What does pro,pra,pros and pras mean in Brazilian Portuguese?

Brazilians love to make words shorter when they are speaking, I'm not sure if it's because we are lazy or if it's due to the fact that we love to speak and we want to cram as many words as possible in one sentence. :-)

So today I'm going to talk about a contraction that Brazilians make when they are speaking and when they are writing informally.

The contractions I'd like to teach you today are PRO, PRA, PROS, PRAS.
PRO = para + o (to the/ for the) masculine and singular
PRA = para + a (to the/ for the) femenine and singular
PROS = para + os (to the/ for the) masculine and plural
PRAS = para + as (to the/ for the) femenine and singular

Let's see some examples:

1. Eu trouxe um presente pra* você. (I brought a gift for you)

2. Esse bolo é pros meninos. (This cake is for the boys/kids)

3. Fui pra casa da minha mãe no domingo. (I went to my mom's house on Sunday)

4. Quero muito viajar pro Japão no ano que vem. (I really want to travel to Japan next year)

5. Vou deixar essa casa pras minhas filhas. (I'll leave this house for my daughters)

*when the word after this contraction is a pronoun (mim, você, vocês, nós, ele, ela, eles, elas) we always use PRA regardless if it's feminine, masculine, singular or plural.

More examples:

1. Tenho que levar a comida pra eles. (I have to take some food for them/ I have to take them some food)

2. Faz um favor pra mim, por favor? (Will you do a favor for me, please?/Will you do me a favor, please?)

3. Nós preferimos trabalhar para nós mesmos. (We'd rather work for ourselves)

Now, let's watch a video in which you can hear one those contractions being used. 

Did you hear them using the contraction PRA? This is extremely common in spoken Brazilian Portuguese, so I recommend you start using it to sound more fluent but avoid it in formal written Portuguese.

Also, I'm sure you heard some new expressions in this video and I'll write a new post to explain all of them to you, I promise!