Right Dislocation

Level 5

Right Dislocation (RD) is a spoken Portuguese feature where you finish a sentence and then add a 'tag' at the end to clarify who or what you were talking about. It acts like a mental repair or a clarification.

How It Works

Deslocamento à direita is a pragmatic tool used primarily in informal speech. It serves as an antitopic—information that is already known to the speakers but is repeated for clarity.

Key characteristics include:

  • The Resumptive Anchor: The main clause must contain a placeholder for the final tag. This can be a clitic pronoun, a full subject pronoun, or a null subject/object. Note that null object anchors are particularly characteristic of Brazilian Portuguese (BP).
  • Definiteness Requirement: The dislocated tag must be a definite or identifiable entity (e.g., 'o livro'). You cannot dislocate indefinite or new information (e.g., you cannot say 'Eu o vi, um menino').
  • Prosody: There is always a brief pause (represented by a comma) before the tag. The tag is spoken with a lower, flatter intonation than the rest of the sentence.
  • Case Matching: If the referent is an indirect object, the tag must include the preposition. For example: 'Eu lhe entreguei a chave, ao porteiro'.
  • Register: This is highly colloquial. While it is a natural part of the 'melody' of spoken Portuguese, it is generally avoided in formal writing.

Examples (4)

  1. Ele chegou agora, o pacote que você esperava.

    It arrived just now, the package you were waiting for.

    Word by Word: He arrived now, the package that you were-waiting.

    In this sentence, the subject pronoun Ele acts as the anchor, which is then clarified by the specific noun phrase at the end.

  2. Eu a vi ontem no shopping, a sua irmã.

    I saw her yesterday at the mall, your sister.

    Word by Word: I her saw yesterday in-the shopping, the your sister.

    This uses a direct object clitic a (her) which is clarified by the tag 'a sua irmã'. The tag matches the gender and number of the clitic.

  3. Ela é muito simpática, a sua vizinha.

    She is very nice, your neighbor.

    Word by Word: She is very nice, the your neighbor.

    A classic subject dislocation where Ela is clarified at the end of the thought.

  4. Eu já lho dei, ao professor, o relatório.

    I already gave it to him, to the teacher, the report.

    Word by Word: I already it-to-him gave, to-the teacher, the report.

    An advanced example using lho to clarify both the indirect object (the teacher) and the direct object (the report).

Common Mistakes

  • Using Right Dislocation in formal writing.

    O relatório foi enviado, o documento oficial.
    O documento oficial, que é o relatório, foi enviado.

    In formal essays or business emails, RD is perceived as 'careless speech'. Use standard SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) order or relative clauses instead.

  • Missing the preposition in the final tag (Case Matching).

    Eu lhe dei o livro, o João.
    Eu lhe dei o livro, ao João.

    If the pronoun in the sentence is an indirect object (lhe), the clarifying tag must also use the indirect object marker (ao).

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Right DislocationLevel 5

Learn This First

To understand right dislocation (deslocamento à direita), a learner must be comfortable with object pronouns, as these pronouns act as placeholders in the main sentence for the noun phrase that follows. It also requires an understanding of how Portuguese uses word order and pronouns to manage emphasis and afterthoughts in conversation.