Pronomes clíticosClitic pronouns are one of the trickiest subjects to learn and master in Portuguese. But don’t despair — we’re here to help! Throughout these lessons you’ll learn how to use clitic object pronouns correctly, but first you should understand more about the difference between direct and indirect objects.
The objects of a sentence can be represented in various ways, the most common being nouns and pronouns. Some verbs don’t need objects for the sentence to make sense, while others demand them. These are called transitive verbs.
For example, take the English phrase “She wants”. That sounds incomplete, right? In English, want is a transitive verb, so you need more information. What does she want? “She wants that car.” Now it’s a complete sentence, with “that car” as the direct object.
Direct Objects
A complemento diretodirect object answers the questions what? or who?, and therefore shows a direct connection with the main verb, complementing it.
Let’s look at a few examples in Portuguese:
Ela chamou a mãe. Ela chamou-a.She called her mom. She called her.
Eles vestiram as t-shirts. Eles vestiram-nas.They put the t-shirts on. They put them on.
As you can see, in the first example, the verb chamarto call was performed directly to the mom, so a mãethe mom is the direct object of the sentence. She called whom? The mom. Since mom is a female direct object, you replace it with the clitic pronoun a.
The same goes for the second sentence: They put on what? The t-shirts. So the t-shirts are the direct object. Because this is the plural of a female direct object, you would think it would be replaced by the clitic pronoun as, but since the verb vestiram ends in -am, you have to use nas. (This is a rule that makes the word easier to pronounce. You will learn more about this inflected form in this lesson.)
Indirect Objects
We also have complementos indiretosindirect objects . You can locate the indirect object by asking a question like to whom?, from whom?, or for whom? because the person (or thing) is indirectly affected by the main verb. The indirect object is connected to the main verb by a preposition, such as a . For example:
Ele roubou as bolachas à amiga.He stole the cookies from his friend.
What did he steal? The cookies. That’s the direct object. From whom? From his friend. That’s the indirect object. The preposition à helps make the connection.
Now, let’s represent the indirect object using the clitic pronoun lhe. We’ll replace “his friend” with just “her”:
Ele roubou-lhe as bolachas.He stole the cookies from her.
Notice how we didn’t need to use a preposition this time. When you use a clitic pronoun as an indirect object, it is never preceded by a preposition.
Word Order
Sentences can have indirect objects without direct objects, and vice-versa, and they can also have both, as seen in the example above. If both are present, and no clitic pronouns are involved, the word order is very flexible. For example, the sentence Dei um casaco à minha mãe.I gave a jacket to my mom. has the same meaning as Dei à minha mãe um casaco.I gave my mom a jacket. .
The order starts to matter when you use clitic pronouns, however. In European Portuguese, the default order would be the verb first (deu), followed by the indirect object pronoun (–lhes), followed by the direct object (um presente):
Ela deu-lhes um presente ontem.She gave them a gift yesterday.
You could re-write that sentence differently, placing the pronoun before the verb (with ontem/yesterday removed):
Um presente ela lhes deu.A gift she gave them.
Ela lhes deu um presente.She gave them a gift.
The examples above are technically correct and make sense, but are not common in European Portuguese. The first one is either used in poetry or when you want to sound like Yoda, from Star Wars, while the second is commonly found in Brazilian Portuguese.
There are also other exceptions to the default word order, which we will discuss more later. For example, after a “question word” (such as quem) or a “negative word” (such as não), the clitic object pronoun precedes the verb:
Quem te fez isto?Who did this to you?
Ela não lhes deu um presente.She didn't give them a gift.
Beautifully explained but this section is the most difficult I have tackled, I got lesson 1 (following) 100% through blood sweat and tears! LOL
Pat
Esta lição esclarece o mistério dos complementos diretos e indiretos e a ordem também – muito obrigada! Sou uma nova aluna em PracticePortuguese.com e adoro os podcasts e as lições . Aprendi o português com varios recursos mas agora encontrei o melhor! Gosto das lições tão organizadas e sei que vou aprender muito muito mais agora! De novo, muito obrigada, Rui e Joel!!
