Portuguese 2.7. Object Personal Pronouns

Object personal pronouns in Portuguese can be divided into three classes: prepositional, direct, and indirect object pronouns.

Prepositional Object Pronouns

Prepositional object pronouns come after a preposition, such as “de” (of, from, or about), “com” (with), “em” (in or on), “sem” (without), etc. Prepositional object pronouns are the same as subject pronouns except in the first-person singular case.

• One notable exception is when using the preposition “com” with “mim” and “nós.” One must use “comigo” and “conosco” instead of “com mim,” and “com nós,” respectively, which do not exist, e.g., “Venha comigo” (Come with me), “Ele quer jantar conosco” (He wants to have dinner with us), etc.
• The subject pronoun “eu” is used instead of “mim” following the prepositions: “entre” (between/among), “exceto” (except), and “incluindo” (including). For example, “Muitas pessoas, inclusive eu, não leem o jornal” (Many people, including myself, do not read the newspaper), “Nós mantemos isso entre você e eu” (We keep it between you and me), etc.

Reflexive Prepositional Pronouns

The reflexive prepositional pronouns are a special case of the prepositional object pronouns, such as “myself,” “yourself,” “himself,” etc. This is used when the subject and the object pronoun refer to the same person.

• More often than not, the reflexive prepositional object pronoun is followed by the adjective “mesmo,” “mesma,” “mesmos,” or “mesmas,” meaning “same” for emphasis. For example, in the expression “Eu falo de mim mesmo,” meaning “I speak about myself,” the adjective “mesmo” is added to emphasize that one is speaking about himself. The expression “Eu falo de mim” has the same meaning but without emphasis.
• The reflexive prepositional pronoun “si” becomes “consigo” when combined with the preposition “com.” For example, “Ele está feliz consigo mesmo” (He is happy with himself).
• Note that “si” can mean “himself,” “herself,” “itself,” “themselves,” or “yourselves,” depending on the subject it refers to.

Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns

The second and third classes of object pronouns are direct and indirect object pronouns. This tends to be a challenging topic for English-speaking students. Nevertheless, the use of direct and indirect objects is so ubiquitous that we feel obliged to cover it at this beginner level. Feel free to return to this lesson at times of confusion if you do not fully grasp all of the details.

Before we delve into the details, let us first define the difference between the two classes, since the distinction in English is not always clear. The direct object is the noun directly acted upon, whereas the indirect object is usually the noun (or person) receiving the direct object. For example, in the expressions “He gives it to us” and “I give it to you,” the “it” is the direct object acted upon, whereas “us” is the indirect object in the first example and “you” in the second. In English, we use “me,” “you,” “him,” “her,” “us,” and “them,” regardless of whether we are referring to a direct or indirect object.

There are two sets of direct and indirect object pronouns in Portuguese: one set that is formal, which is used in written and formally spoken language, and another set that is informal, which is used in everyday informal spoken language.

Formal Object Pronouns

Let us start with the formal sets of the direct and indirect object pronouns and their equivalents in English.

Notice that the direct and the indirect object pronouns are only different in the third-person singular and plural forms.

For example, in the sentence “Eu o vio” (I see him), the meaning of “him” is represented by the direct object pronoun “o;” whereas in the sentence “Eu lhe dou um presente” (I give him a present), the pronoun “him” is translated as the indirect object pronoun “lhe.”

The direct object pronouns “o” and “a” can mean “him,” “her,” or “you.” Similarly, the indirect object pronoun “lhe” can also mean “him,” “her,” or “you.” To avoid the confusion, we often add the direct object after the verb. For example:

The direct and indirect object pronouns are the same in the first-person singular, i.e., “me,” and plural, i.e., “nos.” For example:

Informal Object Pronouns

In daily spoken language, we use the following informal sets of the direct and indirect object pronouns:

The first-person singular and plural indirect object pronouns have unstressed forms, i.e., “me” and “nos,” and stressed forms, i.e., “para mim” and “para nós.” For example, the sentence “He sent me a letter” can be translated using one of two forms:

There are two ways to express the second-person informal singular direct object pronoun “you” in spoken Portuguese: using “você” after the verb, or more colloquially using “te” before the verb. Remember that the formal written direct object pronoun meaning “you” is “o” or “a,” depending on the gender of the addressee. Thus, the following three sentences can have the same meaning:

The formal second-person “you” can also be expressed using the indirect object pronouns “para o senhor” and “para a senhora” for masculine and feminine, respectively. For example:

More examples on Direct & Indirect Object Pronouns

1. Direct Object Pronouns

2. Indirect Object Pronouns

Attaching Object Pronouns to Verb Ends

The object pronouns “me,” “te,” “o(s),” “a(s),” “se,” “nos,” and “lhe(s)” can be placed before the verb or attached, with a hyphen, to the end the verb. Let us consider these cases:

1. In formal writing, one must not start a sentence or phrase with an object pronoun. If the explicit subject is removed, the object pronoun is attached to the end the verb.

In informal spoken language, there is no such restriction. Avoiding object pronoun attachment to the verb-end can sound more natural in an informal dialogue.

2. If the subject is a noun, rather than a subject pronoun, attachment to the verb-end is optional and tends to be more formal. For example:

3. Object pronouns often attach to the infinitive in formal writing, but are placed before the infinitive in informal speech.

If the object pronoun is “o(s)” or “a(s),” the pronoun is changed to “lo(s)” or “la(s),” respectively, and the final “r” of the infinitive is dropped. For example:

4. If the verb is in the first-person plural ending in “-mos” and the object pronouns is “o(s)” or “a(s),” the pronoun is changed to “lo(s)” or “la(s),” respectively, and the final “s” of the verb ending is dropped. For example:

5. If the verb ends in a nasal sound “-am,” “-em,” “-ão,” or “-õe,” and the object pronouns is “o(s)” or “a(s),” the pronoun is changed to “no(s)” or “na(s),” respectively. For example:

Combining Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns

We can also combine direct and indirect object pronouns in the same sentence. In this case, we often place the direct object pronoun before the verb and the indirect object pronoun after the verb, as shown in the following two examples:

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