Mesoclisis

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Now that you already know how to work with pronoums, let's take a look at the Mesóclis (Mesoclisis) concept. It's unique to the Portuguese language, and in spite what some people might tell you, it's really SIMPLE once you master the use of pronouns the NORMAL way.

Let's go back in time...

-Eu vi O PROYCON

• Eu vi-O
  

That is Ok, but this is present. Now, one weird thing happens in the FUTURE and CONDITIONAL tense.

-Eu verei O PROYCON

When making the substitution, you cannot say "Eu verei-O". That sounds too strange. That's when mesóclise comes into action. It consists on separating the verb stem and its ending and putting the pronoum in the middle.

Let's try...

VEREI
VER- = STEM -EI = FUTURE ENDING

VER-O-EI

Nice, you made it! But wait... you must be wondering... but didn't we have to change something before when the verb ended in -R, -S, or Z? Yes, sure. The same inside mesoclise.

Thus:

VÊ-LO-EI (I will see it)

Difficult? No. If you know how to use the pronouns the REGULAR way, it's just a matter of putting them inside the verb...

Let's take a look at another example.

-Eu direi AO JOÃO O SEGREDO

THINK the "normal" way. What would you do?

Let's replace "ao joão" first.

• Eu direi O SEGREDO A ELE
  

Now, "o segredo":

• Eu direi-O A ELE
  

Now remember "a ele" = "lhe", so:

• Eu direi-LHE-O
  

But then LHE + O = LHO, so

• Eu direi-LHO
  

That would be what you'de do in A REGULAR situation. But the verb is in the future tense, so you need to split it and place the pronoun "LHO" inside it.

DIREI
DIR- = STEM /-EI = Future tense ending

• Eu dir-LHO-ei
  

Was it THAT hard? :-P