Galician pronouns follow a very specific set of rules that make the language highly unique.

If you’ve studied other Romance languages before, you’ll quickly notice that Galician places its object pronouns quite differently.

Learning these placement rules is essential for sounding natural when you speak.

I’ll break down the different types of pronouns and show you exactly where to put them in a sentence.

Subject pronouns in Galician

Just like in English, subject pronouns tell us who is doing the action.

In Galician, you don’t always need to use them.

The verb ending usually tells you who is speaking, so subject pronouns are frequently dropped.

We generally only use them for emphasis or to clear up confusion in a conversation.

Here are the subject pronouns in Galician:

Direct and indirect object pronouns

Object pronouns receive the action of the verb.

Direct objects answer “what” or “who” receives the action directly.

Indirect objects tell us “to whom” or “for whom” the action is done.

Here’s a breakdown of the object pronouns you’ll use in Galician:

The golden rule of pronoun placement

In Galician, the default rule is that object pronouns attach to the end of the verb.

This grammatical feature is known as enclisis.

If a sentence starts with a verb, the pronoun must go after it.

You simply write the verb and the pronoun together as one single word.

When pronouns go before the verb

There are several important exceptions where the pronoun must go before the verb instead.

This forward placement is called proclisis.

Certain words act like magnets, pulling the pronoun to the front of the verb.

The most common trigger is the word non (not).

Question words like que (what), quen (who), and onde (where) also pull the pronoun forward.

Subordinate clauses introduced by que (that) always require the pronoun to go before the verb.

Finally, certain adverbs like xa (already), sempre (always), or aínda (still) pull the pronoun to the front.

Regional variations: cheísmo and teísmo

Galician has some fascinating regional quirks when it comes to pronoun usage.

The most famous variations involve the second-person pronouns che and te.

In standard Galician, te is strictly the direct object and che is the indirect object.

However, in the western coastal areas of Galicia, people often use che for everything.

This phenomenon is known as cheísmo.

If you visit areas around A Coruña or Pontevedra, you’ll hear people use che even when it should grammatically be a direct object.

Conversely, in parts of eastern Galicia, some speakers use te for everything.

This opposing trend is called teísmo.

You should stick to the standard rules I outlined in the tables above.

Knowing these local variations will just help you understand native speakers when you travel through different Galician towns.