Beijinhos,
Lorena
Olá, Lorena! Muito obrigado pela mensagem e parabéns, porque está escrita em português perfeito. Espero que continues a desfrutar dos materiais do website 🙂
How would you use direct and indirect object pronouns together? Like in the spanish “damelo” for “give it to me”
Or how could you say “They offered me it”
Obrigado!
Olá! I think this Learning Note will help: Merging Clitic Pronouns 🙂
Another question!
What are the other circumstances in which the clitic precedes the verb besides the negative form? I know this also happens with ainda, like in “Eles ainda o tem”
Olá 🙂 Yes, some adverbs, like “ainda”, have a certain attractive power and pull the pronoun to the proclitic position (before the verb). Same for subordinative conjunctions, relative pronouns like “que”, or indefinite pronouns like “alguém”. Examples:
– Talvez eu te possa ajudar (Maybe I can help you) -> Adverb
– Podes ver televisão se te portares bem (You can watch TV if you behave well) -> Subordinative conjunction
– Obrigado pelo presente que vocês nos deram (Thank you for the gift that you gave us) -> Relative pronoun
– Alguém me chamou (Someone called me) -> Indefinite pronoun
Hi ! I get confused when reading the example above: “Ele roubou as bolachas à amiga.” It sounds like he stole the cookies to the friend instead of from the friend. To me it would be more natural to say: “Ele robou as bolachas da amiga”. How should one think about this? Is the, to me odd, choice of preposition somehow connected to function of the verb? Please help.
Both prepositions are possible (“roubar a” and “roubar de”), but the former is the usually preferred one in European Portuguese, while the latter is more typical of Brazilian Portuguese. Either way, both options mean “to steal from someone” 🙂
Thanks Joseph for you quick reply 🙂
Ele roubou as bolachas à amiga.
He stole the cookies from his friend.
Dei um casaco à minha mãe.
I gave a jacket to my mom.
How can it be that the à in these two sentences has opposite meanings: to/from?
Shouldn’t the first sentence be da amiga?
Olá, Whit. For Portuguese speakers, this all seems perfectly coherent, but when you translate prepositions to English, they can fly in any direction 🙂 “Roubar da amiga” would also be possibl and some people say it like that, but it’s more typical of Brazilian Portuguese. In Portugal, we usually prefer “roubar a”.
are there any exercises to help us practice direct/indirect pronouns?
thanks
Chris Tomaszewski
Yes, you can find the unit here: Clitic Pronouns, which covers direct and indirect object pronouns in Portuguese. 🙂
Muito obrigada! 😊
I plan to take the A2 test in 16 months so I looked at a sample exam. They seem to like clitic pronouns a great deal! I had no idea what I was looking at. This lesson is a good start.
Like another commenter, I am deeply confused about “small words” in Portuguese—when to use a, á, para, etc. Not just which one to pick, but if one is needed at all! Não gosto de isso—but at least gostar is polite enough to be fairly predictable; de follows. I am not sure I can sort this out in a year. Yikes.
Yes the “small words” are the trickiest! I think it’s because they have a much more vague meaning compared to most other words. They serve more of a grammatical function.
For example, o gato is always going to mean cat, but para could mean a lot of different things depending on the context. So it helps to focus less on one-to-one translations of each little word and focus more on the overall meaning of the sentence.
Rather than trying to memorize every rule, I also find it more helpful to just be familiar with the rules, but to focus mostly on trying to get lots of exposure to Portuguese so you can SEE/HEAR how clitics and prepositions are used. You’ll see them come up throughout the Shorties, Podcasts, and Videos quite often.
If you go to our Site Index, check the Grammar section and there are helpful links under Pronouns and under Prepositions.
The explanation is very good however there is a problem .
It cannot be expected that students understand the principles of direct & indirect pronouns when you keep using colloquial phrases and have not previously explained the concept that certain verbs require the use of indirect pronouns together with the article a
For example Roubar a Ele roubou-lhe as bolachas à ela / He robbed her of the cookies . But to the uninformed it reads “He robbed the cookies to the her” and it would be expected that we would then write Ele roubou-lhe as bolachas da ela to make sense of it in English, but of course this is evidently wrong.
