Machado de Assis (1839–1908) is the summit of Brazilian literature and, not coincidentally, the canonical C1 reading challenge. His prose looks deceptively plain — short clauses, everyday words — yet it deploys grammar that has since vanished from speech: enclitic and mesoclitic pronoun placement, the synthetic pluperfect (fizera for tinha feito), and a dry, ironic understatement that hides its sting in syntax rather than vocabulary. Reading the opening of Dom Casmurro (1899) trains exactly the skills a C1 reader needs: parsing classical clitic positions, recognizing one-word past-perfects, and hearing irony that is never announced.
The text
This is the genuine opening of Dom Casmurro, Chapter I ("Do título"), public domain. The narrator, Bento Santiago, explains how he got his nickname.
Uma noite destas, vindo da cidade para o Engenho Novo, encontrei num trem da Central um rapaz aqui do bairro, que eu conheço de vista e de chapéu.
One of these nights, coming from the city to Engenho Novo, I met on a Central Line train a young man from this neighborhood, whom I know by sight and by hat (i.e., enough to tip my hat to).
Cumprimentou-me, sentou-se ao pé de mim, falou da lua e dos ministros, e acabou recitando-me versos.
He greeted me, sat down beside me, spoke of the moon and of the ministers, and ended up reciting verses to me.
A viagem era curta, e os versos pode ser que não fossem inteiramente maus.
The trip was short, and it may be that the verses were not entirely bad.
Sucedeu, porém, que, como eu estivesse cansado, fechei os olhos três ou quatro vezes; tanto bastou para que ele interrompesse a leitura e metesse os versos no bolso.
It happened, however, that, since I was tired, I closed my eyes three or four times; that was enough for him to break off his reading and put the verses in his pocket.
A short, faintly comic anecdote — but every line carries a feature that a modern Brazilian would never produce in conversation, and that is precisely the point.
Enclisis: the pronoun after the verb
The first thing a modern reader notices is that the object pronouns come after the verb, attached by a hyphen: cumprimentou-me (he greeted me), sentou-se (he sat down), recitando-me (reciting to me). This is enclisis, and in 19th-century literary Portuguese — and still today in formal Brazilian writing — it is the default placement at the start of a sentence or main clause, because Portuguese grammar forbids beginning a sentence with a clitic pronoun.
Cumprimentou-me.
He greeted me. (enclisis — pronoun after the verb, sentence-initial)
Ele me cumprimentou.
He greeted me. (modern Brazilian speech — proclisis, pronoun before the verb)
In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, speakers overwhelmingly say Ele me cumprimentou — proclisis, the pronoun before the verb. Machado's Cumprimentou-me feels formal to a modern ear, even slightly stiff. This mismatch between the written standard (enclisis) and spoken usage (proclisis) is one of the largest gaps between formal and colloquial Brazilian Portuguese, and Machado sits firmly on the formal side.
The synthetic pluperfect: one word for "had done"
Machado's narration constantly uses a tense that has essentially disappeared from speech: the pretérito-mais-que-perfeito simples, the one-word pluperfect. Where modern Brazilians say tinha feito (had done) with an auxiliary, Machado writes fizera; where we say tinha dito, he writes dissera. It is formed from the third-person plural preterite minus -ram, plus the pluperfect endings (-ra, -ras, -ra, -ramos, -reis, -ram).
Quando cheguei, ele já recitara os primeiros versos.
When I arrived, he had already recited the first verses. (recitara = tinha recitado)
O rapaz dissera que era poeta, mas eu já o esquecera.
The young man had said he was a poet, but I had already forgotten him. (dissera = tinha dito; esquecera = tinha esquecido)
A reading trap lurks here: fizera looks like it could be a future or subjunctive form to the untrained eye, but the -era/-ara ending on a past stem signals "had done." Compare:
| Synthetic (literary) | Analytic (modern, both registers) | English |
|---|---|---|
| fizera | tinha feito | had done |
| dissera | tinha dito | had said |
| vira | tinha visto | had seen |
| fora | tinha sido / tinha ido | had been / had gone |
In modern Brazilian Portuguese the synthetic pluperfect survives almost only in set phrases (quem me dera, "if only"; tomara, "I hope") and in literary or journalistic prose striving for elegance. Recognizing it on sight is a core C1 reading skill.
Mesoclisis: the pronoun inside the verb
The single most archaic feature you will meet in Machado — and in any 19th-century text — is mesoclisis: the clitic pronoun inserted into the middle of a future or conditional verb form. It does not appear in this exact passage, but it pervades Machado's writing, and the futures in the surrounding chapters give us forms like:
Dir-se-ia que o rapaz nascera poeta.
One would say the young man had been born a poet. (dir-se-ia = se diria)
Contar-lhe-ei a história quando houver tempo.
I will tell you the story when there is time. (contar-lhe-ei = lhe contarei / vou te contar)
The mechanism: the future dirá and conditional diria descend historically from dizer + há/havia ("has/had to say"). The clitic slots into that old seam — dir + se + ia — splitting the verb into three pieces. Modern Brazilians never do this in speech; they say se diria or, more commonly, recast the sentence entirely (ia dizer que...). Mesoclisis today is confined to the most formal written register and to a handful of fossilized expressions. Encountering far-se-á or dar-lhe-emos is a sure sign you are reading elevated or older prose.
Classical syntax: inversion, parataxis, and the semicolon
Machado builds momentum through coordinated parataxis — strings of short clauses joined by commas and e, each adding a beat: Cumprimentou-me, sentou-se ao pé de mim, falou da lua e dos ministros, e acabou recitando-me versos. Four actions, four verbs, no subordination — the rhythm of a list, deployed for comic acceleration. He also favors the semicolon to balance two related thoughts within one sentence (fechei os olhos três ou quatro vezes; tanto bastou...), a punctuation habit far heavier than modern Brazilian prose.
