O árbitro deu um escanteio.

Deu is the preterite form of the verb dar.

• dar = to give
• deu = gave

This verb is irregular, so the past form does not look very similar to the infinitive. In this sentence, deu means something like gave / awarded / called.

A few useful forms of dar:

• eu dou = I give
• ele/ela dá = he/she gives
• ele/ela deu = he/she gave

So O árbitro deu um escanteio is using the simple past: the referee made that call.

In Portuguese, dar is often used more broadly than English give. In sports, dar can mean:

• to award
• to call
• to give a decision

So deu um escanteio means the referee awarded a corner kick.

This is a very natural use in Brazilian Portuguese. English often uses a more specific verb such as award or call, but Portuguese commonly uses dar in these situations.

Um is the indefinite article, meaning a/an.

So:

• um escanteio = a corner kick

It is used because the sentence is referring to one instance of that event. In English, we also usually say a corner or a corner kick.

Portuguese normally uses articles in places where English does too, and sometimes even where English would omit them.

It is masculine:

• o escanteio = the corner kick
• um escanteio = a corner kick

That is why the sentence says um escanteio, not uma escanteio.

When learning new nouns in Portuguese, it is helpful to memorize them with the article:

• o árbitro
• o escanteio

O árbitro means the referee.

Portuguese usually uses the definite article here because it is talking about a specific referee in the situation. In normal sentences, leaving out the article would sound unnatural.

So:

• O árbitro deu um escanteio. = The referee awarded a corner.

Using the article is the standard choice.

Deu is in the preterite tense, which is the normal past tense for a completed action.

Here it means that the referee made the call at a specific moment.

Compare:

• deu = gave / awarded / called
• dava = was giving / used to give

So this sentence is not talking about a repeated habit or an ongoing action. It describes one completed event.

Yes. Marcou from marcar is also very common in sports language.

Both can work:

• O árbitro deu um escanteio.
• O árbitro marcou um escanteio.

The difference is mostly one of usage and nuance:

• dar sounds like award/give

• marcar sounds like call/mark

  In many contexts, both are natural. Sports language often allows several verbs for referee decisions.

It is the normal everyday word in Brazilian Portuguese.

In European Portuguese, other expressions are more common, such as:

• canto
• pontapé de canto

So for Brazil, escanteio is exactly the word a learner should know.

In Brazilian Portuguese, árbitro is pronounced roughly like:

AR-bee-troo

A few details:

• The stress is on the first syllable: ÁR
• The r in the middle is a light tapped sound in careful speech
• The final o is often pronounced like a short oo sound in Brazilian Portuguese

A rough guide:

• ár = like AR
• bi = like bee
• tro = like troo

A rough Brazilian pronunciation is:

es-can-TAY-oo

Helpful breakdown:

• es = like es
• can = like cahn
• tei = stressed part, roughly tay
• o at the end may sound like a weak oo

The stress is on tei:

• es-can-TEI-o

In this sentence, árbitro means referee.

It is most commonly used for sports officials, but it can also mean arbiter in more formal contexts. In everyday language, though, learners will most often see it in sports.

Related words:

• árbitro = referee, male or generic
• árbitra = female referee

So if the referee were clearly female, you could say:

• A árbitra deu um escanteio.

Yes, but O árbitro deu um escanteio is the most neutral and natural order.

This is the standard pattern:

• subject + verb + object

So:

• O árbitro = subject
• deu = verb
• um escanteio = object

Other word orders are possible in Portuguese, but they usually sound more marked, more literary, or more context-dependent. For a learner, the standard order here is the best one to use.

Because escanteio is the direct object of deu in this sentence.

Portuguese often uses verbs directly with their objects, just as English does:

• dar algo = to give something
• deu um escanteio = gave/awarded a corner kick

So no preposition is needed.

Not in normal sports context. Here, the sentence is understood idiomatically: the referee awarded the corner kick.

Even though dar literally means to give, context makes the sports meaning clear. A native speaker would understand this as a referee decision, not a physical handover of something.

It is basically neutral everyday Brazilian Portuguese, especially in sports talk.

It sounds natural in:

• conversation
• match commentary
• casual reporting

It is not overly formal, and it is not slang. It is a very normal kind of sentence.