Breakdown of Ele nunca lhes faz servir a nobreza.
ele
he
fazer
to do
nunca
never
lhe
to him / to her / to you (formal)
servir
to serve
a nobreza
the nobility
Questions & Answers about Ele nunca lhes faz servir a nobreza.
Why do we use the indirect object pronoun lhes here instead of the direct object os or as?
This highlights the core rule for causative verbs like fazer (to make/cause). Because the second verb (servir) has its own direct object (a nobreza), the people being forced to do the action (the "causee") must be expressed as an indirect object. This prevents the sentence from having two direct objects at once. That is why we use the dative pronoun lhes.
How would this sentence change if we removed a nobreza and just wanted to say "He never makes them serve"?
If we remove the direct object, the verb servir acts as an intransitive verb in this context. When the second verb doesn't have a direct object, the "causee" jumps back into the direct object slot. The sentence would become Ele nunca os faz servir (using the accusative pronoun os or as instead of lhes).
Why is the pronoun lhes placed before the verb faz instead of attached to it with a hyphen?
The adverb nunca (never) acts as a "magnet" word. Negative words strongly pull object pronouns to the position immediately before the conjugated verb (a rule known as proclisis). If this were a positive sentence like "He makes them serve the nobility", the pronoun would attach after the verb: Ele faz-lhes servir a nobreza.
Since "they" are the ones doing the serving, shouldn't we use the personal infinitive servirem?
No. In European Portuguese causative constructions, when the "causee" is already represented by an object pronoun (like lhes) attached to or preceding the main verb (faz), the second verb stays in the standard impersonal infinitive. You just say lhes faz servir, not lhes faz servirem.
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