Breakdown of Depois de vocês terminarem o relatório, enviem-no ao diretor.
Questions & Answers about Depois de vocês terminarem o relatório, enviem-no ao diretor.
Vocês is the normal way in European Portuguese to say “you” (plural) – addressing more than one person at the same time.
- It is neither very formal nor very informal; it’s neutral and used in most contexts.
- The verb that follows vocês is conjugated in the 3rd person plural, which you see later in enviem.
Compare:
- tu – singular “you” (informal, 1 person)
- vocês – plural “you” (neutral, several people)
- o senhor / a senhora / os senhores / as senhoras – more formal “you”
So the sentence is talking to a group of people, giving them an instruction.
Because Portuguese has something called the personal infinitive (infinitivo pessoal), which changes according to the subject.
The infinitive of terminar is:
- (eu) terminar
- (tu) terminares
- (ele/ela/você) terminar
- (nós) terminarmos
- (vós) terminardes
- (eles/elas/vocês) terminarem
Since the subject is vocês, we use the vocês form of the infinitive: terminarem.
If we said depois de vocês terminar, it would sound wrong to a native speaker. The verb needs to agree with vocês in the personal infinitive: vocês terminarem.
In this sentence, terminarem is a personal infinitive, not a subjunctive.
It’s confusing because for many verbs the personal infinitive and the future subjunctive look identical in some forms:
- Personal infinitive of terminar: terminar, terminares, terminar, terminarmos, terminardes, terminarem
- Future subjunctive of terminar: (quando) terminar, terminares, terminar, terminarmos, terminardes, terminarem
However:
- The subjunctive cannot follow a preposition like de.
- After depois de, Portuguese normally uses the infinitive (often the personal infinitive) to talk about an action that happens before or later than another action.
So in:
- Depois de vocês terminarem o relatório…
terminarem is an infinitive (infinitivo pessoal), agreeing with vocês.
In European Portuguese, the normal structure is:
- depois de
- infinitive (Depois de terminarem o relatório…)
Using depois que is typical of Brazilian Portuguese, especially followed by a verb in the subjunctive:
- (BR) Depois que vocês terminarem o relatório…
In Portugal, people might understand depois que, but it sounds Brazilian and not natural in European Portuguese. For EP, you should stick to:
- Depois de
- infinitive (often personal infinitive)
Enviem is the present subjunctive form of enviar for eles/elas/vocês.
In Portuguese, the affirmative imperative for vocês is formed using the present subjunctive:
- (vocês) enviem – “send!” (you all send)
So:
- Enviem-no ao diretor. = “Send it to the director.” (addressing several people)
In short:
- enviar – infinitive (“to send”)
- (vocês) enviam – present indicative (“you send”)
- (vocês) enviem – present subjunctive, used here as imperative (“send!”)
In European Portuguese, in an affirmative command (imperative), object pronouns normally go after the verb and are joined with a hyphen:
- Enviem-no ao diretor. – “Send it to the director.”
- Façam-no agora. – “Do it now.”
- Digam-lhe a verdade. – “Tell him/her the truth.”
If the sentence were negative, the pronoun would usually go before the verb:
- Não o enviem ao diretor. – “Don’t send it to the director.”
- Não lhe digam nada. – “Don’t tell him/her anything.”
So the position of the pronoun depends on:
- Affirmative command → after the verb (enviem-no)
- Negative command → before the verb (não o enviem)
The direct object pronoun for a masculine singular noun like o relatório is o (“it”).
However, Portuguese spelling rules say that when you attach o / a / os / as after a verb that ends in -m, -ão, or -õe, they change to no / na / nos / nas:
- fazem + o → fazem-no
- põem + o → põem-no
- darão + o → darão-no
- enviem + o → enviem-no
This reflects a phonetic change: the final m or nasal vowel plus o sound like a nasal “no”, so it is written no.
So:
- enviem + o → enviem-no (not enviem-o)
The -no in enviem-no stands for the pronoun o, which means “it” and here refers to o relatório (“the report”).
- o relatório → masculine singular noun
- Direct object pronoun for it: o
- Because of the verb ending in -m, o becomes no when attached: enviem-no
So literally:
- enviem-no ≈ “send it” (where “it” = the report)
Ao is the contraction of a + o:
- a = “to”
- o = “the” (masculine singular)
- a + o → ao
Both enviar algo a alguém and enviar algo para alguém are possible, but in European Portuguese:
- a is very common and often a bit more formal or written:
- Enviem-no ao diretor. – “Send it to the director.”
- para is also correct and can be a little more colloquial:
- Enviem-no para o diretor.
The meaning is almost the same here. This sentence simply uses the slightly more formal / standard pattern: enviar algo a alguém → enviem-no ao diretor.
Yes, and that would sound very natural.
Portuguese often drops subject pronouns when the verb form already makes the subject clear.
- Depois de terminarem o relatório, enviem-no ao diretor.
Here, terminarem and enviem are plural forms and clearly refer to vocês, even if vocês is not written.
Including vocês is fine, but not necessary:
- With pronoun: Depois de vocês terminarem o relatório, enviem-no ao diretor.
- Without pronoun: Depois de terminarem o relatório, enviem-no ao diretor. (more typical)
Both can introduce an action that will happen after the report is finished, but there is a nuance:
Depois de vocês terminarem o relatório…
- Literally “After you finish the report…”
- Focuses more on the sequence: first finish, then do the next action.
Quando vocês terminarem o relatório…
- Literally “When you finish the report…”
- Focuses more on the moment in time when the finishing happens.
In practice, in many contexts they are almost interchangeable. In European Portuguese, both are natural:
- Depois de terminarem o relatório, enviem-no ao diretor.
- Quando terminarem o relatório, enviem-no ao diretor.
The version with depois de more strongly highlights the “after X, do Y” sequence.
A Brazilian speaker would understand the sentence, but everyday Brazilian Portuguese would often sound a bit different. For example:
- Depois de vocês terminarem o relatório, mandem o relatório para o diretor.
- Quando vocês terminarem o relatório, enviem o relatório ao diretor.
Differences you might notice in Brazil:
- They often repeat the noun instead of using the post‑verbal clitic -no, especially in speech:
- mandem o relatório para o diretor rather than enviem-no ao diretor.
- Proclitic pronouns (before the verb) are more common than enclitic ones after the verb in everyday speech, but in formal written Brazilian Portuguese, enviem-no is still correct.
However, your original sentence is a very good model of standard European Portuguese.