The unstressed object pronouns — me, te, se, o, a, lhe, nos, lhes — are clitics: they cannot stand alone and must attach to a verb. The only real question is where they attach. Portuguese offers three positions, and choosing between them is one of the most over-engineered corners of the grammar. The crucial thing to understand from the start is that there are really two systems running at once: the prescriptive rulebook taught in schools and used in formal writing, and the actual spoken Brazilian language. They frequently disagree, and this overview maps both so the rest of the sub-pages make sense.
The three positions
| Position | Where the clitic goes | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Proclisis | before the verb | me viu (saw me) |
| Enclisis | after the verb, hyphenated | viu-me |
| Mesoclisis | inside the verb (future / conditional only) | ver-me-ia |
Ele me viu na rua.
He saw me on the street. (proclisis — the everyday spoken form)
O delegado viu-me sair do prédio.
The detective saw me leave the building. (enclisis — formal writing)
Ver-me-ia com prazer, mas estava ocupado.
He would gladly have seen me, but he was busy. (mesoclisis — literary/archaic)
These three names are worth memorizing because every grammar discussion of this topic uses them, and the sub-pages are organized around them.
Proclisis — before the verb
The clitic precedes the verb as a separate word, with no hyphen: me viu, te amo, se foi, o conheço. This is the natural position in spoken Brazilian Portuguese for essentially every situation.
Enclisis — after the verb
The clitic follows the verb and is joined to it with a hyphen: viu-me, amo-te, foi-se, conheço-o. This is the prescriptive default for affirmative main clauses, and it is the form you reach for in formal Brazilian writing. In speech it sounds bookish, even pompous.
Mesoclisis — inside the verb
The strangest of the three: with future and conditional tenses, the clitic is inserted into the middle of the verb, between the stem and the ending. Verei (I will see) + me becomes ver-me-ei; veria + me becomes ver-me-ia. This is essentially extinct in modern Brazil — you will meet it in nineteenth-century literature and the occasional legal or ceremonial text, but never in speech. It has its own dedicated page.
The defining BR / PT-PT split
Here is the single most important fact on this page. The prescriptive grammar that Brazil inherited from Portugal makes enclisis the default — in an affirmative main clause, the rulebook says the pronoun goes after the verb. European Portuguese speakers actually follow this in speech: a Lisbon native genuinely says vejo-te amanhã (I'll see you tomorrow) out loud.
Brazilian speech does the opposite. Brazilians overwhelmingly use proclisis everywhere, including positions the rulebook forbids — even at the very start of a sentence:
Me liga quando chegar.
Call me when you get there. (sentence-initial proclisis — universal in Brazil, banned by the rulebook)
Te amo.
I love you. (a Brazilian says it this way; the rulebook demands amo-te)
Me chamo Júlia.
My name is Júlia. (Brazil); Chamo-me Júlia. (the prescriptive / European form)
This gap — Brazilian proclisis-by-default versus European/prescriptive enclisis-by-default — is the signature difference between the two varieties' pronoun systems. A Brazilian who says vejo-te amanhã sounds like they are reading a contract aloud; a Portuguese person who says te vejo amanhã sounds Brazilian. Get this contrast straight and the rest follows.
What the sub-pages cover
This overview is the map; here is the territory each linked page explores in depth.
- Proclisis as the BR default (speech) — how Brazilians actually place clitics in conversation: before the verb, every time, including sentence-initially and inside verb chains (vou te ligar, quero te ver). Start here if you mainly want to speak.
- Enclisis in formal written BR — the hyphenated post-verbal form you need for formal texts, the rule against starting a written sentence with a clitic, and the spelling fusions with o/a (vê-lo, fê-la).
- Proclisis trigger words — the one area where speech and the rulebook agree: negatives (não me viu), subordinating conjunctions (disse que me amava), relatives, and certain adverbs all force the pronoun before the verb in every register.
- Mesoclisis (extinct) — the historical inside-the-verb form, for reading old texts.
- BR vs. PT placement — a side-by-side comparison of the two national norms.
A note on the third-person clitics o / a
The proclisis-versus-enclisis question applies to all clitics, but the third-person direct-object forms o, a, os, as deserve a flag: even in formal writing they are heavily avoided in Brazil, replaced in speech by ele/ela as objects or simply dropped. So while you must recognize viu-o (he saw him) in a written text, no Brazilian says it aloud — they say viu ele or just viu. The placement mechanics on these pages still apply, but the third-person forms themselves are a separate register issue covered under direct-object placement.
O segurança o reconheceu imediatamente.
The guard recognized him immediately. (formal written; o = him)
O segurança reconheceu ele na hora.
The guard recognized him right away. (spoken — ele replaces the clitic)
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu te-amo.
Incorrect — proclisis never uses a hyphen; the hyphen belongs only to enclisis.
✅ Eu te amo.
I love you. (proclisis, no hyphen)
❌ Viume na festa.
Incorrect — enclisis must be written with a hyphen.
✅ Viu-me na festa.
He saw me at the party. (enclisis, hyphenated)
❌ Aplicar a regra portuguesa: 'Vejo-te amanhã' (in casual Brazilian speech).
Not wrong grammatically, but it sounds stilted and European in Brazil.
✅ Te vejo amanhã.
See you tomorrow. (natural Brazilian speech)
❌ Pensar que mesóclise é normal: 'Dar-te-ei o livro' em conversa.
Incorrect register — mesoclisis is extinct in modern speech.
✅ Vou te dar o livro.
I'll give you the book. (how Brazilians actually say it)
Key Takeaways
- Three positions exist: proclisis (before), enclisis (after, hyphenated), mesoclisis (inside future/conditional, archaic).
- The rulebook defaults to enclisis; Brazilian speech defaults to proclisis — this is the core BR/PT-PT divide.
- Proclisis carries no hyphen; enclisis and mesoclisis always do.
- Use the sub-pages to drill each position; the trigger-word page is where written and spoken Brazilian finally agree.
Now practice Portuguese
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Proclisis as BR Default (Speech)A2 — In spoken Brazilian Portuguese the object pronoun goes before the verb almost every time — even at the start of a sentence.
- Enclisis in Formal Written BRB1 — The hyphenated post-verbal clitic — Chamo-me João, viu-me, sentou-se — that you need for formal Brazilian writing and the spelling changes it triggers.
- Proclisis Trigger Words (Formal Rule)B2 — The negatives, conjunctions, relatives, and adverbs that force the clitic before the verb even in the strictest formal Brazilian Portuguese.
- Clitic Placement: BR vs PT-PT ComparedB1 — The single clearest grammatical marker dividing Brazilian and European Portuguese — Brazil fronts object pronouns (Me chamo), Portugal attaches them after the verb (Chamo-me).
- Direct Object Pronoun Placement in BRA2 — Where the clitic goes in Brazilian Portuguese: the prescriptive proclisis/enclisis/mesoclisis system versus the near-universal proclisis of real BR speech ('Me viu').