3rd person clitic pronouns

In the section on third person clitic pronouns there was the following example:

Ela está a forçar-se a amá-lo.

My question is why the accent is on the a in amá. Does this happen because of the addition of the -lo? Or is there a conjugation that I’m overseeing?

Olá, @herweijer.matthijs :slight_smile: The accent is a visual indicator of the stressed syllable and its respective pronunciation, and it allows us to distinguish amá-lo from ama-lo, which looks entirely the same (minus the accent), but is completely different:

  • amá-lo → Derives from the infinitive form amar (amar + o = amá-lo). Stress on the second syllable (-má-).
  • ama-lo → Derives from the second-person singular form amas (tu amas + o = tu ama-lo). Stress on the first syllable (a-).

In short, the accent is added because this is the infinitive, and without it, we’d be looking at a different word in a conjugated tense.

Olá Joseph, so if I am correct the accent is added purely to distinguish the infinitive. I can see how -ar verbs are then stressed but would you happen to know how -er and -ir verbs are stressed? Are these stressed in a similar manner and are therefore these examples?

dizé-lo (dizer + o)
assistí-lo (assistir + o)

I look forward to hear from you!

@herweijer.matthijs, infinitives of -er and -ir verbs are also stressed on the last syllable. But -er forms are accented with a circumflex accent, and -ir forms are not accented at all. So, your examples should be written as dizê-lo and assisti-lo.

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