There needs to be an explanation in the course for these verbs that require the indirect pronoun.
Similarly Ele bateu-lhe a ela / He hit her . The explanation requires that we know that when we use verbs that are doing something to someone, the article a in invoked otherwise it is immensely confusing.
Thanks for your feedback. I must note that by default, if you use an indirect object pronoun, there’s no requirement for anything else – that’s all you need. So, it’s enough to say “Ele roubou-lhe as bolachas” (one of the examples we show above) or “Ele bateu-lhe”. The combination of indirect pronouns with tonic pronouns (“…a mim”, “…a ele”, etc – always without accent) is not a requirement, but an option for emphasis, as we explain down the road in this Learning Note about tonic pronouns: Introduction to Tonic Pronouns | Practice Portuguese.
Otherwise, *without* indirect pronouns, it is natural that the indirect object is introduced by a preposition, just as it happens in English.
– “Ele deu o livro *a* um amigo”/”He gave the book *to* a friend”.
… ganhar me no snooker
Is the “me “. Indirect replacing “de mim”? So would “ganhar lhe no snoocer” be correct fo sing formal?
Thanks
Olá. Yes, the “-me” of “ganhar-me” is an indirect object pronoun, replacing “a mim” (first person). “Ganhar-lhe” is for a different person, either a third person (replacing “a ele”) or a formal second person (replacing “a si”) 🙂
Indirect « me ». Replaces » a mim » but not « de mim »?
Yes, the pronoun -me replaces “a mim”, not “de mim”.
Hi, thank you so much for your excellent site and the marvellous job you are doing explaining such difficult topics!
I have a question.
In case of a reflexive verb + indirect pronoun:
Can I join you? (where YOU is a formal version meaning o senhor/a senhora)
Posso juntar-me a si?
Or am I wrong here?
Thank you in advance.
Lena
Olá – thank you too for your feedback!
Your sentence is perfectly correct. “A si” is a tonic pronoun and it’s what we would use in this case.
Hi,
I’m confused by a few examples that seem to have the verb IR in common. I’m curious why the object pronouns go with IR (vou or vamos in the cases below) and not with the main verb. Is there a rule or something else here that I’m missing?
Examples:
Escreve o que lhe vou dizer vs.
Escreve o que vou dizer-lhe
or even…
Escreve o que vou lhe dizer
And:
Nós vamos-te levar a casa vs.
Nós vamos levar-te a casa
Thanks!
Olá! All verb phrases follow the same rules of placement, which are covered in this Learning Note: Verb Phrases & Clitic Pronouns.
In general, under European Portuguese standards, in affirmative sentences without “magnetic” words, the object pronouns can be placed either after the main verb or after the auxiliary verb. This is the case in your second set of examples, where both positions are acceptable and interchangeable. In the presence of magnetic words (such as negations, subordinating conjunctions, interrogative pronouns…), the object pronouns should be preferably placed before the whole verb phrase. That’s the case in your first set of examples, where we should favour the first option, “Escreva o que lhe vou dizer”, since there’s a subordinate clause with ‘que’ as a subordinating conjunction – magnetic word. In theory, it’s also grammatically acceptable to place it after the verb phrase, but it’s not as idiomatic and might sound awkward. The third option within your first set (que vou lhe dizer) would be seen in Brazilian Portuguese, not European Portuguese.
Great explanation thank you!
Is “lhe” only used when it is referring to an indirect object? I am confused when to use “se” or “lhe”, are they interchangeable? Thanks!
Olá! Yes, “lhe” and “lhes” are indirect object pronouns, used for both the 3rd-person and for the formal 2nd-person. You can read more about it halfway through this Learning Note: Clitic Pronouns: 3rd Person | Practice Portuguese
“Se” is a 3rd-person reflexive or reciprocal object pronoun and never interchangeable with “lhe”. More about it here: Reflexive Pronouns | Practice Portuguese