Combining Direct and Indirect

Think of this as a simple math equation. You take an indirect object pronoun (to whom) and add a direct object pronoun (what). Instead of saying two separate words, they fuse into a single contraction. For example, me plus o becomes mo. It’s all about flow and speed. In European Portuguese, this is extremely common in daily life. In Brazil, you’ll see it more in writing or very formal speech. But for a B2 learner, knowing this is a major badge of honor. It shows you can handle the internal mechanics of the language. Plus, it saves you from repeating the same nouns over and over. Yes, even native speakers trip over these sometimes, so take a deep breath.

1. 1Creating these contractions follows a very strict 1-2-3 process:
2. 2Start with the Indirect Object Pronoun. This is the person receiving the action (me, te, lhe, nos, vos, lhes).
3. 3Add the Direct Object Pronoun. This is the thing being acted upon (o, a, os, as).
4. 4Merge them into the combined form. Note how the vowel of the first pronoun often disappears or changes.
5. 5Here are the most common combinations:
6. 6me + o/a = mo / ma
7. 7te + o/a = to / ta
8. 8lhe + o/a = lho / lha (Note: lho works for both singular and plural "to them")
9. 9nos + o/a = no-lo / no-la
10. 10vos + o/a = vo-lo / vo-la
11. 11Remember: the indirect pronoun *always* comes first. Think of it like a priority queue at a grammar airport. The person (indirect) gets through security before the suitcase (direct)!

Use combined pronouns whenever you are responding to a question about an object and a person.

• Ordering food: If the waiter asks if you want the bill, you can say: "O empregado já mo trouxe" (The waiter already brought it to me).
• Job interviews: When discussing your CV, you might say: "Já lho enviei por email" (I already sent it to him/her).
• Borrowing things: If a friend asks for their book back, say: "Dou-to amanhã" (I’ll give it to you tomorrow).
• Asking directions: "A morada? Ele deu-ma num papel" (The address? He gave it to me on a piece of paper).

It works with any verb tense. Whether you are talking about the past, present, or future, the contraction stays the same. It’s like a grammar multi-tool that fits every situation.

Avoid using these in very informal Brazilian Portuguese. In Brazil, people usually just say "Me dá ele" or simply drop one of the pronouns. If you use lho at a beach bar in Rio, people might think you’ve spent too much time reading 19th-century poetry. Also, don't use them if the sentence becomes too clunky. If you have to pause for three seconds to calculate the contraction, just use a prepositional phrase like para mim instead. Your goal is to be fluent, not a human calculator. Also, avoid stacking more than two pronouns. That’s just asking for a headache!

• Wrong Order: Putting the direct object first. Never say "o me". It’s always mo.
• Gender Mismatch: Forgetting that the second half of the contraction must match the gender of the object. If you're talking about a caneta (the pen), use ma, not mo.
• Accents: In European Portuguese, adding a pronoun to the end of a verb can change the stress. Dá + mo = Dá-mo. Keep an eye on those little marks!
• Plural Confusion: Forgetting that lho also replaces lhes + o. It doesn't become "lhes-o" or "lhos-o".
• Overthinking: Sometimes students try to combine pronouns that don't belong together. Only combine when you have a clear "to someone" and a "something."

You might be tempted to use the preposition a or para. For example, "Eu dou o livro a ele." This is perfectly correct! However, using combined pronouns like "Eu lho dou" is more advanced. Think of the prepositional version as the "easy mode" and the combined pronoun as the "pro mode." In Portugal, the "pro mode" is actually the default for many speakers. In Brazil, the "easy mode" is much more common in speech.