Indefinite Pronouns
The indefinite pronouns todo, toda, todos, todas are followed by the definite article in European Portuguese, and also elsewhere when they mean "whole". Otherwise, articles and indefinite pronouns are mutually exclusive.
In the demonstratives and in some indefinite pronouns, there is a trace of the neuter gender of Latin. For example, todo and esse are used with masculine referents, toda and essa are used with feminine referents, and tudo and isso are used when there is no definite referent e.g. todo livro or todo o livro, "every book"; toda salada or toda a salada, "every salad"; tudo "everything", and so on:
- este, esta, estes, estas ("this", "these"); isto ("this thing")
- esse, essa, esses, essas ("that", "those"); isso ("that thing")
- aquele, aquela, aqueles, aquelas ("that", "those"); aquilo ("that thing")
- algum, alguma, alguns, algumas ("some"); algo ("something")
- nenhum, nenhuma, nenhuns, nenhumas ("no"); nada ("nothing")
- todo, toda, todos, todas ("every", "all"); tudo ("everything")
In terms of agreement, however, these "neuter" words function as masculine: both todo and tudo take masculine adjective pronouns.
Read more about this topic: Portuguese Grammar
Famous quotes containing the words indefinite and/or pronouns:
“As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the meantime no sense in bickering about pronouns and other parts of blather.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)