Breakdown of A rainha não lhe deixou beijar o príncipe.
não
not / no
lhe
to him / to her / to you (formal)
a rainha
the queen
deixar
to leave (behind) / to quit / to let (allow)
beijar
to kiss
o príncipe
the prince
Questions & Answers about A rainha não lhe deixou beijar o príncipe.
Why is lhe used for "him" instead of the direct object pronoun o?
This is the core rule for causative verbs like deixar (to let/allow) when they are followed by another verb. Because the second verb (beijar) already has a direct object (o príncipe), the person receiving permission (the causee) gets pushed into the indirect object slot, using lhe. If the second verb didn't take a direct object, we would use the direct object pronoun instead: A rainha não o deixou dormir (The queen did not let him sleep).
Why does lhe come before deixou rather than attaching to the end of it?
Could lhe also mean "her" or "you" in this exact sentence?
Yes, it absolutely could. The indirect object pronoun lhe is gender-neutral and can mean "him", "her", or "you" (formal). We only know it means "him" here because of the English translation provided; in real life, you would rely on the context of the conversation to know who was being denied the kiss.
Do we need a preposition like a or de between deixou and beijar?
No. Unlike some other Portuguese verbs that require a connecting preposition before an infinitive (such as começar a or gostar de), the causative verb deixar links directly to the infinitive verb that follows it.
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