C1 · The future
Mesoclisis: dar-lhe-ei
A pronoun wedged into the middle of the verb — English has nothing remotely like it.
At a glance
- Remember
- Stem, pronoun, ending — and a negative undoes the whole thing.
- When
- Before the past
- The past
- Past linked to the present
- The present
- The future
- Completed in the future
The future — What is still to come — promised, planned or merely guessed at.
- Form
- (eu) dar-lhe-eiI will give him
- Signal words
- -lhe-ei
- -te-ei
- -se-á
- -lhe-ia
- Trap
- Wrong:Dizer-te-ei tudo quando chegar.Right:Dir-te-ei tudo quando chegar.
Your turn
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The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in Portuguese. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) tense marker person ending ending for tense and person negation
| I will give him | (eu) dar-lhe-ei |
| you will give him | (tu) dar-lhe-ás |
| he will give him, you will give him | (ele, ela, você) dar-lhe-á |
| we will give him | (nós) dar-lhe-emos |
| you will give him, plural and formal | (vós) dar-lhe-eis |
| they will give him, you all will give him | (eles, elas, vocês) dar-lhe-ão |
| I would give him | (eu) dar-lhe-ia |
| you would give him | (tu) dar-lhe-ias |
| he would give him, you would give him | (ele, ela, você) dar-lhe-ia |
| we would give him | (nós) dar-lhe-íamos |
| you would give him, plural and formal | (vós) dar-lhe-íeis |
| they would give him, you all would give him | (eles, elas, vocês) dar-lhe-iam |
| I will tell you | dir-te-ei |
| it will be done | far-se-á |
| I will not give him | não lhe darei |
| I will give him (spoken) | vou dar-lhe |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
Only in the future and the conditional.
Dar-lhe-ei a resposta amanhã.I will give him the answer tomorrow.
Stem, pronoun, ending — in that order.
Dir-te-ei tudo quando chegar.I will tell you everything when I get there.
A few stems shorten in the process.
Far-se-á o possível.What can be done will be done.
A negative cancels it.
Não lhe direi nada.I will tell him nothing.
Example sentences
Comunicar-lhe-emos a decisão por escrito.We will inform you of the decision in writing.
Dir-lhe-ia a verdade, se soubesse.I would tell him the truth if I knew it.
A lei aplicar-se-á a partir de janeiro.The law will apply from January.
Não te direi nada antes de sexta-feira.I will tell you nothing before Friday.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Three verbs shorten their stem, and without that the form is not a word: dizer becomes dir-, fazer becomes far-, trazer becomes trar-. There is no dizer-te-ei; it is dir-te-ei. The same three shorten in the ordinary future: direi, farei, trarei.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
In the future and the conditional the object pronoun stands neither before the verb nor after it but inside it: dar-lhe-ei — « I will give him ». The stem dar, then lhe, then the ending -ei.
The reason is historical and makes the rule easy. The future was once dar hei — infinitive plus haver. The pronoun stood between the two words and stayed there when they became one. English pulled the same trick with its own future and lost it: « I will give » was once two words too, and nothing was ever put between them.
You will hardly ever need to build one and will constantly need to read one: laws, contracts, older books, any raised register. In speech people go round it — vou dar-lhe says the same thing.
And it disappears the moment anything pulls the pronoun forward. After a negative it is não lhe darei, with nothing inserted anywhere. That is the ordinary rule of pronoun placement, working here as everywhere else.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: dizer · chegar · dar · ir · escrever · saber · partir