3

Why

Estou triste de sentir, e reflito-o à janela ao som da água que pinga e da chuva que cai

is it reflito-o and not reflito-lo?

What's a rule that's about verb + -o and verb + -lo called? I haven't even been able to find oen.

Improve this question
13
  • The pronoun, in this case o, can be either before or after the verb. When it is after, it joins with the verb, as "mato-o" and "amo-o". If the verb ends in -r, -s or -z, then lo is joined instead: "para matá-lo", "tu faze-lo" and "nós fazemo-lo". When the verb ends in a nasal vowel, then no is joined: "eles são-no" and "para fazerem-no". In Brazil, lo for verbs ending in -s and specially -z sounds weirds; I think the situation in Portugal is complicated.
    – Schilive
    Jul 9 at 4:03
  • Also, the origin of the "rule" is that in the olden days, before even 1200's, people only used lo (la, los, las), so "amo-lo", "matar-lo", "gostam-lo". Some consonants betweens two vowels ceased to be pronounced, turning "amo-lo" into "amo-o". In the case of "matar-lo", as r and l are very similar, then l only was said; turning "matar-lo" into "matá-lo". With "gostam-lo", the l got nasaled, and as the greatest difference between l and n is that the second is nasal, l turned into n, turning gostam-lo into gostam-no.
    – Schilive
    Jul 9 at 4:09
  • 2
    @Schilive Please turn your comments into an answer!
    – stafusa ♦
    Jul 9 at 10:15
  • @Schilive ...with "gostam-lo" --> why then not "gostam-no"? Or did you mean that it used to be L but then it'd become N and so is nowadays?
    – DankenN
    Jul 9 at 14:09
  • @DankenN, yeah. It used to be that people said gostam-lo, but then it became gostam-no. This happened because the l got nasalized.
    – Schilive
    Jul 9 at 16:14

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The rule is simple: the pronoun is -lo(s)/-la(s) if the verbal form ends with a consonant such as r, s, z. If the verb ends with a nasal sound, it will be -no(s)/-na(s). Elsewhere it will be -o(s)/-a(s).

It is that simple, it happens for historical reasons during the development of the language!

Improve this answer
1
  • There is one exception tough: "ele quer" -> "ele quere-o"
    – Artefacto
    Jul 11 at 8:32

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.