Quasus: learner's questions

[Quasus]

I'll post here minor questions. Thanks for helping!

Levantei-me tarde e, como uns amigos me convidaram para ir dar uma volta, tive de me despachar.

I don't understand why the pronoun precedes the verb. My grammar reference says this happens in case negative words are present, in interrogative sentences with an interrogative word, in subordinate clauses, after indefinite pronouns, and after adverbs. No explanation works. However, Google confirms that "tive de me despachar" is way more common than "tive de despachar-me" (only one hit). There must be a principle...

[Osias]

I'll post here minor questions. Thanks for helping!

Levantei-me tarde e, como uns amigos me convidaram para ir dar uma volta, tive de me despachar.

I don't understand why the pronoun precedes the verb. My grammar reference says this happens in case negative words are present, in interrogative sentences with an interrogative word, in subordinate clauses, after indefinite pronouns, and after adverbs.

No explanation works. However, Google confirms that "tive de me despachar" is way more common than "tive de despachar-me" (only one hit). There must be a principle...

You learn Pt-pt, right? Maybe is the same as pt-br: People say "me someverb" in oral language and "someverb-me" is considered (in Brazil) too formal. I don't know where those "in interrogative sentences with an interrogative word, in subordinate clauses, after indefinite pronouns, and after adverbs" come from.

[Luís]

I'll post here minor questions. Thanks for helping!

Levantei-me tarde e, como uns amigos me convidaram para ir dar uma volta, tive de me despachar.

I don't understand why the pronoun precedes the verb. My grammar reference says this happens in case negative words are present, in interrogative sentences with an interrogative word, in subordinate clauses, after indefinite pronouns, and after adverbs. No explanation works. However, Google confirms that "tive de me despachar" is way more common than "tive de despachar-me" (only one hit). There must be a principle...

I guess you don't find it in your grammar reference because in this case it's optional (the same thing happens after "haver de" or "para", for instance). So, both "tive de me despachar" and "tive de despachar-me" are correct. However, in this case the first option is far more common. Native speakers won't think it's wrong if you use the other one, though.

[Rivaldo]

"tive de despachar-me" sounds too formal, or a bit old/aristocratic portuguese. but it's correct.

Levantei-me tarde e, como uns amigos me convidaram para ir dar uma volta, tive de me despachar.

More orally:

Levantei tarde, e como uns amigos tinham me convidado pra ir dar uma volta, tive que despachar.

I don't know what the expression "despachar" means in the context, thought.

[Luís]

I don't know what the expression "despachar" means in the context, thought.

It means "to hurry up", "to get ready" in European Portuguese. I believe it's similar in usage to French (se) dépêcher.

[Rivaldo]

I could more and less figure. But here the word has a more clear meaning used in this way:

"(...) tive de despachá-los" [cause I was sleepy]

[Quasus]

Great, thanks for the replies!

Indeed, I'm learning European Portuguese using Assimil's "Le nouveau portugais sans peine" and some other resources; in particular, I've learnt the grammar rule about interrogative sentences, etc. from a Russian textbook. Placing the pronouns seems tricky, especially since it's subject to stylistic and probably geographic variance according to your comments. BTW, I've figured out that in Assimil's texts prepositions make the pronoun to precede the verb.