Object Pronouns

A pronoun referring to the object on which a verb is performed is, logically enough, an object pronoun. However, a further distinction needs to be made between types of object pronoun. Object pronouns can be direct or indirect, and this has an appreciable effect on the Portuguese language. It can be quite difficult to discern whether a pronoun is direct or indirect, as it depends not only on the verb, but also on how it is being used.

The basic rule is: an indirect object pronoun has something done to or for it. A direct object pronoun has something performed on it. With indirect object pronouns, we often use the word ‘to’ or ‘for’ in English between the verb and the object whereas direct object pronouns usually appear immediately after the verb.

For example: ‘He wrote to me every day’ – the writing was done to or for ‘me’, so ‘me’ is an indirect object pronoun. On the other hand, to say ‘He kicked it’ – involves an action being directly performed on ‘it’, so ‘it’ is a direct object pronoun.

The confusion arises when the word ‘to’ or ‘for’ is omitted even though the object pronoun is indirect. This is done quite often in English. For example, in the sentence ‘He wrote me a letter every day.’ – the writing is still being done to or for ‘me’, so ‘me’ is still an indirect object pronoun. However, there is no word ‘to’ in the sentence like there was in the previous example, so it could be difficult to spot that the object pronoun is indirect. The thing to remember, is that for indirect object pronouns, the word ‘to’ or ‘for’, even if it is omitted, is still implied. Ask yourself if you could restructure the sentence with a ‘to’ or ‘for’ in there (eg. ‘He wrote a letter to me every day’), and if you can, the object pronoun is most likely indirect.

There is some more bad news here though. With some verbs the object pronoun is direct in English, but indirect in Portuguese, and vice-versa (for example, in Portuguese, you ‘ask to’ someone, which is indirect, whereas in English we use a direct object). I’m afraid there's no easy way to learn which ones are which – you just have to be patient, and hopefully with the passage of time, you will learn them.

The direct object pronouns ‘lo’, ‘la’, ‘los’, and ‘las’ are used after an infinitve verb form. The addition of the ‘l’ serves to make the articulation easier. When this happens though, the spelling of the verb is affected as shown below:

• First conjugation verbs: drop the final ‘r’, and put an acute accent on the ‘a’.
• Second conjugation verbs: drop the final ‘r’, and put a circumflex on the ‘e’.
• Third conjugation verbs: just drop the final ‘r’.

Having changed the infinitive, the pronoun is attached to it with a hyphen.

For example:

If the pronoun is put before the verb, this restructuring is not necessary (e.g. ‘os levar’ means the same as ‘levá-los’). If the verb ends with a nasal sound (like it does with the third person plural), the ‘l’ is replaced with an ‘n’ for easier articulation (e.g. ‘levaram-nos’ = ‘they take them’).