Portuguese Sentence Structure: Basic Guide for Language Learning Beginners

Learning Portuguese sentence structure feels way less intimidating once you realize it follows pretty much the same basic pattern as English. If you can form a sentence in English, you're already halfway there with Portuguese. The real trick is understanding a few key differences in how verbs work, where adjectives go, and how Portuguese speakers form questions without flipping the word order around. Let's break down the essentials so you can start building your own sentences right away.

The basic SVO structure in Portuguese

This is the exact same pattern English follows, so you've got a massive head start here. Here's what that looks like:

A simple example: "Maria come pão" (Maria eats bread). Maria is the subject, come is the verb, and pão is the object. Pretty straightforward, right?

Let's look at a few more examples:

The word order stays consistent across these sentences. You'll find this pattern everywhere in both Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese, making it one of the most reliable rules you can count on.

How Portuguese verbs change everything

Unlike English where you mostly just add an 's' for third person, Portuguese verbs change their endings for each pronoun.

Let's take the verb "falar" (To speak):

Notice how the verb ending changes each time? This is called conjugation, and it happens with every verb in Portuguese.

The tense also affects how the verb looks. "Eu falo" means "I speak" in present tense, but "eu falei" means "I spoke" in past tense.

Because the verb ending tells you who's doing the action, Portuguese speakers often drop the subject pronoun entirely. You'll hear "Falo português" instead of "Eu falo português" all the time. Both mean "I speak Portuguese," but the first version sounds more natural in everyday conversation.

This subject omission happens constantly in Portuguese. The sentence "Comemos pizza" (We eat pizza) works perfectly fine without "nós" at the beginning because the verb ending "emos" already tells you it's "we" doing the action.

Working with nouns and adjectives

Portuguese handles adjectives differently than English, and this trips up a lot of beginners.

In English, you say "the red car." In Portuguese, you say "o carro vermelho" (The car red). The adjective "vermelho" follows the noun "carro."

More examples:

If the noun is feminine, the adjective becomes feminine. If it's plural, the adjective becomes plural too.

Forming negative sentences with não

Making a sentence negative in Portuguese is super simple.

The word order stays exactly the same as the positive sentence. You're just adding "não" before the verb. No complicated auxiliary verbs like "don't" or "doesn't" to worry about.

You can also use double negatives in Portuguese, which actually strengthens the negation rather than canceling it out:

How questions work in Portuguese

This is where Portuguese gets really interesting. Unlike English, you don't flip the subject and verb around to form a question. The word order stays exactly the same.

The statement "Você fala inglês" (You speak English) becomes a question just by changing your intonation: "Você fala inglês?" The only difference is your voice goes up at the end.

In Brazilian Portuguese especially, people form questions by keeping the exact same sentence structure and just raising their pitch. This feels weird at first if you're used to English, but it's how most questions work in everyday conversation.

Compare these:

Same words, same order, different intonation. Pretty cool!

Using interrogative words

When you need to ask specific questions using words like "what," "where," or "when," Portuguese uses interrogative words at the beginning of the sentence. The rest of the sentence keeps its normal structure.

Common interrogative words:

Examples:

Notice the verb still comes after the subject. You're not saying "What do you want?" with the auxiliary "do" like in English. The Portuguese version translates more literally to "What you want?"

Here's something that confuses people: "Como você está?" means "How are you?" (Asking about your temporary state), while "Como você é?" means "What are you like?" (Asking about your personality or characteristics). The verb changes the meaning completely.

Understanding linking verbs and transitive verbs

The verb "ser " (To be) is the most common linking verb:

The verb "estar" (To be) also works as a linking verb but indicates temporary states:

Most action verbs fall into this category:

Some verbs can work both ways depending on context, but the SVO pattern holds strong when you've got a transitive verb with its object.

Where adverbs fit in

The flexibility with adverb placement gives you some room to adjust your sentence structure based on what you want to emphasize, but sticking them after the verb works most of the time.

Pronouns and possessive forms

Portuguese has subject pronouns, but remember, you can drop them most of the time:

In Brazilian Portuguese, "você" is the standard way to say "you" in casual conversation. European Portuguese uses "tu" more often for informal situations.

These possessive forms also need to match the gender and number of the thing being possessed, not the person who owns it:

Practical sentence building examples

Let's put this all together with some everyday sentences you'd actually use:

Simple present tense:

With adjectives:

Questions with interrogatives:

Negative forms:

Brazilian Portuguese versus European Portuguese

The basic sentence structure stays the same between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese, but you'll notice some differences in pronoun usage and vocabulary.

Brazilian Portuguese tends to use "você" as the standard second-person pronoun, while European Portuguese uses "tu" more frequently in informal contexts. This affects verb conjugation:

The verb form changes from "fala" to "falas" because "tu" takes a different conjugation pattern.

European Portuguese also tends to use object pronouns more formally and places them differently in sentences, but that's getting into more advanced territory. For basic sentence structure, the SVO pattern holds true in both variants.

Common mistakes to avoid

If you want to practice these sentence structures with real Portuguese content, Migaku's browser extension and app let you look up words and save sentences while watching Brazilian shows or reading articles. Makes it way easier to see how native speakers actually use these patterns. There's a 10-day free trial if you want to check it out.

Learn Portuguese with Migaku

You're on a fast track to learn Portuguese sentence structure as an English speaker

The Portuguese language gives you a solid foundation with its SVO structure, making it pretty accessible for English speakers. The verb conjugations take some practice, but once you've got the basic patterns down, you can start building more complex sentences by adding adjectives, adverbs, and different tenses. When you encounter a sentence you like in dramas or shows, you can also analyze its components, which can improve your understanding of grammar.

What's your favorite Portuguese quote?