Note also the fronted gerund clause vindo da cidade para o Engenho Novo ("coming from the city...") and the subject-verb inversion in Sucedeu, porém, que... ("It happened, however, that..."), where the verb leads and porém is wedged between commas as an interpolated connective — a hallmark of careful written style.
Irony and understatement
Machado's genius is irony carried by grammar, not by loaded words. Look at os versos pode ser que não fossem inteiramente maus ("it may be that the verses were not entirely bad"). The subjunctive fossem under the hedge pode ser que plus the double-cushioned negation não... inteiramente maus ("not entirely bad") is a masterclass in damning with faint praise: he is signaling the verses were, in fact, tedious, while saying nothing overtly rude.
Os versos pode ser que não fossem inteiramente maus.
It may be that the verses were not entirely bad. (litotes — he means they were boring)
Tanto bastou para que ele interrompesse a leitura.
That was enough for him to break off his reading. (dry understatement: closing your eyes 'sufficed' to end the recital)
The phrase conheço de vista e de chapéu ("I know him by sight and by hat") is itself a witty understatement: he knows the man just well enough to tip his hat — barely an acquaintance. C1 reading means catching these tones, which live in the gap between what is literally said (não inteiramente maus) and what is meant (chatos, boring).
Vocabulary and expressions
- conhecer de vista — to know by sight (only superficially); de chapéu extends the joke (a tipping-the-hat acquaintance).
- ao pé de — beside, next to (literary for ao lado de).
- suceder — to happen, to occur (formal/literary register; modern speech prefers acontecer).
- porém — however (more literary than mas; here used as an interpolated connective).
- bastar — to suffice, to be enough; tanto bastou para que... = "that was enough for..."
- Engenho Novo — a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro's north zone; the Central is the Central do Brasil railway.
Literary and cultural note
Dom Casmurro is Machado's most studied novel, famous for its unreliable narrator: Bento Santiago spends the book trying to convince us his wife Capitu betrayed him, and Brazilian readers still argue over whether she did. The title itself is ironic — Casmurro means a stubborn, sullen recluse, a nickname the poetry-bored narrator earns precisely in this opening scene. The register is high literary 1890s Brazilian Portuguese: enclisis and mesoclisis as defaults, synthetic pluperfects, semicolons, and an ironic voice that never raises its own. None of this is "wrong" today — it is simply a register no living Brazilian speaks, which is why decoding it cleanly marks the C1 reader.
Common Mistakes
❌ Reading 'sentou-se' as a different verb from 'se sentou'.
Trap — enclitic 'sentou-se' and proclitic 'se sentou' are the same verb (sentar-se), just different clitic placement.
✅ sentou-se = se sentou = 'he sat down'.
Same meaning; only the position of 'se' differs by register.
❌ Reading 'fizera' as a future or subjunctive form.
Trap — '-era' on a past stem is the synthetic pluperfect, not a future.
✅ fizera = tinha feito = 'had done'.
The synthetic pluperfect: one word for 'had done'.
❌ Mistaking 'dir-se-ia' for a typo or three separate words.
Trap — the three-hyphen form is mesoclisis, a single conditional verb with a clitic inside it.
✅ dir-se-ia = se diria = 'one would say'.
Mesoclisis: pronoun inserted into the future/conditional verb.
❌ Taking 'não fossem inteiramente maus' literally as praise.
Trap — this is litotes; Machado means the verses were boring.
✅ 'não fossem inteiramente maus' = ironic understatement for 'they were tedious'.
Irony lives in the syntax, not in any harsh word.
❌ Producing 'Cumprimentou-me' in everyday Brazilian speech.
Register error — sentence-initial enclisis is literary/formal, not conversational.
✅ In speech: 'Ele me cumprimentou.'
Modern spoken Brazilian uses proclisis (pronoun before the verb).
Key takeaways
- Enclisis (cumprimentou-me) is the literary/formal default; speech uses proclisis (me cumprimentou).
- The synthetic pluperfect (fizera, dissera) means "had done"; the -era/-ara ending on a past stem is the signal.
- Mesoclisis (dir-se-ia) is the most archaic clitic position — recognize it, but never produce it in speech.
- Machado's irony is grammatical: litotes (não... inteiramente maus) and understatement carry the sting.
- Reading Machado cleanly is the canonical C1 test: the words are easy, the grammar is from another century.
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
- Mesoclise: Effectively Extinct in BRC1 — Mesoclisis embeds a clitic inside a future or conditional verb (amar-te-ei) — a living form in formal European Portuguese but a fossil in Brazil that you should recognize and never produce.
- Synthetic Pluperfect: Literary Only (saíra, fizera)C1 — The one-word pluperfect — falara, saíra, fizera — alive in Brazilian literature but extinct in speech; learn to read it, not to say it.
- Sentence Combining TechniquesB2 — How skilled Brazilian writers fuse short, choppy sentences into flowing prose — coordination, subordination, relative clauses, gerund/participle reduction, apposition, and nominalization.
- Mesoclise: Vestigial in Modern BRC1 — The mesoclise — clitic pronouns lodged inside the future and conditional verb (amar-te-ei, dar-lhe-ia) — explained as a recognition-only feature: how to read it, what register it signals, and why no Brazilian ever says it.
- Irony and Sarcasm in BRB2 — Reading Brazilian irony and 'zoeira' — how 'Ah, tá!', 'aham, sei', 'só que não', and 'imagina' flip to sarcasm, and why teasing is a sign of friendship.
- Literary StyleC1 — The devices of high literary Brazilian Portuguese — stylistic inversion, the synthetic pluperfect, mesoclisis, the atmospheric imperfect, participial reduction, and elevated lexicon.