Come si dice in Portoghese (Brasile)? In English we differentiate “your” and “their” depending on if you’re talking to a person or talking about someone else.
In my translator, their and your both come up as “seu”.
To denote possession do you use deles such as “a camisa deles” (their shirt)

Question

Come si dice in Portoghese (Brasile)? In English we differentiate “your” and “their” depending on if you’re talking to a person or talking about someone else.
In my translator, their and your both come up as “seu”.  
To denote possession do you use deles such as “a camisa deles” (their shirt)

_Eduardo_ · Answer

These are the possessive pronouns in relation to the personal pronouns:

Eu - meu
tu - teu
ele - seu
nós - nosso
vós - vosso
eles - seu

"Você" isn't technically a personal pronoun. It's called "pronome de tratamento" and this kind of pronoun uses conjugations and words related to the 3rd person. That's why "seu" can refer to both "ele" and "você".

Nowadays because of the ambiguity, we tend not to use "seu" to refer to ele/eles informally. We use "seu" to refer to "você" and "dele" to refer to "ele".

victorgabriel22_ · Answer

@Brian_Fosnocht

Most of the time "sua/seu" means "your". Sometimes it means "his/her" though.

For example:

"A camisa deles" = "their shirt"
"Essa é sua camisa, Brian" = "This is your shirt, Brian."
"Este é o John, e esta é sua camisa" (less common) or "Este é o John, e esta é a camisa dele" (most common) = "This one is John, and this is his shirt"

aldonas · Answer

yes, "seu" can mean both.

"seu" (for 1 masculine noun) 
*"seus" (for more than 1 masculine noun)
*sua (for 1 feminine noun)
*suas (for more than 1 feminine noun)

deles is usually used like "of them" after the noun
esta é a casa deles
or 
esta casa é deles

deles/delas is more common and it avoids confusion, misinterpretation

XxLucasXx · Answer

"seu"/"sua" meaning, respectively, "his"/"her" will only be used in formal writing. In the colloquial language, we tend to use "seu"/"sua" only for the second person singular (o seu casaco = your coat) and, for the 3rd person singular, we will most of the time say "dele/dela" instead (o casaco dela = her coat). Whether or not someone will also use "teu/tua" for the second person singular will depend on the dialect they speak.

MatheusBarbosa0 · Answer

Okay, my english it's not really good, but i hope i can help you:

When you are referring to only one person, and you are talking directly to that person:
- Your = Seu (singular/formal), Teu (singular/informal)
- Their = Seus (plural/formal), Teus (plural/informal)
Example:
Esse livro é seu (or "sua", if it's a feminine word)/teu (or "tua" if it's a feminine word) = This book is yours
Esses livros são seus (or "suas", if it's a feminine word)/teus (or "tuas", if it's a feminine word) = These books are yours
_

When you are referring to another person (who is or is not close to you), talking about him/her to a third person:
- His = Dele (singular)
- Theirs = Deles (plural)
Example:
Esse livro é dele = This book is his/from her
Esses livros são dele/deles = these books are his/from him, these books are hers/from her, these books are theirs
 
Note: In the case of the word "Dele" can agree with the person or people I am referring to, and not exactly to the object or thing I am using to refer to the person or people
-
In Portuguese, the word "Seu" is a formal variation of the informal word "Teu". Depending on the situation, people accept "Teu" as formal, but in formal situations, when treating older people or people that you have a degree of respect for, you should give preference to the word "Seu".

RubenOliveiraf · Answer

What you'll hear the most is "dele/dela" but "seu/sua" is sometimes used, it sounds more literary when used for someone else not in the conversation.

The phrase: "He is american, but his friend is mexican" can be translated as
1. "Ele é americano, mas seu amigo é mexicano." 
or as 
2. "Ele é americano, mas o amigo dele é mexicano."

1 is what you would read in a book.
2 I think is something more natural in speech, it is how I would speak 90% of the time.

MatheusBarbosa0 · Answer

@RubenOliveiraf Yes, definitely. Thank you!!

@RubenOliveiraf Yes, definitely. Thank you!!

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