Direct Object Pronoun Contractions (-lo, -la, -no, -na)

If enclise is what makes European Portuguese look different on paper, the third-person clitic contractions are what make it sound different out loud. Whenever the pronouns o, a, os, as attach to a verb, they undergo one of two phonological transformations — depending on the last sound of the verb. After -r, -s, or -z, the pronoun becomes -lo, -la, -los, -las and the verb loses its final consonant. After a nasal ending (-m, -ão, -õe, -êm), the pronoun becomes -no, -na, -nos, -nas and the verb keeps its ending. These contractions are not optional, not informal, and not limited to writing — they are obligatory in all registers of European Portuguese, spoken and written. Mastering them is the difference between sounding like a beginner and sounding like someone who has actually lived with the language. This page gives you the phonological logic, the accent rules, the full paradigm, and the sharp exceptions.

Why these rules exist: a brief history

The contractions are not arbitrary caprices. They are the residue of a phonological fusion that happened in the transition from Latin to Portuguese. The Latin accusative pronouns illum, illam, illos, illas lost their initial ill- in unstressed position, leaving the bare vowels o, a, os, as. But when those pronouns attached to a verb ending in a consonant, the consonants met and regularized. A final -r, -s, or -z followed by l- (the historical remnant of ill-) simplified to l, with the verb surrendering its final consonant. A final -m or nasal vowel followed by o produced an epenthetic n that bridged the two.

You don't need to know the history to use the rules. But it helps to know that the rules are phonological, not morphological — they are about what sounds can meet at a word boundary, not about grammar per se. Once that clicks, you can predict every form.

Rule 1: after -r, -s, -z → -lo, -la, -los, -las

When a verb ends in -r, -s, or -z and is followed by o, a, os, as, three things happen simultaneously:

1. The verb loses its final -r, -s, or -z.
2. The pronoun gains an initial l-, becoming -lo, -la, -los, -las.
3. An accent mark is added to the now-exposed final vowel of the verb when that vowel is stressed (which is almost always the case).

The three-verb template

Here's the template with three verb endings, showing the accent pattern for each:

The pattern: -ar takes an acute on -á-; -er takes a circumflex on -ê-; -ir needs no accent (the i is already final and stressed); -or takes a circumflex on -ô-.

Verbs ending in -s (first person plural, second person singular)

The ending -s triggers the same rule. The most common -s endings are the first-person plural (nós compramos, vendemos, partimos) and the second-person singular of you/tu (tu compras, vendes, partes), along with the entire subjunctive second-person forms.

Notice that in these first-person-plural forms, no accent is added — because the syllable that loses the -s was not the stressed syllable. The stress stays put on the penultimate syllable of the original form.

The tu forms work the same way:

Verbs ending in -z

The third-person singular of a handful of high-frequency verbs ends in -z: faz (he/she/it does), diz (he/she/it says), traz (he/she/it brings), fez (he/she/it did), fiz (I did), quis — no, quis ends in -s, but also a set of imperatives and subjunctives (satisfaz, produz, reduz).

The -z drops; the pronoun becomes -lo/-la/-los/-las; the exposed vowel takes an acute or circumflex depending on whether it's á, ê, or í.

Why the accent?

The accent is there to prevent the reader from misreading the stress. Without the accent on comprá-lo, a Portuguese reader would default to stressing the penultimate syllable, producing COM-pra-lo — which is wrong. The accent forces the correct com-PRÁ-lo pronunciation.

• -á- (open a) uses the acute: comprá-lo, pagá-la, ajudá-los.
• -ê- (closed e) uses the circumflex: vendê-lo, comê-la, fazê-los.
• -ô- (closed o) uses the circumflex: pô-lo, compô-la.
• Stressed -i- (from -ir infinitives like partir, abrir, sentir, or from -iz forms like fiz, diz): no accent needed, because Portuguese orthography does not write an accent on a final stressed -i after a consonant. senti-lo, abri-la, fi-lo, di-la.

Practice this accent pattern until it becomes automatic. It is one of the most visible features of correctly-spelled written European Portuguese.

