22.4. onde where
The interrogative adverb onde ask for the place where an object is located, para onde / aonde asks for the place an object mouves to and de onde / donde ask for the place an object comes from. All these interrogative adverbs can be used as well in a metaphorical sense: Where is the world heading?
(For those who speak Spanish: Donde is a trap. No, it doesn't mean where as in Spanish, because the Spanish dónde means simply where. The Portuguese donde means from where.)
| onde where |
Onde moras?  |
| Where do you live? |
| Onde você está? |
| Where are you? |
| Onde você vai ficar? |
| Where will you stay? |
| Onde sua mãe trabalha? |
| Where does your mother works? |
| Onde iremos jantar esta noite?* |
| Where we will have dinner this evening? |
| Onde você colocou minha chave? |
| Where did you put my keys? |
* Iremos doesn't describe a mouvement here and therefore the sentence doesn't describe a mouvement to a place. Iremos is here simply part of a verbal phrase and expresses future.
English doesn't distinguish between a statical position and a mouvement to a place: Where are you ? <=> Where do you go? In Portuguese a distinction is to be made.
| aonde where |
| Aonde você vai? |
| Where do you go? |
| Não sabes aonde ir? |
| You don't know where to go? |
| Aonde devo ir para resolver esse problema? |
| Where I must go to resolve this problem? |
There is a subtle difference between para onde and aonde. There is preference for para onde if the mouvement to a place is definitive, in other words if someone goes there to stay there for a long time.
| para onde |
| Para onde ele se mudou? |
| Where did he move to? |
| Para onde vão as almas das pessoas depois que elas morrem? |
| Where do the souls of the men go after they had died? |
| Para onde vai a luz quando se apaga ? |
| Where does the light goes after we have switched it off? |
| Para onde vai Portugal? |
| Where is Portugal heading? |
There is no difference between donde and de onde, although donde is considered a little bit colloquial. However there is a very big difference between the Spanish dónde and the Portuguese donde. The Spanish dónde means simply where and the Portuguese donde means from where.
| de onde / donde woher |
| Donde vocês vieram? |
| Where do you come from? |
| De onde você vem? |
| Where do you come from? |
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