Ele jamais chegou tarde.

Jamais means never. In most everyday Brazilian Portuguese, jamais and nunca are very close in meaning.

• Ele jamais chegou tarde.
• Ele nunca chegou tarde.

Both are natural and mean essentially the same thing.

The difference is mostly in tone:

• nunca is more common in everyday speech
• jamais can sound a little more emphatic, formal, or dramatic depending on context

So this sentence is correct and natural, but in casual conversation many Brazilians would probably say nunca more often.

Chegou is the preterite form of chegar for ele/ela/você. It is used for a completed past action.

So:

• chega = arrives / is arriving
• chegava = used to arrive / was arriving
• chegou = arrived

In this sentence, chegou presents the idea as something true over a finished period or as a complete past statement.

Compare:

• Ele jamais chegou tarde. = He never arrived late.
• Ele jamais chegava tarde. = He was never arriving late / He never used to arrive late.

The version with chegava would usually suggest a repeated habit in the past, while chegou sounds more like a firm statement about what happened in the past.

Because jamais already makes the sentence negative.

In Portuguese, words like nunca, jamais, ninguém, nada can negate the verb by themselves when they come before it.

So:

• Ele jamais chegou tarde. = correct
• Ele nunca chegou tarde. = correct

Adding não here would usually be unnecessary.

As a general pattern:

• negative word before the verb -> no não needed
• negative word after the verb -> não is usually needed

For example:

• Ele nunca chegou tarde.
• Ele não chegou tarde nunca. (possible, but less neutral and less common)

Yes. Tarde can mean both:

• afternoon as a noun
  
  • Boa tarde = Good afternoon
• late as an adverb
  
  • chegar tarde = to arrive late

In Ele jamais chegou tarde, tarde is not a noun. It is functioning like late, describing how he arrived.

This is very common in Portuguese:

• acordar tarde = wake up late
• sair tarde = leave late
• chegar tarde = arrive late

In this sentence, tarde works as an adverb.

It modifies the verb chegou and tells you in what way / at what time relation he arrived.

• Ele chegou tarde. = He arrived late.

If it were an adjective, it would describe a noun. But here it describes the action of arriving.

Yes, absolutely. Ele nunca chegou tarde is very natural, and probably more common in everyday Brazilian Portuguese.

So these are both correct:

• Ele jamais chegou tarde.
• Ele nunca chegou tarde.

If you want the most neutral, everyday version, nunca is usually the safer choice.

Yes, you often can, especially if the subject is already clear from context.

Portuguese often omits subject pronouns when the meaning is understood. So:

• Ele jamais chegou tarde.
• Jamais chegou tarde.

Both can work.

However, there is a small point here: chegou could refer to ele, ela, or você, so if the context does not clearly identify the person, keeping ele helps avoid ambiguity.

Yes, Portuguese allows some flexibility in word order.

These are possible:

• Ele jamais chegou tarde.
• Jamais ele chegou tarde.
• Ele nunca chegou tarde.

But they do not all sound equally neutral.

The most natural neutral order is usually:

• Ele jamais chegou tarde.

Putting jamais first:

• Jamais ele chegou tarde.

can sound more emphatic, literary, or stylistically marked.

So a learner should usually stick with Ele jamais chegou tarde unless there is a special reason to emphasize jamais.

Literally, it is specifically about arriving late because the verb is chegar.

So the most direct idea is:

• he never arrived late
• he was never late in arriving

In many contexts, that naturally overlaps with English he was never late, but Portuguese is focusing on the act of arrival, not on a general state.

If you wanted a different idea, Portuguese might use another expression, such as:

• Ele nunca se atrasava. = He was never late / He never used to be late.
• Ele nunca estava atrasado. = He was never late.

They are similar, but not identical.

• chegar tarde = to arrive late
• chegar atrasado = to arrive late / to arrive delayed

In many situations, they can be used interchangeably.

But there is a slight nuance:

• tarde focuses more directly on the time being later than expected
• atrasado can suggest being delayed or behind schedule

Examples:

• Ele chegou tarde à reunião.
• Ele chegou atrasado à reunião.

Both are fine. In everyday speech, both are common.

In your sentence, chegou tarde is a very basic and natural way to express the idea.

A rough pronunciation guide:

• jamais ≈ zha-MAIZ
• chegou ≈ sheh-GOH

A bit more carefully:

• the j in jamais sounds like the s in measure
• the ch in chegou usually sounds like sh in Brazilian Portuguese
• the final -ou in chegou is pronounced like oh

So the sentence sounds roughly like:

• EH-lee zha-MAIZ sheh-GOH TAR-jee

A few notes:

• Ele often sounds like EH-li or EH-lee
• tarde in Brazil is often pronounced roughly TAR-dji or TAR-jee, depending on accent

Yes, often it does.

With chegou in the preterite, the sentence commonly suggests a completed past frame, even if that frame is not explicitly stated.

For example, it can imply something like:

• during that period, he never arrived late
• in all the times we are talking about, he never arrived late

If you wanted to stress a repeated habit in the past more clearly, the imperfect might be used:

• Ele jamais chegava tarde.

So:

• chegou = viewed as completed / bounded past
• chegava = viewed as habitual, ongoing, or repeated in the past

In real usage, context decides a lot, but this is the main contrast.

Sometimes in context, yes, but that depends on how English chooses to express the idea.

Portuguese often uses the simple past form where English might choose either:

• He never arrived late or
• He has never arrived late

However, if you specifically want the Portuguese form that more clearly corresponds to English has never arrived, Portuguese often uses:

• Ele nunca chegou tarde. or, with a time expression/context, sometimes other structures depending on the situation

So the sentence itself is a straightforward past statement, but English translation choices may vary depending on context.