What they do
Relative pronouns let you attach a mini-sentence to a noun: "the friend who lives in Rio", "the book that I read". Portuguese runs almost entirely on one little word: que.
QUE — the universal connector
Works for people AND things, subject AND object. When in doubt, que.
| o amigo que mora no Rio | the friend who lives in Rio |
| o livro que eu li | the book (that) I read — que can NEVER be dropped like in English! |
| a música que toca na rádio | the song that plays on the radio |
The specialists
| quem (people, after a preposition) | a pessoa com quem falei — the person I talked WITH |
| onde (places) | a cidade onde nasci — the city where I was born |
| o que (a whole idea) | Ela chegou cedo, o que me surpreendeu. — …which surprised me |
| tudo o que | Tudo o que você precisa é… — everything (that) you need is… |
CUJO — whose (formal)
cujo/cuja/cujos/cujas = whose. It agrees with the thing POSSESSED, not the owner: o autor cujo livro eu li (the author whose BOOK I read), a empresa cujas portas fecharam.
Traps
1 · Never drop que: "the movie I saw" = o filme que eu vi.
2 · Preposition comes BEFORE the pronoun: a casa em que moro / a casa onde moro — never "a casa que eu moro em".
3 · quem needs its preposition: o amigo de quem falei (the friend I spoke about).
Practise this chapter
10 pool questions plus generated ones — 20 fresh practice questions, reshuffled every visit, inside the grammar library.
Practise Relative pronouns — 20 questions →This chapter is taught in Lição 26 of the course (level B1). Rumo is a complete Brazilian Portuguese course, A1 to B2; level A1 is free.