When you attach an object pronoun (me, te, se, lhe, o, a, nos) to a command, where does the pronoun go — before the verb or after it? The textbook answer and the answer you'll hear on the street are almost opposite, and this is one of the single biggest differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese. This page lays out both so you can read formal text correctly and speak like a Brazilian.
The prescriptive rule (formal/written)
Traditional grammar — the rule taught in school and used in careful writing — says:
- Affirmative imperative → pronoun goes after the verb, attached with a hyphen (enclisis): fale-me, diga-lhe, sente-se.
- Negative imperative → pronoun goes before the verb (proclisis): não me fale, não lhe diga, não se sente.
| Affirmative (enclitic) | Negative (proclitic) | |
|---|---|---|
| "tell me" | diga-me | não me diga |
| "sit down" | sente-se | não se sente |
| "tell him/her" | diga-lhe | não lhe diga |
| "give it to me" | dê-me | não me dê |
Diga-me a verdade, por gentileza. (formal)
Tell me the truth, please.
Sente-se, por favor. (formal)
Please sit down.
Não me diga que você esqueceu de novo. (formal)
Don't tell me you forgot again.
The logic of the negative case is the same one you met with the negative imperative: the word não is a proclisis trigger — it forces the pronoun forward. So even in the prescriptive system, negatives already put the pronoun first.
The Brazilian colloquial reality
In spoken (and increasingly written-informal) Brazilian Portuguese, speakers put the pronoun before the verb in almost all cases — including affirmative commands. The pronoun of choice is usually me or te, and reflexive se:
Me fala o que aconteceu, vai.
Tell me what happened, come on.
Te juro que não foi minha intenção.
I swear to you it wasn't my intention.
Se acalma, a gente resolve isso juntos.
Calm down, we'll work this out together.
To a Brazilian ear, me fala and te juro are completely neutral, everyday speech. The hyphenated fale-me / jure-te sound bookish, formal, even a little theatrical — the kind of thing you'd read in a contract or hear from a newscaster, not from a friend.
A note on register, not "right vs wrong"
Both systems are real Portuguese. The difference is register, and you should match it to the situation:
| Situation | What you'd say for "tell me" |
|---|---|
| Chatting with a friend | Me fala / Me diz |
| Texting | Me fala |
| Formal email, legal text, speech | Diga-me / Fale-me |
| European Portuguese (any register) | Diz-me / Fala-me (enclitic) |
Me passa o sal aí, por favor. (casual)
Pass me the salt, please.
Passe-me o sal, por favor. (formal/written)
Pass me the salt, please.
Third-person object pronouns: a special case
The pronouns o, a, os, as ("him/it/them") are awkward with imperatives even in formal Brazilian, and they are almost entirely avoided in speech. Formally you'd see enclitic forms with spelling changes (faça-o, diga-o). In real Brazilian speech, people simply drop the pronoun or replace the whole thing with a full noun or with isso/ele:
Faça isso agora. (natural BR — instead of formal 'faça-o')
Do it now.
Pega ele pra mim. (very colloquial — using 'ele' as object)
Grab it for me.
This avoidance is itself a feature of Brazilian grammar: third-person clitics like o and a feel stiff, so the language routes around them. Recognize faça-o in writing, but don't expect to need it in conversation.
English-speaker perspective
English object pronouns always go after the verb in a command: tell me, give it to him, sit yourself down. There's no choice and no movement. Portuguese gives English speakers two unfamiliar tasks:
- The pronoun can come first (me fala), which feels backwards — like saying "me tell."
- The same command flips the pronoun's position depending on register (me fala vs fale-me) and depending on negation (me fala / não me fala).
English speakers coming from a textbook often over-produce the enclitic fale-me because that's what grammar tables show, and end up sounding like a 19th-century novel. The fix is simple: in speech, lead with the pronoun.
Common Mistakes
❌ Fala-me o que aconteceu. (casual conversation with a friend)
Over-formal — sounds like European Portuguese or a written register.
✅ Me fala o que aconteceu.
Tell me what happened.
❌ Não fale-me assim.
Incorrect — não forces the pronoun before the verb.
✅ Não me fale assim.
Don't talk to me like that.
❌ Acalma-te! (BR casual)
Sounds European/formal in Brazil; reflexive enclitic is avoided in speech.
✅ Se acalma!
Calm down!
❌ Me fale-me. (doubling the pronoun)
Incorrect — use the pronoun once, before or after, never both.
✅ Me fala. / Fale-me.
Tell me. (casual / formal)
❌ Dá-me-o. (everyday BR speech)
Stacked clitics like this don't occur in spoken Brazilian.
✅ Me dá isso. / Me dá.
Give it to me / Give me that.
Key Takeaways
- Prescriptive: affirmative imperative = enclitic (fale-me); negative = proclitic (não me fale).
- Brazilian colloquial: proclitic almost everywhere, even affirmatives — me fala, te juro, se acalma.
- Beginning a sentence with a clitic is normal in Brazil but impossible in European Portuguese — a defining BR/PT-PT split.
- Third-person clitics (o, a) are avoided in speech; drop the pronoun or use isso/ele instead.
- Match register: lead with the pronoun in conversation, use enclitic only in formal writing.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- The Imperative in BR PortugueseA2 — How Brazilian Portuguese gives commands, requests, and instructions — the você-form (from the subjunctive), the regional tu-form, the always-subjunctive negative, and the famous tu/você mismatch in real speech.
- Negative ImperativeA2 — How to tell someone NOT to do something — always built on the present subjunctive — and why não fale is standard even though the affirmative is fala.
- Clitic Placement: OverviewB1 — The three positions for clitic pronouns — proclisis, enclisis, mesoclisis — and why Brazilian speech and the prescriptive rulebook pull in opposite directions.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.