In this lesson we’ll explore 3rd-person clitic object pronouns in Portuguese. We saved these for last because they are a little bit more complicated. Unlike the others we’ve practiced so far in the Clitic Pronouns unit, there are different forms depending on whether it’s a direct or indirect object pronoun. (Visit the introduction learning note if you want to review the chart of all the clitic object pronouns.)
Let’s look at the direct pronouns first, followed by the indirect pronouns.
3rd Person Direct Object Clitic Pronouns
The following clitic pronouns stand in for him, her, it, or them as the direct object. We have the default forms:
- o/a/os/as, plus two variations:
- lo/la/los/las (used after a consonant) and
- no/na/nos/nas (used after a nasal sound)
O/A, Os/As
Third person direct object pronouns are replaced by o or a (corresponding to him or her, respectively) in singular form, and os or as (standing for them, masculine or feminine) in plural form.
Examples:
Ela detestava-o profundamente.She hated him deeply.
Ele amava-a do fundo do coração.He loved her from the bottom of his heart.
Ela viu-os na televisãoShe saw them on television
As calças? Eu meti-as para lavarThe trousers? I put them (in) to wash
Ela guarda-as em sacosShe stores them in bags
Lo/La, Los/Las
If the last sound before the direct object clitic pronoun is a consonant, that consonant is dropped and an L is placed at the beginning of the clitic. In the first two examples below, the preceding verb would have ended with an s (conheces, amavas), so the s was dropped and the l was added onto the default clitic form.
Examples:
Conhece-lo há muito tempo?Have you(sing.,inf.) known him for long?
Amava-la assim tanto?Did you(sing.,inf.) love her that much?
If the consonant is an r, as in infinitive verb forms, the last vowel of the verb often gets accented. For example, if you wanted to say It’s good to see you again, you would probably expect it to be ❌É bom ver-la novamente. However, it’s actually:
É bom vê-la novamenteIt's good to see you again (formal, speaking to a woman)
The r from ver was dropped and the e vowel became stressed/accented.
Similarly, to say Can I help you? you wouldn’t say ❌Posso ajudar-lo? Instead, you would say:
Posso ajudá-lo?Can I help you? (formal, speaking to a man)
The r from ajudar was dropped and the a vowel became stressed/accented.
No/Na, Nos/Nas
These forms are used for verbs ending in a nasal sound, in other words, verbs that end in –am/-em/-êm/-ão. In this case, you keep the nasal sound and just add an n to the beginning of the clitic.
Examples:
Eles davam-no de graça.They gave it for free.
Apresentaram-na ontem na televisão.They introduced her yesterday on the television.
Eles idolatravam-nos, era uma loucura.They idolised them, it was insane.
3rd Person Indirect Object Clitic Pronouns
The two indirect pronouns for the third person singular and plural are lhe and lhes, respectively. (Lhe is also the pronoun used in place of vocêyou (formal) ). Keep in mind that the rules above about dropping the consonant or adding an L or N do not apply here.
Lhe, Lhes
The clitic pronouns lhe (singular) and lhes (plural) stand in as the indirect object in place of:
- (to/for) him
- (to/for) her
- (to/for) it
- (to/for) you (singular, formal)
- (to/for) them
Given that there are 5 different possibilities, keep in mind that there are multiple possible translations for the examples below. In a conversation, you would typically have more context to know whom -lhe/-lhes refers to.
Examples:
Eu fazia-lhe esse favor.I'd do him that favour.
Inclusivamente, eu disse-lhe que nãoIn fact, I told her no
Dá-lhe uma caneta, por favor.Give her a pen, please.
Posso pedir-lhe um favor?Can I ask you(sing.,formal) a favour?
Vamos enviar-lhe um cartão novoWe will send you(sing.,formal) a new card
Eu dei-lhes a frutaI gave them the fruit
O avô conta-lhes histórias incríveisThe grandfather tells them incredible stories
idolatrovam-nos, nos here means ‘them’, but can it also mean they ridiculed ‘us’, since ‘nos’ also means ‘us’? it’s very confusing…..
Yes, Hana, that’s correct. Because of the nasal ending in ‘idolatravam‘ (conjugated in the plural form), the subsequent pronoun must be modified, from -os to -nos. So, there’s this confusing overlap when you have a plural subject, but never when the subject is singular. In this example, if the subject were Ele instead of Eles, you’d get “Ele idolatrava-os“.
