vocês

Vocês is the second-person plural pronoun in Portuguese, used to address more than one person. It corresponds to the English you all or you guys and is the standard form in many varieties of the language. The verb that follows usually appears in the third-person plural: Vocês são, Vocês vão, Vocês estão.

Etymology and history are commonly traced to the polite singular form vossa mercê (your grace), with a later extension to the plural as vossas mercês. Over time the singular form gave rise to você, and the plural form to vocês, which then became the dominant plural second-person form in many dialects. This development led to widespread use of vocês in place of older forms such as vós in everyday speech.

Usage and regional variation vary by region and formality. In Brazilian Portuguese, vocês is the predominant informal plural form, while tu is used for informal singular and você for formal or informal singular in many contexts. In European Portuguese, vocês is common in informal speech, but vós remains available in formal or literary contexts. In several Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa, vocês is also widely used. Some varieties maintain a distinction between more formal address (often using vocês with a more formal tone) and more colloquial usage.

Grammatical notes: as a subject pronoun, vocês governs third-person plural verb forms. Possessives align with third-person plural (seus/ suas), and object usage follows the standard patterns of direct and indirect objects in Portuguese.

Examples:

Vocês são estudantes.

Vocês vão viajar amanhã.

Vocês deixaram seus casacos aqui.