In this lesson we’ll explore the first two clitic object pronouns in Portuguese, me and te.
A few quick reminders:
- No hyphens are required if they’re proclitics (placed before the verb)
- 2 hyphens are required if they’re mesoclitic (placed between two parts of verb)
- 1 hyphen is required if they’re enclitics (placed after the verb)
Me
Me corresponds to me or to/for me in English, as it is used for both direct and indirect objects. Examples:
Ela chamou-me ao gabinete.She called me to the office.
Não me parece boa, esta maçã.This apple doesn’t look good to me.
Te
Te is used in informal contexts and is equivalent to the English you or to/for you. It is also valid for both direct and indirect objects. Examples:
Se te despachares, ainda chegamos a tempo.If you hurry (yourself) up, we might still make it there on time.
Eles mandaram-te esta encomenda anteontem.They sent this package to you the day before yesterday.
That makes it very clear thanks, I now understand the use of the hyphen
Uma lição muito boa.
Is “gabinete” really translated as “office”? Just checking as I wonder if it is more for a medical or law practice for example, as opposed to an office… (genuine question, I have no idea!)
“Gabinete” can be used in a few different ways, from “cabinet” to “department”. “Office” is also one of its possible meanings, even though the most common term for a regular office would be “escritório”. In a medical context, you’d use “consultório” 🙂
I don’t understand why the “te’ is before despachares.
Olá, Charlotte. Some words have a certain attractive power and pull the pronoun to the proclitic position (before the verb). This includes subordinative conjunctions, and you have one in that example: “Se te despachares…”. So, while the rule of thumb says that affirmative sentences in general will have the clitic pronouns after the verb, you will find exceptions 🙂
PS I thought it only went in front if it was a question or a negative.
Thanks!
Ok, this doesn’t have anything to do with clitics, but in the sentence
Se te despachares, ainda chegamos a tempo.
It looks like despachares is future subjunctive because of the uncertainty implied by “se”. Chegamos is just regular present tense though even though its not certain they will be on time? I guess I’m just wondering how far you need to carry the subjunctive through a sentence. Thanks for all of your awesome and helpful work!
Olá! 100% correct, “despachares” = future subjunctive 🙂 In this kind of sentence, the subjunctive is only applicable to the subordinate clause, not to the main one. The subordinate clause expresses the condition or hypothesis, while the main clause expresses the resulting outcome (which is presumed to be factual if the condition/hypothesis is true).
Note that ‘chegamos’ is in the present tense, but it carries an evident future outlook. We’re just often too lazy to use actual future tenses (‘vamos chegar’ or ‘chegaremos’)!
In one of the lessons following this page there is the phrase: “Ela far-me-á o favor”. which roughly translates to “She will do the favor for me”, I think I understand the grammar of this sentence, but I have 2 questions about it: First of all, what (if any) is the difference between it and something like “Ela vai fazer-me o favor”? I know this is a different tense, but I am asking more in the sense of the meaning behind it. Is there any reason to prefer one over the other? The second question is how would this look like in the Brazilian variant? Would it be “Ela me fará o favor”?
There is in fact no difference in meaning between “Ela far-me-á o favor” and “Ela vai fazer-me o favor”. The first form is more polite and formal. The second one is more informal and common in a regular conversation.
I can’t say exactly how a Brazilian person would say it, but yes, it could be something like you mentioned – “Ela me fará o favor” – or even “Ela fará o favor para mim” or “Ela vai o favor para mim”.
I’m confused regarding the use of the personal infinitive versus future subjunctive. Specifically, I’m referring to “despachares.” If you look up “despachar” on a conjugation table, it conjugates exactly the same in both the personal infinitive and future subjunctive forms and this appears to be true for nearly every other verb. So are there verbs that conjugate differently in these forms? If not, why hasn’t one of these tenses been dispensed with? In your response to a previous question, you identify “despachares” in the sentence in question as future subjunctive. What makes it future subjunctive and not personal infinitive? I have to say that using subjunctive, future subjunctive, personal infinitive and clitic pronouns correctly in Portuguese is something that seems to be beyond my grasp.
Olá! Regular verbs will have the same form in the future subjunctive and personal infinitive, but irregular verbs generally have different forms for each. Each of them has a different use. In this context, given that a future hypothetical scenario is being described and also that the conjunction ‘se’ is present, the future subjunctive is the suitable choice.
To help confirm which tense is being used when dealing with regular verbs, there is this trick to replace the verb at hand with a known irregular verb and see which of its forms fits in context. This should be instinctive for a native/advanced speaker, but can still be very challenging for a less confident student. I’m afraid that it’s just one of those grammar topics that might really take forever to grasp!
Hello. In sentence “eu sou exatemente como tu”. Is “Tu” a pronoun? I would expect “ti”. Isn’t “tu” only used for subjects? Or Am I wrong in thinking that the last word in that sentence is a pronoun?
I looked long and hard through your website but couldn’t find an explanation but your site is so vast (which is great) I may have missed it.
Obrigado
Lester
In the sentence “eu sou exatamente como tu”, “tu” is indeed a pronoun. In Portuguese, “tu” is used as a subject pronoun, but it can also be used after prepositions, including “como” in this case, which means “as” or “like”. Therefore, the sentence is correct as it stands, and “tu” is appropriately used. “Ti” would be used if the sentence was, for example, phrased like “Sou exatamente igual a ti”, which can convey the same meaning. 🙂