Brazilian Portuguese Grammar
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Combinations and contractions Prepositions + determiners |
This is a topic that stands out in the language: preposition-article combinations and contractions. Whenever certain prepositions are followed by nouns (which are almost always preceded by definite or indefinite articles), these prepositions and the articles make combinations and contractions. However, this is only true for prepositions a, de, em and por:
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Article |
Preposition | ||||
| a | de | em | por | ||
| Definite Article | o | ao | do | no | pelo |
| os | aos | dos | nos | pelos | |
| a | à | da | na | pela | |
| as | às | das | nas | pelas | |
| Indefinite Article | um | dum | num | ||
| uma | duma | numa | |||
| uns | duns | nuns | |||
| umas | dumas | numas | |||
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There's a combination when prepositions and articles are simply juxtaposed (spelled together);
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There's a contraction when prepositions and articles merge into a new word.
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Crasis Crase |
As you can see, preposition a merges with feminine article a into à. The contraction between two subsequent similar vowels is called crase (crasis), and this merge is marked with the grave accent.
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a + as = às a + aquele = àquele a + aqueles = àqueles a + aquela = àquela a + aquelas = àquelas a + aquilo = àquilo
Remember: Crase is the contraction between preposition a + feminine articles a /as or between preposition a + demonstrative pronouns aquele (s), aquela (s) and aquilo. |
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