Próclise, ênclise e mesóclise
Portuguese has three places to park an object pronoun: before the verb (próclise — me viu), hooked onto the back with a hyphen (ênclise — viu-me), and, in one antique corner, inside the verb (mesóclise — ver-me-á). Grammar books call the second one the default. Brazil disagrees: here the pronoun goes in front, including at the very start of a sentence — Me chamo Tomás. Me dá um café. What you still need from the old rules is the writing: the trigger list that forces próclise on paper, and two spelling rules that are alive and well in Brazilian prose — fazê-lo, encontraram-no.
Default — ênclise (after the verb, with hyphen)
The textbook rule says: with nothing pulling the pronoun forward, it attaches to the back of the verb with a hyphen. That is the rule Portugal follows in speech, and the rule Brazilian formal writing still bows to. But listen to Brazil and you'll find ênclise living in a few specific rooms. Affirmative commands, above all reflexive ones: Sente-se, por favor. Levante-se. Fique à vontade has no pronoun, but Acomode-se does. Signs and notices: Vende-se. Aluga-se. Precisa-se de vendedor. And the formulas of official prose: Trata-se de um engano. Observa-se que os números caíram. Solicita-se silêncio. There's one rule of written Portuguese that Brazilians genuinely respect on paper: a sentence shouldn't open with a clitic. That's why the sign reads Vende-se and why a formal letter starts Dirijo-me a vocês even though the writer would say something else out loud. Outside those rooms, a Brazilian sentence like Ele viu-me ontem sounds like a court transcript being read aloud.
Próclise — the pull-forward triggers
Certain words yank the pronoun in front of the verb, hyphen gone. Negatives: não me viu, nunca te disse, ninguém me ajudou, nada me surpreende. Subordinating conjunctions: Sei que me viu. Se me chamarem, eu vou. Ele saiu porque se cansou. Espere aqui enquanto me visto. Relative pronouns: a pessoa que me ajudou, o lugar onde a gente se conheceu. Question words: Quem te contou? Como se chama? Por que me ligou tão tarde? Adverbs of time, focus and doubt: já te disse, ainda me lembro, sempre me ajudou, também se preocupa, só me falta isso, talvez se esqueça. And indefinite subjects: alguém me chamou, todos se levantaram, muita gente me perguntou isso. Now the Brazilian punchline: none of this changes anything in your speech, because the pronoun was already in front. You learn the list for two other reasons — so your formal writing is right, and so a page of Portuguese written in Portugal stops looking like it's shuffling the pronoun at random.
Mesóclise — the rare middle position
There is a third position, and it is a museum piece. When the verb is in the futuro simples or the condicional and nothing triggers próclise, classical Portuguese lodges the pronoun inside the verb, with a hyphen on each side. Dar-te-ei a resposta amanhã = I shall give you the answer tomorrow. Far-lhe-ia esse favor = I would do him that favor. Ver-me-á em breve. Any trigger makes it evaporate — não te darei, se lhe faria — because the pronoun jumps to the front instead. In Brazil, mesóclise is a joke with a specific shape: a pompous lawyer, a politician trying to sound weighty, a comedy sketch. It doesn't help that the plain futuro simples (direi, farei) is already bookish here, so its mesoclitic cousin is bookish twice over. What Brazil says: Vou te dar a resposta amanhã. Eu faria esse favor pra ele. Recognize it on the page; never build one.
Contractions: lhe + o = lho
Lesson 22 introduced these; here they are in their proper home. When an indirect pronoun meets a direct one in the same clause, classical Portuguese fuses them: me + o = mo, me + a = ma, te + o = to, te + a = ta, lhe + o = lho, lhe + a = lha, and the plurals mos, tos, lhos, lhas. Deu-mo ontem = he gave it to me yesterday. Eu disse-lho = I told it to him. In Portugal these are ordinary; in Brazil they belong to Machado de Assis, to hymns and to contracts. Brazil unpacks the same idea instead, keeping one pronoun in front and spelling the other half out: Me deu isso ontem. Eu disse isso pra ele. Me manda por e-mail. When you hit a fused form while reading, split it in two and ask two questions: who is the first half (me, te, lhe), and what is the second half (the thing)?
-lo / -la after verb endings -r, -s, -z
This rule, unlike the last one, is fully alive in Brazilian writing and careful speech. When the direct-object pronouns o, a, os, as attach to a verb form ending in -r, -s or -z, that final letter drops and the pronoun grows an l: fazer + o = fazê-lo, comprar + o = comprá-lo, dizer + a = dizê-la, ouvir + o = ouvi-lo, abrir + a = abri-la, fiz + o = fi-lo (that last one is rare and very formal). The accent follows the conjugation: -ar verbs take -á-lo, -er verbs take -ê-lo, -ir verbs keep the i with no accent at all. You'll meet this constantly in written Brazilian: É preciso fazê-lo hoje. Vamos analisá-la com calma. Não consegui encontrá-los. In conversation, though, Brazilians dodge the whole machine — the object turns into isso or simply disappears: Preciso fazer isso hoje. Vou comprar amanhã. Both registers are correct; they just live in different places.
-no / -na after -m, -ão, -õe
The companion spelling rule. When o, a, os, as attach to a verb form ending in a nasal — the -m of any third-person plural, or -ão, or -õe — the pronoun grows an n instead, and the verb keeps its ending: deram + o = deram-no, comem + a = comem-na, dão + os = dão-nos, põe + a = põe-na, viram + as = viram-nas. It's pure phonetics: the n keeps the nasal from colliding with the vowel, which is why deram-o never happens. The rule touches only the direct-object pronouns — me, te, lhe, nos never take an n. In Brazil you'll find these forms in news writing and formal prose: Encontraram-no na manhã seguinte. Publicaram-na sem avisar o autor. Speech goes another way entirely and uses a full pronoun as the object: Encontraram ele na manhã seguinte — flagged as wrong in a school essay, and said by everyone, everywhere, all day.
Brazilian register — proclisis as default
Here is the whole lesson compressed into one habit: in Brazil the pronoun goes in front of the verb, and it may open the sentence. Me chamo Tomás. Me dá um café, por favor. Te ligo mais tarde. Ele se levanta cedo. A gente se vê amanhã. No trigger required, no hyphen anywhere. With two verbs, the pronoun leans on the one it belongs to and still goes in front of it: Você pode me ajudar? Vou te mandar hoje. What formal writing still asks of you is short: don't open a written sentence with a clitic, put the pronoun in front after any trigger, and spell fazê-lo and encontraram-no correctly. Then three spoken habits to copy. lhe is rare in Brazilian mouths — you say pra ele, pra ela, pra você. te pairs happily with você and nobody hears a contradiction: Você quer que eu te ligue? And the direct object frequently just evaporates: — Você viu o filme? — Vi. In the street you'll also hear Eu vi ele ontem, with a subject pronoun doing object duty; it's stigmatized in writing and universal in speech, so recognize it, and write Eu o vi ontem when it matters.