Rule 2: after nasal endings → -no, -na, -nos, -nas

The second great contraction rule applies when the verb ends in a nasal sound — that is, in -m, -ão, -õe, or -êm. In these environments:

1. The verb keeps its nasal ending.
2. The pronoun gains an initial n-, becoming -no, -na, -nos, -nas.
3. No accent is added.

The nasal sound at the end of the verb "leaks" into the pronoun as an n- — this is phonetically almost automatic for a Portuguese speaker: it is very hard to pronounce comem-o without the n sliding in anyway.

The environments

Why no -mo or -ãos forms

The rule produces comem-no, not come-no — the m is preserved. And it produces dão-no, not dão-o — the n is inserted as an epenthetic bridge. The two systems (the -l- insertion after -r/-s/-z, and the -n- insertion after nasals) mirror each other: both fill a phonological gap that would otherwise leave a hiatus or a hard consonant cluster.

The full three-environment decision tree

Every time you attach o, a, os, as to a verb, there are exactly three possibilities:

1. Verb ends in a plain vowel (vi, viu, comi, falou, pensa) → pronoun stays plain, joined by hyphen.
   • Vi-o. Comi-a. Viu-os. Falou-as.
2. Verb ends in -r, -s, -z → pronoun becomes -lo/-la/-los/-las, verb loses its final consonant, accent added to stem vowel as needed.
   • Comprá-lo, vendê-la, parti-los, fá-la, fi-lo, compramo-los.
3. Verb ends in a nasal (-m, -ão, -õe, -êm) → pronoun becomes -no/-na/-nos/-nas, verb keeps its ending.
   • Comem-no, dão-na, põe-nos, veem-nas.

Examples in sequence:

Tricky edges and irregulars

The first-person plural -mos before nos

If the verb form ends in -s and is followed by the pronoun nos, the -s technically drops for phonological consistency, producing forms like encontrámo-nos (we met each other). This is handled the same way as the -lo case — the final -s of the verb vanishes.

The second-person singular -s before reflexive te

Similarly, -s + te drops the -s: levantas-te (you get up).

In this case, since me doesn't begin with l or n, the -s is retained in spelling.

Verbs ending in a stressed diphthong vowel

Verbs ending in a stressed -ão (like the future farão, verão, comerão) behave like any other -ão:

The pôr family

Pôr is high-frequency and has unusual forms. Its conjugation gives ponho, pões, põe, pomos, pondes, põem in the present, with a lot of forms that behave oddly. When combined with a direct-object pronoun:

Phonological rules summary table

Here is the consolidated rules table — print it and keep it by your side until it is automatic.

In próclise, the rules don't apply

Crucially, these contraction rules only apply in enclise and mesóclise — when the pronoun is after or inside the verb. When the pronoun is before the verb (próclise), o, a, os, as keep their plain form.

This is actually a relief — próclise simplifies things. The phonological gymnastics are only relevant when the pronoun is attached to the end (or middle) of the verb.

Common mistakes

The clitic drill: automate it

The fastest way to internalize these rules is sheer repetition. Take any verb, conjugate it in four persons, and combine with all four third-person direct-object pronouns. Do this for ten minutes a day and within a week the forms will start emerging automatically.

Here is a sample drill with ver ("to see"):

Notice how every row can be predicted from the phonological rules. The beauty of this system is that it is perfectly regular — once you know the three rules, there are no genuine exceptions to memorize.

Key takeaways

• Three rules govern how o, a, os, as attach to verbs in enclise or mesóclise: plain after a vowel, -lo/-la/-los/-las after -r/-s/-z (verb drops its final consonant), -no/-na/-nos/-nas after nasal endings (verb keeps its ending).
• Accents mark the exposed stressed vowel after consonant-dropping: acute on -á- and -í-, circumflex on -ê- and -ô-, none on -i- or on already-marked nasal vowels.
• First- and second-person pronouns (me, te, nos, vos) do not undergo contraction.
• The rules apply only in enclise and mesóclise; in próclise, the plain forms are used.
• Mastering these contractions is essential for writing correct European Portuguese — they are not optional or informal, and they are fully present in both spoken and written registers.
• The historical source is Latin ill- pronouns; the phonological rules are a regularization of ancient cluster reductions.