All of this is more difficult to understand when you don’t have the whole context for the sentences. In a full text or dialogue, you’ll be able to make the distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’ more easily 🙂
Olá Rui & Joel,
I just grabbed my Portuguese grammar book to see if it has all variations you are explaining and saw that there is an other case:
infinitive + 3rd person direct objects
convidar + o = convidá-lo
beber + a = bebê-la
ver + os = vê-los
preferir + as = preferi-los
But besides that this explanation really helped to understand the objects in Portuguese. I did not quite remember from my grammar book but I am sure I will remember from your lesson 🙂
Beijinhos!
Linda
Olá, Linda. That’s right, you can also use the pronouns with the infinitive forms of verbs. We’ll add that info. Thanks for your comment!
Hello Joel, so is the form end with “á””ê” same as the form that you mentioned in the article?
e.g: Queres conhecê-la = Queres conhece-la?
Olá! No, they’re not the same – the accent is enough to make it a different word. “Conhecê-la” derives from “conhecer + a” (infinitive), while “conhece-la” derives from “conheces + a” (present tense, 2nd person singular). The same applies to cases where we have/don’t have an accent on the last A. For example, “amá-lo” (amar + o) vs. “ama-lo” (amas + o).
In speech, we tell these forms apart by the different pronunciations. The accented forms, derived from the infinitive, are stressed on the last syllable (e.g. conheCÊ-la, aMÁ-lo). The non-accented forms are stressed on the second to last syllable (coNHEce-la, Ama-lo).
Oh now I finally understand these tricky accent marks 😂 Thank you soooo much for the detailed explanation! 🤩 Your website has helped me a lot!!!
So interrested.Kindly let me know the name of your portuguese grammar book.Thank you.
Ola a todos!
I have a question. I was told by a Portuguese teacher that if a sentence was a question, had a question word (quem, quando, qual, etc), or was negative, then word order changes.
This would mean that a sentence like “Tambem convidaste os teus primos?” would actually be “Tambem os convidaste?” rather than “Tambem convidaste-os?” or “Nao, nao vi os teus oculos.” would be “Nao, nao los vi.”
Am I misunderstanding something?
Olá Rochelle! Your teacher gave you a rule of thumb which does apply in many cases. We cover that in another Learning Note: Introduction to Clitic Object Pronouns
But it is not a strict rule, as there are several exceptions, with certain sentence structures and wordings that either allow for different placements of the pronouns or force a specific placement which might go against the norm. We’re actually working on expanding on these Learning Notes to give everyone more information on that 🙂
would you be able to write more on the difference between direct and indirect? when is something direct or not? and what would it look like if you confused them? that’s to say: what if you used a direct instead of an indirect (or the other way around), how would that alter the meaning of the sentence (if it does that).
Thanks in advance!
This Learning Note from earlier in the unit might help: Direct vs Indirect Objects
Basically, direct objects answer a question like what? or who? and indirect objects answer a question like to whom?, from whom?, for whom?, etc. Direct objects receive the action of the verb. Indirect objects receive the direct object.
Here’s an English example to help explain: I kicked the ball to John.
What did you kick? – The ball. – direct object
Who did you kick it to? – John – indirect object
Now, if you replaced with pronouns it would be I kicked it to him. “It” represents the direct object (ball) and “him” represents the indirect object (John).
If you switched these, it would be I kicked him to it and it wouldn’t make sense. Or, if you said something like I kicked him, it would be grammatically correct, but not the same meaning of course, since “him” is now receiving the action.
It’s similar if you switched them in Portuguese — sometimes you’d get your meaning across, other times it would be nonsense, other times it would create a grammatically correct statement, but not with the meaning you intended.
You won’t always have to think much about which is which, since the same pronoun is used in many cases (me, te, nos, vos). But with the 3rd person (incl. você), you have to choose between a form of o/os/a/as (direct objects) or lhe/lhes (indirect objects). This chart is a good reference: Object Pronouns
Thank you so much Molly! I did have a bit more study into it after my question and it makes a lot more sense. it’s just so “natural” to fluent speakers, and in both english/dutch there is no difference in words (him remains him, it remains it, regardless of direct or indirect), that I don’t differentiate between the 2. the different forms in portuguese force you to do so.
anyway, thanks again!
