Pronoun Placement with Infinitives

With infinitives, you generally have two main choices. You can use Proclisis (pronoun before the verb) or Enclisis (pronoun after the verb). In European Portuguese, placing the pronoun after the verb is the standard. You use a hyphen to connect them, like ver-te. In Brazil, people almost always put the pronoun before the verb, like te ver. Both are technically correct in many contexts. However, the infinitive is special because it resists "attraction words." Usually, words like não pull the pronoun to the front. With an infinitive, you can often keep the pronoun after the verb even if não is there. It is like the infinitive has a protective bubble. This makes it one of the most flexible parts of the language. Even native speakers might pause for a second to choose their favorite sound.

1. 1Following a pattern makes this much easier to manage.
2. 2Identify your infinitive verb (e.g., fazer, comer, ajudar).
3. 3Choose your object pronoun (e.g., me, o, nos).
4. 4For the "After" position (Enclisis), add a hyphen: ajudar-me.
5. 5If the verb ends in -r, and you use o, a, os, or as, drop the -r.
6. 6Add an l to the pronoun and an accent to the verb: fazê-lo or comê-la.
7. 7For the "Before" position (Proclisis), just place it before: me ajudar.
8. 8In Brazil, the "Before" position is the king of conversation.
9. 9In Portugal, the "After" position is the standard for formal writing.

You will use this pattern in almost every daily interaction. Imagine you are ordering food in a busy restaurant. You might say, "Can you bring me the bill?" In Portuguese, that is Pode trazer-me a conta?. Or maybe you are at a job interview. You want to say, "I want to help the company." You could say, Quero ajudá-la. It sounds professional and polished. Use it when you have two verbs working together. The first verb is conjugated, and the second is the infinitive. For example, Vou te ligar (I am going to call you). It is also perfect for giving directions. "You need to turn it to the right" becomes Precisa virá-lo para a direita. Using the pronoun correctly makes your sentences flow without repeating nouns constantly.

There are a few moments where your freedom is limited. You cannot start a sentence with an object pronoun in formal grammar. Me ajuda is common in Brazil, but in a formal email, use Ajude-me. Also, watch out for the personal infinitive. If you change the ending of the infinitive to show who is doing the action, placement rules can shift. Avoid using the hyphen if the pronoun comes before the verb. Não te ver is correct, but Não-te ver is a big mistake. Don't forget the accent when you drop the -r. Writing faze-lo instead of fazê-lo is a common slip-up. It is like forgetting to put the cherry on top of a sundae. It still works, but it looks a bit unfinished.

The biggest trap is the -r disappearance act. Many learners write ver-lo because they see the verb ver. But the rule says the -r must vanish. It becomes vê-lo. It feels weird at first to chop off part of the verb. Just remember that the l in lo is a replacement for that lost sound. Another mistake is overusing the hyphen. Only use it when the pronoun is attached to the end. If you put the pronoun before the verb, the hyphen stays in the drawer. Also, be careful with the word não. While the infinitive is flexible, putting the pronoun after the verb when não is present sounds very formal. In casual Brazilian speech, não te ver is much more natural than não ver-te.

How does this differ from regular conjugated verbs? With a verb like amo (I love), the rules are stricter. In Portugal, you must say Amo-te. You cannot say Te amo unless there is a trigger word. But with the infinitive amar, you can say Quero te amar or Quero amar-te anywhere. The infinitive is like the "cool parent" of grammar; it lets you break the usual rules. Compared to Spanish, Portuguese is much more obsessed with these l sounds (lo/la). In Spanish, you just say verlo. In Portuguese, you must add that accent and change the stem: vê-lo. It is a small change that makes a huge difference in how "native" you sound.