When the direct object pronouns o, a, os, as attach to the end of a verb, Portuguese does not simply hyphenate them on — the verb's final consonant and the pronoun's shape both change. The result is the famous fazê-lo, comê-la, vendê-los, dão-no family of forms. This page is about recognizing and understanding these fusions. In Brazilian speech you will almost never produce them; in formal Brazilian writing, legal documents, and literature you will read them constantly, so the goal here is fluent parsing, not anxious memorization.
Why the consonant drops at all
English never does anything like this, so it feels alien. The logic is purely phonetic and centuries old. The clitic pronouns o/a/os/as descend from the Latin demonstrative illum/illam, and the -l- of that root resurfaces when the pronoun leans on (encliticizes to) a word ending in a "weak" consonant — -r (infinitives), -s (some verb forms and nós), or -z (a few verbs like fazer → faz, dizer → diz). Historically the consonant assimilated and dropped, and the pronoun reappeared in its older l-shape.
So the rule is mechanical:
Verb ends in -r, -s, or -z → drop that consonant → pronoun becomes lo / la / los / las → add an accent to the now-stressed vowel.
| Verb + pronoun | Fused form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| fazer + o | fazê-lo | to do it |
| comer + a | comê-la | to eat it |
| vender + os | vendê-los | to sell them |
| comprar + o | comprá-lo | to buy it |
| partir + as | parti-las | to split them |
| fizemos + o | fizemo-lo | we did it |
| fez + a | fê-la | he/she did it |
É difícil fazê-lo sem ajuda.
It is difficult to do it without help. (formal/written)
Comprei o quadro para revendê-lo mais tarde.
I bought the painting in order to resell it later. (formal/written)
The accent that appears
Dropping the consonant changes where the stress lands, so an accent is written to keep the original pronunciation:
- -ar verbs: the a takes an acute accent → comprá-lo, amá-la, dá-lo (from dar).
- -er verbs: the e takes a circumflex → fazê-lo, comê-la, vendê-los.
- -ir verbs: no accent needed; the i is already stressed → parti-lo, abri-la.
This is why the spelling looks so different from the bare infinitive. The accent is not decorative — it tells the reader the verb is still stressed on its final syllable, exactly as comprar and fazer are.
Vamos vendê-los antes do fim do ano.
We are going to sell them before the end of the year. (formal/written)
Não consegui abri-la; a fechadura estava emperrada.
I couldn't open it; the lock was jammed. (formal/written)
The nasal trigger: dão-no, põe-na
There is a second, separate rule. When the verb ends in a nasal sound — written -m, -ão, or -õe — the pronoun instead takes an n- shape: no, na, nos, nas. The nasal "spreads" onto the pronoun.
| Verb + pronoun | Fused form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| dão + o | dão-no | they give it |
| põe + a | põe-na | he/she puts it |
| fizeram + os | fizeram-nos | they did them |
| compram + as | compram-nas | they buy them |
Note the trap in the third example: fizeram-nos can mean "they did them" — but -nos is also the unstressed pronoun "us." Context disambiguates, and this collision is one more reason Brazilians avoid the whole construction in speech.
Os tradutores revisaram o texto e publicaram-no online.
The translators revised the text and published it online. (formal/written)
Ela pegou as cartas e pô-las sobre a mesa.
She took the letters and laid them on the table. (literary)
The irregular star: pôr → pô-lo
The verb pôr ("to put") and its compounds (compor, dispor, supor) are the showpiece of this system. Pôr already ends in -r, so it drops it and adds a circumflex: pô-lo, pô-la, pô-los, pô-las.
O artista decidiu compô-la em apenas uma noite.
The artist decided to compose it in just one night. (literary)
Onde quer que eu ponha o vaso? — Pode pô-lo ali no canto.
Where do you want me to put the vase? — You can put it there in the corner. (formal)
What Brazilians actually say instead
This is the whole point of the page. In real Brazilian speech and informal writing, the fused enclitic is replaced by one of three everyday strategies:
- A tonic pronoun after the verb — fazer ele, ver ela (stigmatized in writing but ubiquitous in speech). See BR Colloquial Direct Object.
- A null (dropped) object — the most natural option: Você já comprou o pão? — Já comprei. (no object at all).
- Proclisis with a non-fused pronoun — o, a placed before the verb in subordinate clauses, or me/te/se which never fuse: para o fazer (very Portuguese-from-Portugal), or simply rephrasing.
Você terminou o relatório? — Terminei, sim.
Did you finish the report? — Yes, I did. (everyday speech — object dropped, no fusion at all)
Comprei o carro pra revender depois.
I bought the car to resell later. (everyday speech — infinitive left bare, object understood)
Reading checklist
When you hit one of these forms in a text, decode it in three steps:
- Strip the hyphen and the pronoun. vendê-los → vendê- + los.
- Restore the consonant suggested by the verb class: an accented -â/ê or -á signals a dropped -r (so vendê- = vender); an -n- pronoun signals a nasal verb ending.
- Read the pronoun as o/a/os/as ("it / them"), or as no/na/nos/nas after a nasal.
Recebi os documentos e arquivei-os imediatamente.
I received the documents and filed them immediately. (formal — arquivei + os)
Common Mistakes
❌ É difícil fazer-lo sem ajuda.
Incorrect — the -r must drop and the e takes a circumflex.
✅ É difícil fazê-lo sem ajuda.
Correct — fazer loses -r, becoming fazê-lo.
❌ Vou comprar-lo amanhã.
Incorrect — the -ar verb keeps no -r and needs an acute accent.
✅ Vou comprá-lo amanhã.
Correct — comprar → comprá-lo.
❌ Eles dão-lo todos os dias.
Incorrect — after the nasal -ão, the pronoun must be 'no', not 'lo'.
✅ Eles dão-no todos os dias.
Correct — nasal ending triggers no/na/nos/nas.
❌ Quero pôr-lo na mesa.
Incorrect — pôr drops its -r and gains a circumflex.
✅ Quero pô-lo na mesa.
Correct — pôr → pô-lo.
❌ Decidi fazê-lo. (said out loud, casually, to a friend)
Not wrong, but unnatural in speech — Brazilians would say 'Decidi fazer' or 'Decidi fazer isso'.
✅ Decidi fazer isso.
Natural spoken Brazilian — fusion avoided entirely.
Key Takeaways
- After -r/-s/-z: drop the consonant, pronoun becomes lo/la/los/las, add an accent (comprá-lo, fazê-lo, vendê-los).
- After a nasal (-m/-ão/-õe): pronoun becomes no/na/nos/nas (dão-no, põe-na).
- pôr → pô-lo is the model irregular.
- This is formal/literary register; in everyday Brazilian speech the object is dropped or expressed as ele/ela/isso.
- Your realistic goal is to parse these forms in legal, journalistic, and literary text — not to produce them aloud.
Now practice Portuguese
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Formal Direct Object Pronouns (O, A, Os, As)B1 — The prescriptive written system — o/a/os/as agree in gender and number, with proclitic and enclitic placement rules you need for reading and writing formal Brazilian Portuguese.
- BR Colloquial Direct Object: 'Vi Ele' / 'Te Vi'A2 — The direct object system Brazilians actually speak — proclitic me/te, subject pronouns as objects, and dropping the object entirely.
- 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').
- Direct Object Pronouns: OverviewA2 — Brazilian Portuguese has two parallel systems for direct object pronouns — a formal written one and the spoken one Brazilians actually use.
- Combined Object Pronouns: Me + O, Te + AB2 — The formal fused clitics mo, ma, to, ta, lho, lha — and why they are effectively dead in spoken Brazilian Portuguese.