In this lesson we’ll explore two more clitic object pronouns in Portuguese, nos and vos.
A quick reminder: With 1st person plural verbs that end in s, such as vamos, the s is dropped before adding the pronoun nos. For example:
- vamos + nos = vamo-nos, as in Vamo-nos emboraLet's get out of here
Nos
Nos corresponds to us or to/for us, as it is used for both direct and indirect objects. Examples:
O professor chamou-nos no final da aula.The professor called us at the end of class.
Não nos parece justa esta decisão.This decision doesn’t seem fair to us.
Bear in mind that you will also see nos used for third person plural when the preceding verb form ends in a nasal sound (-am/-em/-êm/-ão) and the reference is masculine, due to the need to add n to the default form of os. Refer back to this learning note for a more detailed explanation of this rule: 3rd Person Clitic Pronouns
For example, in the sentence Eles foram-nos buscarThey picked us up, They picked them up , nos could refer to either them or us. You would have to rely on context to know for sure. Sometimes, if we want to avoid confusion, we would say:
- Eles foram-nos buscar a nósThey picked us up or Eles foram-nos buscar a elesThey picked them up
Vos
Vos corresponds to you or to/for you when talking to multiple people (vocês) and it is also valid for both direct and indirect objects. Examples:
Eu ia comprar maçãs, mas deram-vos laranjas.I was going to buy apples, but you(plural) were given oranges.
Alguém vos deu uma cópia?Has someone given you(plural) a copy?
Hi guys,
This example: Alguém vos deu uma cópia?
Should ‘vos’ not be placed enclitically as it is not a negative question? I.e. Alguém deu vos uma cópia?
Thanks
Olá, Cameron. Questions don’t have to be negative to promote proclitic placement of clitic pronouns. These pronouns are placed enclitically in most interrogative sentences, and that has a lot to do with the attractive force of interrogative pronouns (e.g. quem, quando, qual – who, when, which…). In the example you gave, there’s no interrogative pronoun, but there’s an indefinite pronoun, “alguém”, which also attracts pronouns to the proclitic position.
Just want to check my language sense here.
On this page https://www.practiceportuguese.com/learning-notes/verb-phrases-clitic-pronouns/ I read that “it’s also correct if you place the clitic pronoun after the auxiliary verb separated by a hyphen,” So this is the reason it’s ok to attach the object (nos) to the verb form of Ir (“foram-nos”) instead of buscar. Great.
On the other hand, since “buscar” is the action affecting the direct object, not ir, my sense would be to say “Eles foram buscar-os”. Shorter, wIth the added advantage of eliminating the them/us ambiguity.
Is that correct and which form, if not both, sounds more natural? Thanks!
That’s correct, but when you place the clitic pronoun after ‘buscar’, you should write it as ‘buscá-los’, since ‘buscar’ ends in a consonant, as mentioned in this Learning Note: Clitic Pronouns: 3rd Person | Practice Portuguese (the accent is then added to distinguish the infinitive form from the second-person singular form ‘busca-los’, derived from ‘buscas’).
Either form sounds perfectly natural. You can confidently use either one when referring to ‘us’ and preferably use “foram buscá-los” when referring to ‘them’ 🙂
Parece que este tema confunde até os falantes nativos de português. De acordo com os artigos seguintes, o verbo na primeira pessoa do plural não perde o [s] final quando seguido pelo pronome vos, então “nós damo-nos” mas “nós damos-vos”. Concordam?
https://ciberduvidas.iscte-iul.pt/consultorio/perguntas/damos-vos/12339.
https://ciberduvidas.iscte-iul.pt/consultorio/perguntas/ainda-o-damos-vos/12366.
Sim, a regra é essa 🙂 Acabei de rever o artigo para garantir que também está alinhado com isso.
Obrigado, Joseph. Agradeço o excelente trabalho que fazes.
“Eles foram-nos buscar” is “eles foram buscar para nos “ acceptable or too awkward?
They’d be seen as two distinct sentences. “Eles foram-nos buscar”, by default, is interpreted as “They picked us up” (i.e., “-nos” refers to us), and might eventually mean “They picked them up” (a less ambiguous option for the latter is “Eles foram buscá-los”=.
On the other hand, “Eles foram buscar para nós” is interpreted as “They went to get [something] for us” and if the context doesn’t already explain what the ‘something’ is, the sentence is incomplete.
In lessons 4, we have the sentence
Nós contamo-vos tudo
Taking into account the remark by Rodentsoft, would this be wrong?
“contamos-vos” is actually used in one option marked as wrong.
Indeed, ‘contamos-vos’ is the grammatically correct option. We’re already looking into any phrase pairs that might be misaligned in this grammar topic, since it’s tricky even for native speakers!
@Joseph
I got here trying to work out the different treatment of the “s” in two sentences using “dar” in my smart review stack:
– Nós damos-vos tudo o que vocês pedem
– Nós demo-vo-las no Natal
(I know that that second sentence has two things going on with an “s”. It is the verb I was researching)
Is one of these sentences wrong, or is there another twist that I’m missing?
Olá! The second example should be ‘demos-vo-las’ – thanks for catching that one too. It’s been marked for review.
I am new to learning Portuguese so forgive me if I am completely off base. I am struggling to understand which clitic pronouns go with which subject pronouns – specifically what “vos” and “vosso/a(s)”
Upon reading the following…
“Vos corresponds to you or to/for you when talking to multiple people (vocês) and it is also valid for both direct and indirect objects.”
It seems to me that this is saying that when using the 3rd person plural formal “vocês” you can use the 2nd person plural informal clitics and possessives “vos/vosso/etc.”
As someone who has more experience with Spanish, my intuition is that just like how Ustedes requires the clitics/possesive pronouns los/las/les, vocês should correspond to os/as/lhes/etc.
Does PT-PT permit this kind of pronoun mixing? Or am I misunderstanding this entirely.
Olá! There is indeed some pronoun mixing. Strictly speaking, grammar foresees that “vocês” uses the 3rd-person clitics/possessives, since this pronoun is used as a 2nd-person plural, but is structurally working as a 3rd person. But in practice, the most common approach is to use the 2nd-person plural clitics/possessives with “vocês”, which is used in informal to mildly formal contexts, and reserve the 3rd-person plural clitics/possessives to the very formal “os senhores/as senhoras”. For example:
– Vocês querem que vos sirva agora? (Would you like me to serve you now? – neutral)
– As senhoras querem que lhes sirva agora? (Would you like me to serve you now? – very formal)
Obrigado por responder! Thank you for clearing up this topic for me 🙂