Brazilian Portuguese Grammar

Conjugation of verbs with the object pronouns o, a, os and as

The object pronouns o, a, os and as play the syntactic role of direct objects.

Read Syntactic Analysis for more information on Portuguese syntax.

As you know, object pronouns can be placed before the verb (próclise), after the verb (ênclise), or in the middle of the verb (mesóclise).

Read Object pronouns and placement rules for more information.

Object pronouns o, a, os and as may go through some changes when enclitical to verbs:

Changes to the verb form		Changes to the object pronouns	Spelling rule	Examples
Verb form ends in r, s or z	Remove the r, s or z and put an acute accent over a, and a circumflex accent over e and o (these accented vowels end the verb forms)	o changes into lo a changes into la os changes into los as changes into las	Use a hyphen to attach the new object pronoun forms to the verb form in the sequence verb-object pronoun	olhar + o => olhá-lo vender + a => vendê-la compor + a => compô-la
Verb forms end in am, em, ão or õe	*no changes*	o changes into no a changes into na os changes into nos as changes into nas	Use a hyphen to attach the new object pronoun forms to the verb form in the sequence verb-object pronoun	olham + o => olham-no dão + a => dão-na compõe + as => compõe-nas
Verb forms ending in other consonants and vowels (except ão and õe) don't go through any changes: simply attach the enclitical pronoun to the verb form.

You must also remember that:

You have to use mesoclitical pronouns with verbs in the futuro do presente do indicativo and futuro do pretérito do indicativo;
Object pronouns cannot come after participles;
Object pronouns are proclitical in the tenses of the subjunctive mood;
Review the position of object pronouns in verb tenses and verb phrases. Click here.