Political Campaigns and Conditional Mesoclisis
Just as with the future tense, European Portuguese uses mesoclisis (mid-verb pronoun placement) with the conditional tense. You will frequently hear this elegant structure in formal settings, such as election campaigns where politicians discuss hypothetical policies and what they would do if elected.
To form it, split the conditional verb into its infinitive and its conditional ending, then place the pronoun between two hyphens:
Infinitive + -pronoun- + conditional ending
For example, apoiaria (would support) becomes apoiar-te-ia (would support you).
| Every voter would support you in the election. | Cada eleitor apoiar-te-ia na eleição. |
Working with Different Pronouns
Mesoclisis works seamlessly with all object pronouns, including me, te, nos, lhe (to him/her/you formal), and lhes (to them/you all formal). Just plug the target pronoun into the middle of the verb.
| The government would fund education for us. | O governo financiar-nos-ia a educação. |
| Would you promise me a stronger economy, madam? | A senhora prometer-me-ia uma economia mais forte? |
| The president would guarantee them the right to combat corruption. | O presidente garantir-lhes-ia o direito de combater a corrupção. |
Plural Conditional Endings
Be careful when translating hypothetical statements about "we" or "they". The verb still splits exactly at the end of the infinitive, meaning the longer plural endings (-íamos for nós and -iam for eles/elas) are tacked entirely onto the end, after the pronoun.
Notice how the accent mark on -íamos remains exactly as it appears in the standard conditional tense:
- mostraríamos (we would show) → mostrar
- lhe
- íamos → mostrar-lhe-íamos
- lhe
- entregariam (they would hand over) → entregar
- nos
- iam → entregar-nos-iam
- nos
| We would show him the municipality's infrastructure. | Nós mostrar-lhe-íamos a infraestrutura do município. |
| They would hand the municipality over to us during the term. | Eles entregar-nos-iam o município durante o mandato. |