Indirect object pronouns: me, te, lhe, nos, lhes

These forms help you understand who receives something: Me dá um café, Te mando a foto, Ela nos contou tudo. Learn lhe alongside para você, para ele and para ela: the alternatives can make the receiver explicit, while the pronoun relies on context. Both help you follow everyday conversations and written messages.

The receiver: me, te, lhe, nos, lhes

In these examples, the indirect object is whoever ends up receiving something — a message, a coffee, an apology. This is a useful starting point, not a definition of every indirect complement.

At the table and in the shop

• "Me passa o sal?" (Can you pass me the salt?)

• "Me vê um café, por favor." (Can I get a coffee, please?)

• "Me traz a conta?" (Can you bring me the bill?)

• "Você pode nos dar mais dez minutos?" (Can you give us ten more minutes?)

Sending and giving

• "Te mandei o endereço ontem." (I sent you the address yesterday.)

• "Ela nos trouxe um presente do Brasil." (She brought us a present from Brazil.)

• "Vou te dar o número dela." (I am going to give you her number.)

Telling and asking

Check the verb’s construction

In their usual senses here, escutar, ver and chamar take a direct object; ajudar allows different constructions. Common models are "Te ajudo" / "Ajudo você" and "Te escuto". You may also hear "Lhe ajudo" or "Lhe escuto" in varieties that use lhe as a direct object. That regional use does not turn the object into a standard indirect object.

Identify the referent of lhe

"Lhe dei o livro" can mean I gave the book to you, to him or to her. Context identifies the receiver; para você, para ele or para ela can make it explicit.

para mim — but para eu fazer

As objects of a preposition, use mim and ti: para mim, de mim, para ti. With com, use comigo, contigo and conosco. Você, ele, ela, vocês and eles keep their forms; nós is unchanged after para, but com nós normally becomes conosco.

When the pronoun is the subject of an infinitive, use eu or tu. The deciding factor is its role, not simply whether another verb follows.

• Ele trouxe o livro para mim. (He brought the book for me — mim only receives it.)

• Ele trouxe o livro para eu ler. (He brought the book for me to read — eu is the one reading.)

Lhe can address you in Brazilian varieties, including in the Northeast, without necessarily expressing formality. A study of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Northeastern writing documents second-person lhe. Research on student speech in Sergipe finds preposition + você, te and lhe, with usage conditioned by linguistic and social factors; it rejects treating these variants as a marker of regional origin. Eu lhe amo illustrates a regional direct-object use of lhe, rather than the recipient use taught here. That form alone does not establish the speaker’s region or level of formality. Sources: ALFA: Revista de Linguística · Paraguaçu: Revista de Estudos Linguísticos e Literários.