Clitic Placement

Clitic placement is the set of rules that decides where an unstressed personal pronoun — the clitic — sits in relation to the verb it depends on. These are pronouns such as me, te, se, lhe, nos, vos, o, a, os, as: forms with no stress of their own, which lean phonetically on the verb. In Portuguese that support can occur in three positions, and the choice between them — far from free — follows well-defined principles that sharply distinguish the European norm from the Brazilian one.

Three positions

Clitics may occupy three positions relative to the verb:

• enclisis — the clitic comes after the verb, joined by a hyphen: deu-me (“gave me”);
• proclisis — the clitic comes before the verb, with no hyphen: não me deu (“didn’t give me”);
• mesoclisis — the clitic lodges inside the verb form, splitting it: dar-me-á (“will give me”).

Enclisis is the default of European Portuguese. Proclisis is imposed by a set of words that “attract” the clitic in front of the verb. Mesoclisis, a most peculiar case, appears only in the future and the conditional, and only when nothing triggers proclisis.

Enclisis: the neutral position

In the absence of any factor forcing another placement, European Portuguese puts the clitic after the verb. This is the case of affirmative clauses with the verb in absolute initial position and of ordinary declarative sentences.

Note that an ordinary nominal subject, such as O João, does not trigger proclisis: the neutral sentence keeps enclisis. This is precisely the point that most separates the European norm from the Brazilian one, where proclisis has become general.

Proclisis: the attractor words

Certain words, when they precede the verb, obligatorily attract the clitic in front of it. They are called attractor or proclisis-triggering words. The main ones are:

Type of attractor	Examples	Sentence
Negation adverbs	não, nunca, jamais, nem, nada	Não me disse nada.
Adverbs	já, sempre, ainda, talvez, só, também, bem	Já te avisei.
Subordinating conjunctions	que, porque, quando, se, embora, como	Sei que se enganou.
Relative pronouns	que, quem, onde, o qual	O homem que me ajudou.
Interrogative pronouns/adverbs	quem, que, quando, como, porquê	Quem te contou isso?
Indefinite and quantifier subjects	alguém, todos, tudo, poucos, ambos	Todos o sabiam.

The logic is uniform: whenever the verb is preceded by one of these elements, the clitic moves back into proclisis. Compare the neutral sentence with its negated version:

Proclisis is likewise the rule in subordinate clauses (Disse que me telefonava, “he said he would phone me”), in questions and exclamations opened by an interrogative word, and in sentences with focusing adverbs such as só (“only”) or também (“also”).

Mesoclisis: inside the verb

Mesoclisis is the most singular feature of the system and almost exclusive to educated, written European Portuguese. It occurs only in the future indicative and the conditional, and only when no attractor word demands proclisis. In these cases the clitic is inserted into the interior of the verb form:

The explanation is historical. The Romance future and conditional arose from the periphrasis infinitive + haver (“to have”): amar + hei gave amarei; amar + havia gave amaria. While the periphrasis was still felt as two words, the clitic slotted in between the infinitive and the auxiliary — and that placement fossilised. This is why mesoclisis cuts the verb exactly at the old join: amá- + -lo- + -ei.

The table below shows the mesoclisis of the verb amar (“to love”) with the clitic o across the whole future indicative:

eu	amá-lo-ei
tu	amá-lo-ás
ele/ela	amá-lo-á
nós	amá-lo-emos
vós	amá-lo-eis
eles/elas	amá-lo-ão

Yet a single attractor word is enough for mesoclisis to give way to proclisis: Dar-lhe-ei o livro, but Não lhe darei o livro — never *Não dar-lhe-ei.

Combined forms and phonetic adjustments

When two clitics meet — one an indirect object, the other a direct object — they merge into a single contracted form:

Indirect + direct	Combined form	Example
me + o/a	mo / ma	Deu-mo ontem.
te + o/a	to / ta	Eu to dou.
lhe + o/a	lho / lha	Entreguei-lho.
nos + o/a	no-lo / no-la	Trouxeram-no-lo.
vos + o/a	vo-lo / vo-la	Dir-vo-lo-ei.

The third-person clitics o, a, os, as also change shape according to the ending of the verb they attach to in enclisis. After a verb ending in -r, -s or -z, that consonant drops and the clitic takes the form -lo, -la: amar + o becomes amá-lo [ɐˈma.lu] ; fez + o becomes fê-lo [ˈfe.lu] . After a nasal ending (-ão, -õe, -m), the clitic takes the form -no, -na: dão + o yields dão-no.

Verb ending	Clitic form	Example	Pronunciation
-r, -s, -z	*-lo, -la*	*amar + o* → *amá-lo*	[ɐˈma.lu]
-ão, -õe, -m	*-no, -na*	*dão + o* → *dão-no*	[ˈdɐ̃w̃.nu]
other	*-o, -a*	*deu + o* → *deu-o*	[ˈdew.u]

Verb phrases

With an auxiliary followed by an infinitive or gerund, the clitic enjoys some mobility: it may attach to the auxiliary or to the main verb. With no attractor, the European norm prefers enclisis on the auxiliary (Vou dizer-te or Vou-te dizer) or, more often, on the infinitive (Vou dizer-te a verdade, “I’m going to tell you the truth”). With an attractor word present, the clitic moves in front of the whole group: Não te vou dizer nada (“I won’t tell you anything”).

In sum

Clitic placement comes down to a simple hierarchy: enclisis is the starting point; an attractor word imposes proclisis; and, in the future and conditional without an attractor, the enclitic position turns into mesoclisis, an insertion inherited from the periphrastic origin of those tenses. Mastering these three positions — and recognising the attractors that govern them — is one of the surest marks of command over the written European norm.