Index / Language / Records / Portuguese / Grammar
How you refer back to a thing already mentioned. The deepest split of all: one standard's obligatory form is the other's near-taboo.
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
The third-person clitics o, a, os, as are avoided in speech. Two strategies replace them: the null object, and the tonic pronoun as object — the second stigmatised and universal.
European · the contrast
The clitic is obligatory, and its absence is ungrammatical rather than merely informal.
10 options
— Você viu o comprovante? — Vi.
The tellA transitive verb with nothing after it and no clitic in front of it.
Utterly ordinary in Brazil, in speech and in a good deal of writing. Nothing sounds missing.
In European Portuguese the sentence is incomplete, and in DAPLE it reads as a dropped object.
— Viste o comprovativo? — Vi-o.
The tellThe clitic hyphenated onto the verb.
Required in Portugal and correct in formal Brazilian writing, so it is the safer of the two in an exam.
In Brazilian speech it is heard as Portuguese or as pedantic; almost no Brazilian produces it in conversation.
— Você viu o atendente? — Vi ele.
The tellA subject pronoun sitting in an object slot.
Universal in Brazilian speech and unambiguous, which is exactly why it wins over the clitic.
Stigmatised in writing in Brazil and simply wrong in Portugal.
BR Já lhe enviei o comprovante.
EU Já lhe enviei o comprovativo.
The telllhe for to him, to her, to you.
Correct in both standards and much more current in Brazilian writing than o and a are.
In Brazil lhe drifts into direct-object use (eu lhe vi), which is an error the ear no longer catches.
Mandei o comprovante pra ele.
The tellA prepositional phrase where a clitic would have been.
Clearer than lhe about who is meant, and completely natural in Brazil.
Longer, and in formal writing it reads as spoken rather than as written.
BR Enviei o comprovante e guardei o comprovante original.
EU Enviei o comprovativo e guardei o comprovativo original.
The tellNo pronoun anywhere; the noun simply recurs.
Unambiguous, correct in both standards, and in legal and administrative prose it is the preferred style.
Heavy. Two repetitions in a paragraph reads as careful; four reads as machine-generated.
Vou enviá-lo hoje mesmo.
The tellThe clitic attaches to the infinitive and the verb's final r disappears with an accent left behind.
The correct European solution in verb chains and a visible marker of control in writing.
The spelling change (enviar + o = enviá-lo) is a second rule bundled into the first.
Devolvam-no até sexta. · Vão fazê-lo amanhã.
The tellThe clitic changes shape depending on what the verb ends in.
Correct in both standards and a genuine C2 marker in writing.
Three allomorphs (o, lo, no) selected by the preceding sound, which is the fiddliest rule in the family.
Cancelei o serviço em maio e guardei esse comprovante.
The tellesse or isso doing the work of a pronoun.
Anchor A already uses esse serviço. Correct in both standards and it adds a pointing gesture the clitic lacks.
It carries deixis with it, so it is not a neutral substitution — it says that one, not just it.
BR O comprovante já foi enviado.
EU O comprovativo já foi enviado.
The tellA passive, so there is no object to refer to.
Sidesteps the split entirely and raises the register at the same time.
It removes the agent as well, which sometimes hides exactly who did what — useful or evasive, depending.