Os condôminos aprovaram o rateio das despesas.

Condôminos usually means the owners or co-owners of units in a condominium building or residential complex. In Brazilian usage, it often refers to the apartment owners who are part of the condomínio and who can vote on building matters.

So in this sentence, os condôminos is most naturally understood as the condo owners / the homeowners in the condominium.

A related word is condomínio, which can mean:

• the condominium itself
• the residential building/complex
• the legal arrangement of shared property

Os is the masculine plural definite article, meaning the.

It is used here because condôminos is:

• plural
• masculine in grammatical gender
• a specific group, not just any condo owners in general

So:

• os condôminos = the condo owners
• condôminos without the article would sound less anchored to a specific known group

Portuguese uses definite articles more often than English does, especially when talking about identifiable people or groups.

Yes. In Portuguese, the masculine plural is normally used for:

• a group of men
• a mixed group of men and women
• a group whose gender makeup is unknown or not being emphasized

So os condôminos can refer to:

• all male owners
• mixed owners
• the condominium owners as a group in general

If the group were explicitly all female, you would say as condôminas.

Aprovaram is the 3rd person plural preterite form of aprovar.

That means:

• aprovar = to approve
• aprovaram = they approved

It matches the subject os condôminos, which is plural.

So the grammar is:

• os condôminos = they
• aprovaram = approved

The preterite is used because the sentence describes a completed action: the approval happened and is viewed as finished.

Because aprovaram and aprovavam express different ideas.

• aprovaram = they approved
  → a completed action, seen as a whole

• aprovavam = they were approving / used to approve
  → ongoing, habitual, or background action in the past

In this sentence, the idea is that the condo owners made a decision and approved something. That is a single completed event, so aprovaram is the natural choice.

Rateio is a noun that refers to the apportionment, division, or sharing of costs among different people.

In condominium or financial contexts, it often means that an expense is being divided among the owners or residents according to some rule.

So o rateio das despesas means something like:

• the apportionment of the expenses
• the sharing/splitting of the expenses
• the cost allocation

It is a somewhat formal or administrative word, very common in housing, business, and legal contexts in Brazil.

Because rateio is a noun, while ratear is a verb.

• ratear = to split / to apportion
• rateio = the split / the apportionment / the allocation

After aprovaram, you need a direct object, and here the object is a thing: o rateio das despesas.

Compare:

• Os condôminos aprovaram o rateio das despesas.
  = The condo owners approved the apportionment of the expenses.

• Os condôminos decidiram ratear as despesas.
  = The condo owners decided to split the expenses.

Both are possible, but they are built differently.

Das is a contraction of de + as.

So:

• de = of
• as despesas = the expenses
• de + as = das

Therefore:

• o rateio das despesas = the apportionment of the expenses

This is very common in Portuguese. Some other examples:

• o valor do apartamento = the value of the apartment
  (de + o = do)
• a administração da empresa = the administration of the company
  (de + a = da)

Portuguese often uses definite articles in places where English may or may not use them.

In das despesas, the article suggests that these are specific expenses already understood in context—for example, the building’s expenses, maintenance costs, or a particular set of charges under discussion.

English might translate this naturally as:

• the expenses
• expenses
• the shared costs

depending on context.

So even if Portuguese has as despesas, the best English translation may not always need the.

Yes, there are differences, though they sometimes overlap.

• despesas = expenses, expenditures
  Often used in accounting, administration, budgets, bills, household or condo expenses.

• gastos = spending, expenses, money spent
  Slightly more general and common in everyday language.

• custos = costs
  Often used when talking about production, pricing, projects, or financial cost in a broader sense.

In a condominium context, despesas is very natural, because it sounds like the official expenses or charges of the building.

Yes, it sounds somewhat formal or administrative.

Words like:

• condôminos
• aprovaram
• rateio
• despesas

make it sound like something you might read in:

• meeting minutes
• legal notices
• condominium documents
• financial statements

In everyday conversation, people might say something a little simpler, depending on context, such as:

• Os moradores aprovaram a divisão das despesas.
• Os donos dos apartamentos aprovaram a divisão dos custos.

But the original sentence is perfectly natural in official Brazilian Portuguese.

Condôminos is pronounced with the stress on dô:

• con-DÔ-mi-nos

The circumflex accent in ô shows that:

• that syllable is stressed
• the vowel is pronounced as a more closed o sound

So the stress is not on the first or last syllable, but on the middle one.

A rough English-friendly guide would be:

• kon-DOH-mee-noos

Not exact, but close enough to help.

Yes, but the original order is the most neutral and natural:

• Os condôminos aprovaram o rateio das despesas.

Portuguese allows some flexibility, but changing the order may sound more marked or formal. For example:

• O rateio das despesas foi aprovado pelos condôminos.
  = The apportionment of the expenses was approved by the condo owners.

This passive version is also very natural, especially in formal writing, but it shifts the focus from who approved to what was approved.