Eu moro em Lisboa. But my Grandson says " Eu moro na Ericeira" What are the gramatical rules governing the use of each of these regarding Where I live?
David from England.
Eu moro em, no, na?
@davidcowling949, it depends on whether or not the name of the town/region/country is preceded by a definite article. Many countries are, but most cities are not – we say “a França”, but we don’t say "o/a “Paris”, just “Paris”. There are no clear rules for the addition/exclusion of the article, other than what common usage has set in stone over time.
So, when no article precedes the place’s name, we simply use the base preposition em:
- Em Portugal
- Em Cuba
- Em Lisboa
- Em Londres
-
Em Trás-os-Montes
…
When a masculine or feminine definite article is there, we have to contract the base preposition em with them, and we end up with no or na, respectively. This is usual for names that derive from common nouns, but not exclusive to them.
- o Porto --> no Porto (porto is also a common noun)
- a Cidade do Cabo --> na Cidade do Cabo (cidade is a common noun)
- o País de Gales --> no País de Gales (país is a common noun)
- a Ericeira --> na Ericeira
- o Japão --> no Japão
- a Nazaré --> na Nazaré
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Simple explanations like this are so helpful. It is what makes PP so different.
Mac
Thank you for the explanation Joseph, but I am still not clear on how you can tell that a town, city ,country etc has a definite article? My son and his family live in Ericeira, I have been there many times but have never seen it refered to as A Ericeira, just heard people refere to it as such in as Eu moro na Ericeira. Would it be acceptable if you are not sure to just use em? Ie Eu fui em Ericeira.