Basic placement: proclisis in simple sentences

Two positions, one clear favourite

An object or reflexive pronoun can sit before the verb or after it:

Brazil made its choice a long time ago, and it was próclise. In conversation it is close to universal, and it is also what you will read in messages, newspapers and most fiction. If you are ever unsure, put the pronoun in front of the verb — you will be right almost every time.

The magnet words: when próclise stops being a preference

Everyday, before the verb

• "Te vejo amanhã!" (See you tomorrow!)

• "Ela me esperou na porta." (She waited for me at the door.)

• "A gente se encontra às oito." (We are meeting at eight.)

After a magnet word

• "Não te ouvi bem." (I did not hear you properly.)

• "Nunca me senti tão feliz." (I have never felt so happy.)

• "Alguém te ligou hoje." (Someone called you today.)

• "Só te peço uma coisa." (I only ask you one thing.)

Two verbs, pronoun in the middle

Never ênclise after a magnet word

This is the one placement error that is wrong everywhere, Brazilian or European:

• ❌ "Não ajuda-me" → ✅ "Não me ajuda"

• ❌ "Quando vejo-te" → ✅ "Quando te vejo"

• ❌ "Ninguém contou-me" → ✅ "Ninguém me contou"

Commands go both ways

An affirmative command takes ênclise in careful style — Sente-se — but spoken Brazil flips it to Se senta or drops the pronoun altogether. A negative command always takes próclise, and nobody argues about that one: Não se preocupe, never Não preocupe-se.

Ênclise makes the verb change shape

Hooking the pronoun on the back sometimes rewrites the verb itself: vemos + nos becomes vemo-nos, and ver + o becomes vê-lo. Brazilian próclise leaves both words exactly as they are, which is one more reason it won.

The order Brazilians get corrected for is the older one. Historical grammars trace Portuguese clitics moving from a mostly proclitic system — Classical Portuguese, which linguists nickname a língua das caravelas, the language of the caravels, and the grammar that actually crossed the Atlantic — to the enclitic norm of Modern European Portuguese, described in that research as the innovation. So amo-te is not the original with te amo as the corruption; it is the other way round. Sources: Revista Linguística (UFRJ) · Fórum Linguístico (UFSC).