O padre chegou cedo.

O is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

So:

• o padre = the priest

Portuguese uses definite articles more often than English does, so seeing o, a, os, or as before nouns is very normal.

Yes. Padre is a common word for priest, especially in a Catholic context.

Since Brazil is historically very Catholic, padre is a very familiar word. In many situations, it is the most natural translation of priest.

Chegou is the preterite form of the verb chegar (to arrive).

In this sentence, it means:

• he arrived
• or more literally, the priest arrived

This tense is used for a completed action in the past.

Examples:

• Ela chegou tarde. = She arrived late.
• Nós chegamos ontem. = We arrived yesterday.

Because chegou refers to a completed event: the arrival happened and is viewed as finished.

• chegou = arrived
• chegava = used to arrive / was arriving / would arrive, depending on context

So:

• O padre chegou cedo. = The priest arrived early.
• O padre chegava cedo. = The priest used to arrive early or was arriving early

A learner often needs to notice that Portuguese makes a clear distinction here.

Portuguese often leaves out subject pronouns when the meaning is clear.

In English, you usually need he arrived early.
In Portuguese, the subject can be expressed by the noun itself:

• O padre chegou cedo.

There is no need to add ele because o padre already tells you who did the action.

You could say Ele chegou cedo, but that would mean He arrived early, with the subject understood from previous context.

Here, cedo means early.

It is functioning as an adverb, describing when he arrived.

So:

• chegou cedo = arrived early

Very common contrasts are:

• cedo = early
• tarde = late

Examples:

• Ela acordou cedo. = She woke up early.
• Eles chegaram tarde. = They arrived late.

In O padre chegou cedo, cedo is an adverb, because it modifies the verb chegou.

It tells us how/when the action happened:

• He arrived early

English uses early as both an adjective and an adverb, and Portuguese cedo often behaves similarly in learner translations, but in this sentence its role is adverbial.

A rough Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation is:

oo PAH-dree sheh-GOH SEH-doo

Some helpful notes:

• o often sounds like oo at the end of a word in Brazilian Portuguese
• padre has the stress on pa
• chegou has the stress on the last syllable: gou
• ch in Portuguese sounds like sh
• c before e sounds like s, so cedo starts with an s sound

A more approximate IPA-style version would be:

/u ˈpadɾi ʃeˈgow ˈsedu/

Pronunciation varies by region, but this is a good general Brazilian model.

Yes, but O padre chegou cedo is the most neutral and natural order.

This is basically:

• subject + verb + adverb

Other word orders are possible in certain contexts, but they may sound more marked, literary, or dependent on emphasis.

For example:

• O padre cedo chegou — possible, but not the normal everyday choice
• Chegou cedo o padre — possible in special contexts, but not the default

For a learner, the safest pattern is:

• O padre chegou cedo.

Not always, but very often.

In this sentence, o padre means the priest, so the article is necessary because the noun is definite.

Compare:

• O padre chegou cedo. = The priest arrived early.
• Um padre chegou cedo. = A priest arrived early.

So the article changes whether the person is definite or indefinite.

You would usually say:

• O padre chega cedo.

Here:

• chega = arrives / does arrive

So:

• O padre chega cedo. = The priest arrives early
• O padre chegou cedo. = The priest arrived early

This is a useful contrast:

• chega = present
• chegou = simple past / preterite

The infinitive is chegar (to arrive).

Chegou is the third-person singular preterite form.

For regular -ar verbs in the preterite, the endings are:

• eu cheguei
• você/ele/ela chegou
• nós chegamos
• vocês/eles/elas chegaram

So chegou matches he/she/it or you (formal/informal depending on region and usage), and in this sentence it matches o padre.

Possibly, depending on context.

In Portuguese, padre usually means priest, but in English, a priest may sometimes be addressed as Father. So if the meaning shown to the learner is The priest arrived early, that is the most direct translation, but in the right context an English speaker might also render it as Father arrived early.

Still, the Portuguese word itself here is padre, not pai (father in the family sense).