O contador vai ajudar a empresa.

In Brazilian Portuguese, contador usually means accountant. Although it can literally come from the idea of counting, in everyday usage contador is a professional who works with accounting.

A few related words:

• contador = accountant
• contabilidade = accounting
• contar = to count / to tell

So in this sentence, O contador is most naturally understood as the accountant.

O is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

So:

• o contador = the accountant
• contador by itself = accountant in a more general or dictionary-style sense

Portuguese uses articles more often than English does. In a normal sentence, it is very common to say o contador rather than leaving the article out.

Empresa is a feminine noun in Portuguese, so it takes the feminine singular definite article a.

• a empresa = the company

This does not mean the company is biologically female. Grammatical gender in Portuguese is a language feature, and many objects and concepts are simply classified as masculine or feminine.

They are both definite articles, but they match different nouns:

• o goes with masculine singular nouns: o contador
• a goes with feminine singular nouns: a empresa

So the sentence has:

• o contador = the accountant
• a empresa = the company

This is completely normal in Portuguese.

Vai ajudar is a very common way to talk about the future in Brazilian Portuguese. It is formed with:

• vai = goes / is going
• ajudar = to help

Together, vai ajudar means is going to help or simply will help.

This structure is called the near future or periphrastic future:

• ir + infinitive

Examples:

• Ele vai sair. = He is going to leave.
• Nós vamos estudar. = We are going to study.

In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, this is often more common than the simple future tense.

Both are correct, but they sound a little different in style.

• vai ajudar = common, natural, conversational
• ajudará = simple future, often a bit more formal or written

So:

• O contador vai ajudar a empresa.
• O contador ajudará a empresa.

Both mean basically the same thing: The accountant will help the company.

A learner will hear vai + infinitive very often in spoken Brazilian Portuguese.

Because ajudar normally takes a direct object in Portuguese.

So you say:

• ajudar alguém
• ajudar a empresa
• ajudar o professor

This is different from some verbs in Portuguese that do need a preposition.

For example:

• gostar de alguém = to like someone
• precisar de ajuda = to need help

But with ajudar, you usually do not add a preposition before the person or thing receiving the help.

Here, a is the feminine singular definite article, so it means the.

In Portuguese, a can have different functions depending on the sentence:

• article: a empresa = the company
• preposition: vou à escola = I go to school

In this sentence, it is clearly the article because it comes directly before the noun empresa.

Yes. This sentence follows the very common subject + verb + object pattern:

• O contador = subject
• vai ajudar = verb phrase
• a empresa = object

So the structure is very similar to English:

• The accountant
  • is going to help
    • the company

That makes this sentence quite straightforward for English speakers.

Yes. Those are the same basic sentence in different tenses:

• O contador ajuda a empresa. = The accountant helps / is helping the company.
• O contador ajudou a empresa. = The accountant helped the company.
• O contador vai ajudar a empresa. = The accountant is going to help / will help the company.

So the sentence pattern stays the same; only the verb changes.

In Brazilian Portuguese, ajudar is pronounced roughly like ah-zhoo-DAR, with the main stress on the last syllable: -dar.

A rough guide:

• a = ah
• ju = zhoo
• dar = DAR

The j in Portuguese sounds like the s in measure or the zh sound.

So:

• ajudar ≈ ah-zhoo-DAR

The exact sound depends on accent, but the important part for learners is that the stress falls on the last syllable.