Like most European languages, Portuguese has different words for "you", according to the degree of formality that the speaker wishes to show towards the addressee (T-V distinction).
English speakers may find the latter construction akin to the parliamentary convention of referring to fellow legislators in the third person (as "my colleague", "the gentleman", "the member", etc.
On the other hand, in Portugal it is common to use a person's own name as a pronoun more or less equivalent to você, e.g., o José, o senhor Silva, which is rare in Brazil (though it is found in parts of the Northeast region, for example).
Also if find shapes with features [+ formal] associated with the pronoun [- formal] (tu) When addressing older people or hierarchical superiors, modern BP speakers often replace você/tu and vocês with the expressions o(s) senhor(es) and a(s) senhora(s), which also require third-person verb forms and third-person reflexive/possessive pronouns (or, for the possessive, the expressions de vocês, do senhor, etc.).
The expressions o(s) senhor(es) and a(s) senhora(s) are also used in formal contexts in modern EP, in addition to a large number of similar pronominalized nouns that vary according to the person who is being addressed, e.g. a menina, o pai, a mãe, o engenheiro, o doutor, etc.
In European Portuguese, however, object vos as well as convosco (but not prepositional vós) and vosso have survived, even in formal situations; see the "Forms of address" section, above, and also the notes on colloquial usage, at the bottom of the page.
Enclisis and mesoclisis may entail some historically motivated changes of verb endings and/or pronouns, e.g. cantar + o (originally *lo, from Latin illum) = cantá-lo "to sing it".
The direct and indirect object pronouns can be contracted, as in dar + lhe + os = dar-lhos "to give them to him"; cf.
The third person forms o, a, os, and as may present the variants lo, la, los, las, no, na, nos, and nas: The contraction for lhes + o is lho, not *lhe-lo or *lhos.
In West Iberian-Romance, the position of clitic object pronouns with respect to the verbs which govern them was flexible, but all Romance languages have since adopted a more strict syntax.
In European Portuguese, by contrast, enclisis is the default position for clitic pronouns in simple affirmative clauses: Eu amo-te "I love you", Diz-me "Tell me".
The Brazilian proclisis is usually correct in European Portuguese (often found in medieval literature), though nowadays uncommon and emphatic.
Only sentences that begin with a clitic pronoun, such as Te amo or Me diz, are considered unacceptable in European Portuguese.
These contractions are derived from the Latin practice of suffixing the preposition cum "with" to the end of the ablative form of personal pronouns, as in mecum or tecum.
Seu/Sua used as 3rd-person possessive pronouns are still frequent, especially when referring to the subject of the clause or when the gender is unknown and ambiguity can be solved in context, e.g. O Candidato Geraldo Alckmin apresentou ontem a sua proposta para aumentar a geração de empregos no Brasil ("The candidate Geraldo Alckmin presented yesterday his proposal to increase job creation in Brazil").
In European Portuguese, si and consigo can also be used to refer to the person to whom the message is directed in the formal treatment by o senhor, etc.
Examples: Thus, in modern colloquial European Portuguese, the classical paradigm above is modified to (differences emphasized): Se, si, and consigo are used in standard written BP exclusively as reflexive pronouns, e.g. Os manifestantes trouxeram consigo paus e pedras para se defenderem da violência policial ("Protesters brought (wood) sticks and stones with them to protect themselves against police brutality"), or Os políticos discutiam entre si o que fazer diante da decisão do Supremo Tribunal ("Politicians discussed among themselves what to do in face of the Supreme Court decision").
In colloquial language, those reflexive forms may be replaced however by subject pronouns (e.g. Discutam entre vocês em que data preferem fazer o exame vs standard Discutam entre si em que data preferem fazer o exame, Eng.
Note also that in both standard and colloquial BP, it is considered wrong to use se, si, consigo in non-reflexive contexts.
That distinction, object and possessive pronouns pattern likewise, is still maintained in the South and in the area around the city of Santos (in State of São Paulo) and in the Northeast.
In Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, for instance, você is rarely used in spoken language—in most occasions, o senhor/a senhora is employed whenever tu may sound too informal.
In most of the Northeast, você is frequently used only in semi-formal and formal conversations, mostly with people whom one does not know well or when a more polite or serious style is required.
As for Rio de Janeiro and the North of Brazil, both tu and você (and associated object and possessive pronouns) are used with no clear distinction in their use.
The standard written variants -lo(s) and -la(s) (used after an infinitive ending in r) are more frequent though in the speech of polite speakers, but seem to be losing ground as well.
Note, however, that ele(s) or ela(s) are never used as direct objects in formal writing, such as newspaper articles, academic papers, or legal documents.
replacing "você" as direct object is restricted mostly to the written language (in particular, movie subtitles) although it occurs frequently in a few fixed expressions like Prazer em conhecê-lo ("Pleased to meet you") or Posso ajudá-lo?
In the colloquial language, 'lhe' in that context is frequently replaced by para ele, etc., although educated speakers might use lhe in speech as well.
These examples, although common in rural areas and in working-class speech, would sound ungrammatical to most urban middle-class BP speakers in formal situations.