Relative Pronouns: que, quem, onde, o qual, cujo

📌 Nota gramatical

'Que' is the most common and versatile relative pronoun in European Portuguese. It is invariable (does not change for gender or number) and can refer to both people and things, acting as the subject or direct object of the relative clause.

📌 Nota gramatical

'Quem' refers exclusively to people. It is always preceded by a preposition (such as 'a', 'com', 'de', 'por') and translates to English 'whom' or 'who' after prepositions.

📌 Nota gramatical

'Onde' is used exclusively to refer to physical places or locations. In European Portuguese, it is traditionally reserved for verbs of rest (estar, viver, morar). For movement towards a place, 'aonde' is preferred.

📌 Nota gramatical

'Aonde' combines the preposition 'a' (to) with 'onde' (where). It is used with verbs that express movement towards a destination (such as ir, vir, chegar, levar).

📌 Nota gramatical

These pronouns agree in gender and number with their antecedent. They are used to avoid ambiguity when 'que' or 'quem' might create confusion, and they are mandatory after compound prepositions (e.g., por causa de, através de, em cima de).

📌 Nota gramatical

'Cujo' (cujo, cuja, cujos, cujas) indicates possession. It agrees in gender and number with the noun that follows it (the possessed thing), not with the owner. It never takes a definite article before it.

📌 Nota gramatical

When referring to things (inanimate objects), short prepositions (em, de, a, por) combine with 'que' to form relative clauses, though 'o qual' is also very common in written European Portuguese.

📌 Nota gramatical

'Quanto' (quanto, quanta, quantos, quantas) functions as a relative pronoun when preceded by an indefinite antecedent like 'tudo', 'todos', or 'toadas'. It translates to 'all that' or 'as much as'.

📌 Nota gramatical

Unlike in English, where you can say 'the book I bought', in European Portuguese the relative pronoun can never be omitted. You must always explicitly state 'que', 'o qual', etc.

📌 Nota gramatical

Restrictive clauses (without commas) define a specific subset of the antecedent. Explicative clauses (with commas) provide extra information about the whole antecedent and often use 'o qual'.

📌 Nota gramatical

When a preposition is used before a relative pronoun referring to a person, 'quem' is used. When referring to a thing, 'que' or 'o qual' is used.

📌 Nota gramatical

In contemporary B1 Portuguese, 'onde' is occasionally used for abstract situations (like 'uma situação onde...'), though purists and formal grammarians strongly prefer 'em que' or 'na qual' for non-physical locations.