In a qualitative study drawing on 48 in-depth interviews with cohabiting men and women living mostly in metropolitan Lisbon, we identified eight patterns of conjugal cohabitation: the modern, the circumstantial, the engagement (pre-marriage), the male, the transgressive, the traditional, the unstable, and the experimental. The aims of this article are to identify the main features and characteristics of each pattern and to put forward some conclusions on cohabitation in Portugal, in particular on the diversity of meanings, contexts, trajectories and dynamics of conjugality associated with cohabitation.

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Cohabitation,Conjugality,Gender,Biographical trajectories,Social class

• Sociologia - Ciências Sociais