronoun but *none*: it is left out and the verb goes in the third person.
Quer um café? — « Would you like a coffee? » No pronoun at all, and therefore no commitment. English cannot do this: leave out the subject and « Want a coffee? » reads as casual rather than as respectful, which is the opposite of what is meant here.
If you know the name, you put it in: a Ana quer um café? means « would you like a coffee, Ana? » — with the article, and with the verb in the third person. In English that sounds like talking about somebody behind their back; in Portuguese it is the warm form of politeness, and it is what you will hear most in a shop or an office.
The same with a title or a role: o doutor tem um momento?, a professora já viu isto?
The verbs on this page, in every form: querer · fazer · dizer · haver · ver · assinar · precisar · morar