o carro dele/a bolsa dela

Clarifying Seu/Sua with Dele/Dela

Level 2

In Portuguese, the word seu/sua can mean 'your', 'his', or 'her'. To avoid confusion, speakers use dele (his) or dela (her) after the noun instead.

How It Works

In many dialects, especially in Brazil, seu/sua is primarily used to mean 'your' (referring to você). If you use it to mean 'his' or 'her', the listener might think you are talking about them.

1. The Solution: Dele and Dela
To be clear, use the following contractions after the noun:

  • Dele (de + ele): His / Its (masculine)
  • Dela (de + ela): Her / Its (feminine)
  • Deles (de + eles): Their (masculine/mixed)
  • Delas (de + elas): Their (feminine)

2. Word Order and Articles
Unlike English 'his car' or Portuguese 'seu carro', these forms must follow the noun. Additionally, you usually need a definite article before the noun:
• O carro dele (His car)
• A casa dela (Her house)

3. Agreement Rules
While seu changes based on the object, dele/dela only changes based on the possessor:
• O livro dela (The book is masculine, but the owner is female).
• A caneta dele (The pen is feminine, but the owner is male).

4. Referring to Objects (Its)
Since all Portuguese nouns have a gender, use dele for masculine objects and dela for feminine ones:
• O carro e a cor dele (The car and its color).

5. Formal Usage
While dele/dela is the standard for clarity in modern speech, seu/sua is still commonly used for 'his/her' in formal writing or literature when the context is already clear.

Examples (4)

  1. João vendeu o carro dele.

    João sold his car.

    Word by Word: João sold the car of-him.

    Using 'dele' clarifies that the car belongs to João, not to the person being spoken to.

  2. Eu conheço a irmã dela.

    I know her sister.

    Word by Word: I know the sister of-her.

    Even though 'irmã' is feminine, we use 'dela' because the owner (the person whose sister she is) is female.

  3. Os pais deles moram em Portugal.

    Their parents live in Portugal.

    Word by Word: The parents of-them live in Portugal.

    'Deles' is used here because the possessors (the parents' children) are a plural group.

  4. Onde está a chave dela?

    Where is her key?

    Word by Word: Where is the key of-her?

    Note that the definite article 'a' is used before 'chave'.

Common Mistakes

  • Matching 'dele/dela' with the object instead of the owner.

    O livro dela (referring to a man's book).
    O livro dele.

    Unlike 'seu/sua', 'dele' and 'dela' must match the gender of the person who owns the item, not the item itself.

  • Omitting the definite article before the noun.

    Carro dele é novo.
    O carro dele é novo.

    In Portuguese, when using 'dele/dela', the noun almost always requires a definite article (o, a, os, as) before it.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

o carro dele/a bolsa delaLevel 2Clarifying Seu/Sua with Dele/Dela

Learn This First

To understand how to clarify possession using 'dele' or 'dela', you first need to understand that the standard possessive 'seu' is ambiguous because it can refer to 'you' (você), 'him', or 'her'. You also need to be familiar with the contraction of the preposition 'de' with subject pronouns and the general rule of using 'de' to show possession in Portuguese.

Words in This Pattern

deledela