Hello, I must be confused. This entire page is regarding clitic pronouns in the 3rd person, but in the Lo/La, Los/Las section, the verbs conheces, amavas, afinavas were used as examples. Aren’t those tu/second person? Thank you very very much for the wonderful website!
Olá! No worries 🙂 By ‘3rd person’ we mean the object, not the subject. The clitic pronouns covered in this Learning Note are used to replace direct or indirect objects, which are all in the 3rd person throughout the examples. Here’s an example in English for clarity:
– I know Sarah -> Subject: I (1st person). Object: Sarah (3rd person)
– I know her -> Subject: I (1st person). Object: her (standing in for ‘Sarah’, 3rd person)
Thank you, Joseph!! I should review my English grammar a bit as well! =) I appreciate this amazing website and your help!
Hi Joseph,
please can you tell me the difference between the following two sentences:
– Agradeço-vos imenso pela ajuda.
– Agradeço-lhes imenso pela ajuda
Thank you very much
Gery
Olá. This a good question, but a tricky one!
On a formal grammar level, our true second-person plural pronoun is “vós” (plural you), but it has been replaced by the alternative pronoun “vocês” (plural you) in much of Portugal, save for some regions. So, in theory, the clitic pronoun “-vos” would correspond to this “vós” pronoun, while the alternative “vocês” would be matched with the clitic pronoun “-lhes”, along with the other 3rd-person pronouns (eles, elas – them).
– Agradeço-vos imenso pela ajuda (vós)
– Agradeço-lhes imenso pela ajuda (vocês, eles, or elas)
This is the theory. In practice, many, if not most, people nowadays use “-vos” for “vocês” and reserve “-lhes” for “eles/elas”. This is not only because of the predominance of “vocês”, but also to manage the ambiguity of having the same clitic pronoun apply to “you” and “them”.
– Agradeço-vos imenso pela ajuda (vocês – replacing vós)
– Agradeço-lhes imenso pela ajuda (eles, elas)
Hope this helps.
Ola, there’s one example in above text, “Posso pedir-lhe um favor?”. I’m kind of consused, as accorind to the rule of word order in case of a question, the pronoun “ihe” should be before “pedir”, right?
Good question! So the rule is not that you move the pronoun before the verb for all questions. It’s only when the verb follows an open-ended “question word”.
“Question word” is not an official grammar term, but it’s just easier for most people to understand it that way. But what we are referring to are interrogative adverbs and interrogative pronouns, such as the words for who, what, when, where, etc. (quem, que, quando, onde). There are also other words that “pull” the pronoun before the verb. More info here under the section with the heading “Before the verb”
The use of clitics with indirect objects has left me with a question: Does the use of -lhe always mean “to him/her/you” or can it mean other prepositions as well? (Example: “Eu leio-lhe” would always mean “I read to him” and never “I read about him”?)
Olá! Yes, clitic pronouns are consistently understood in the same way. “Eu leio-lhe” would always be understood as “I read to him/her”. To say “I read about him”, you’d have to form a different sentence, e.g. “Eu leio sobre ele”.
Based on what I have been learning in a class, I’m still confused about when to use and accent when you drop R/S/Z from the verb in 3rd person (direct object). You mentioned that if the consonant is an r, as in infinitive verb forms, the last vowel of the verb often gets accented. Does that apply with only if the consonant is R? Does it applies to all vowels (a/e/i/o/u) or just some of them? We learned in class it is applied to words ending in Z (for example, faz or fez would become fá-lo and fê-lo), but I have not seen an exaple in which an accent applied to an “i” or a “u” and I don’t know if it always applies to a Z. Help!
Olá! Accents are added for all -AR, -ER and -OR infinitives linked to direct object pronouns, such as dá-lo (from ‘dar’), dizê-lo (from ‘dizer’) or impô-la (from ‘impor’). Additonally, we also add accents for -IR infinitives where the I is part of a hiatus (two consecutive vowels, but pronounced separately, rather than as diphthongs), such as traí-las (from ‘trair’, where A and I are in separate syllables).
Then, for 3rd-person verb forms, we add an accent (or leave it there, if already present) whenever the verb ends on a stressed A, E or O vowel, such as dá-lo (from ‘dá’), fê-lo (from ‘fez’) or pô-las (from ‘pôs’).
The simple logic, applicable across different tenses and grammatical persons, is that if the stress lies on the ending vowel, and that vowel is an A, E or O (+ a hiatus I), we accentuate it.