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Where the object pronoun sits. One of the deepest structural splits between the two standards, and an exam question in both.
The control text · practical
Bom dia. No dia 12 deste mês, foi debitada da minha conta uma cobrança de R$ 89,90 que eu não reconheço. Cancelei esse serviço em maio e guardei o comprovante. Estou pedindo o estorno do valor e a confirmação, por escrito, de que a assinatura foi encerrada. Se não houver retorno até sexta-feira, vou registrar uma reclamação no Procon. Fico no aguardo.
Where the two part
Brazilian · the base
Proclisis nearly everywhere in speech, including at the start of a sentence, which the prescriptive norm forbids. Written Brazilian still avoids sentence-initial clitics; Brazilian speech does not.
European · the contrast
Enclisis is the default, and proclisis is triggered — by negation, by certain adverbs, by quantifiers, and inside subordinate clauses. Mesoclisis survives in formal writing.
10 options
Me manda o comprovante, por favor.
The tellThe pronoun opens the sentence.
What Brazilians actually say, at every social level, without exception.
Wrong in writing in both countries and marked wrong in both exams. Spoken only.
Manda-me o comprovante, por favor.
The tellPronoun hyphenated onto the back of the verb.
The European default and correct in formal Brazilian writing too, so it works in more places than it looks.
In Brazilian speech it is heard as stiff or as Portuguese, never as neutral.
BR Não me mandaram nada.
EU Não me mandaram nada.
The tellA negative word before the verb pulls the pronoun forwards. Both countries agree.
One of the few clitic rules that is the same everywhere, so it is free.
None — and forgetting it is a real error rather than a variant.
Já lhe enviei o comprovante. · Ainda me devem o valor.
The tellJá, ainda, também, só attract the pronoun forwards.
The rule generalises: attractors pull, and there are only a handful to learn.
The list of attractors is finite but not obvious, so it is memorisation with no underlying logic.
BR Peço que me devolvam o valor.
EU Peço que me devolvam o montante.
The tellAfter que, the pronoun goes in front. Always, in both countries.
Anchor A is built for this: the request clause takes proclisis in either standard.
None. This is the safest clitic position in the language.
Devolver-lhe-ei o valor até sexta-feira.
The tellThe pronoun sits inside the verb, between stem and future ending.
Alive in formal European writing and unmistakably learned. Recognising it matters for DUPLE reading.
Effectively extinct in Brazil. Produced there it sounds like a joke about Portuguese, and produced badly anywhere it is worse than not producing it.
Eles me mandaram cobrar de novo.
The tellIn a two-verb string the pronoun climbs to the front of the first verb.
The ordinary Brazilian solution and easy to produce consistently.
European Portuguese has more options here and prefers others, so it does not transfer cleanly.
Eles mandaram cobrar-me de novo. · Vou enviar-lhe o comprovante.
The tellThe pronoun attaches to the second verb rather than the first.
The natural European placement in verb chains, and the one that keeps enclisis intact.
Brazilian ears parse it slowly, and in speech it can be genuinely ambiguous about which verb it belongs to.
Devolvam-mo até sexta. — me + o, contracted
The tellmo, to, lho, no-lo: two pronouns fused into one.
Compact, correct in both standards, and a genuine C2 marker in writing.
Almost never heard in Brazilian speech, so producing it in conversation there is conspicuous.
BR Peço o estorno do valor.
EU Solicito o reembolso do montante.
The tellNo pronoun at all: the object is named, so no placement decision arises.
The honest escape from a rule system neither country agrees on, and it usually reads as more formal rather than less.
Repetition of the full noun gets heavy fast, and in an exam it can read as avoiding the structure you were being tested on.