Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Brazil): Na biblioteca, ele achou uma revista chata, mas encontrou um artigo interessante sobre um professor muito inteligente. - In the library, he found a boring magazine, but found an interesting article about a very intelligent teacher.

You normally need the article in Portuguese with places like a biblioteca, so em biblioteca (without the article) is not natural here. You’d only see something like that in special expressions (e.g., em casa, em escola in some set phrases or headlines), but for a normal sentence you say na biblioteca.

Could you leave out ele and just say Na biblioteca, achou uma revista chata…?

Yes, in Brazilian Portuguese you can omit the subject pronoun when it’s clear from context who you’re talking about. So:

Na biblioteca, ele achou uma revista chata…
Na biblioteca, achou uma revista chata…

Both are grammatically correct. Leaving out ele is more common when the subject is obvious from previous sentences. Including ele can:

Emphasize that he (not someone else) did it.
Help clarity if multiple people are involved in the story.

In isolation, learners often keep ele for clarity; native speakers might drop it if the context is clear.

What’s the difference between achou and encontrou? Don’t they both mean “found”?

Both come from verbs that can translate as to find, but they have different main uses:

achar
- Core everyday meanings:
  - to find (physically), especially in casual speech
  - to think / to have an opinion
- Example: Achei a chave. = I found the key.
- Example: Acho que ele é inteligente. = I think he is intelligent.
encontrar
- More “neutral”/standard to find / to come across / to meet.
- Often used for:
  - Finding things or people
  - Meeting someone (planned or by chance)
- Example: Encontrei um artigo interessante. = I found an interesting article.
- Example: Encontrei meus amigos no bar. = I met my friends at the bar.

In your sentence:

ele achou uma revista chata – he came across a boring magazine (everyday, casual verb).
mas encontrou um artigo interessante – but (then) found an interesting article (slightly more neutral).

A native speaker might also say achou um artigo interessante; the difference here is stylistic, not grammatical.

Why are the adjectives after the nouns: revista chata, artigo interessante, professor muito inteligente?

In Portuguese, the default position of adjectives is after the noun:

revista chata = boring magazine
artigo interessante = interesting article
professor muito inteligente = very intelligent teacher/professor

Putting the adjective before the noun is possible, but it often:

Sounds more poetic, emotional, or emphatic:
- um grande professor (a great professor) – more about importance
- um professor grande (a big/tall professor) – physical size
Or slightly changes the nuance/meaning.

For basic, neutral descriptions, learners should usually place adjectives after the noun.

What does chata really mean here? Boring? Annoying?

Chato / chata can mean:

Boring / tedious (very common meaning for things or situations)
- uma revista chata = a boring magazine
- a aula foi chata = the class was boring
Annoying / a pain (often for people or behavior)
- Ele é muito chato. = He’s really annoying.
- Que coisa chata! = What a drag / how annoying!

In your sentence, with revista, it clearly means boring. Context usually tells you whether it’s “boring” or “annoying.”

Why is it uma revista, um artigo, um professor? How do um/uma work?

Um and uma are the Portuguese indefinite articles: a / an / one.

um = masculine singular
uma = feminine singular
uns = masculine plural (some)
umas = feminine plural (some)

The article must agree with the gender (masc./fem.) and number (sing./pl.) of the noun:

uma revista – revista is feminine → uma
um artigo – artigo is masculine → um
um professor – professor is masculine → um

You repeat the article before each new noun phrase:
uma revista chata, mas encontrou um artigo interessante sobre um professor…
You don’t “reuse” one um/uma for several nouns the way English sometimes can.

What does mas mean here, and could you use something else like porém?

Mas means but and it’s the most common everyday word for but in Portuguese.

In the sentence:

…ele achou uma revista chata, mas encontrou um artigo interessante…
…he found a boring magazine, but found an interesting article…

You could, in writing or more formal language, also use porém or no entanto (however / nevertheless):

…ele achou uma revista chata; porém, encontrou um artigo interessante…

However:

mas = default, natural, spoken and written.
porém / no entanto = more formal, often used at the beginning of a sentence or after a semicolon.

Why is it achou and encontrou, not acha / encontra or achava / encontrava?

Achou and encontrou are in the pretérito perfeito (simple past) in Portuguese, used for completed actions:

achar → ele achou = he found (at a specific moment)
encontrar → ele encontrou = he found (also a completed event)

Rough guide:

Pretérito perfeito (achou, encontrou) – like English did / found:
A finished action, seen as a single event.
- Ontem ele achou uma revista. = Yesterday he found a magazine.
Presente (acha, encontra) – like finds / is finding:
- Ele acha revistas chatas. = He finds magazines boring (generally).
Pretérito imperfeito (achava, encontrava) – often like used to / was …-ing, or background/habit:
- Ele achava revistas chatas. = He used to find magazines boring / He would find magazines boring (repeatedly).

In your sentence, it’s describing specific, one-time actions that happened in the past, so achou and encontrou are appropriate.

What does sobre mean in um artigo interessante sobre um professor muito inteligente?

Here sobre means about / regarding:

um artigo interessante sobre um professor muito inteligente
= an interesting article about a very intelligent professor

So in this context:

sobre = about, on the topic of.

Sobre can also mean on / over / on top of in other sentences:

O livro está sobre a mesa. = The book is on the table.

But with abstract nouns like artigo, filme, livro, conversa, palestra, etc., sobre often means “about”:

um filme sobre a Segunda Guerra Mundial = a movie about WWII
uma palestra sobre tecnologia = a talk about technology

Why is it muito inteligente and not something like muito inteligenteS? How does muito work here?

Muito has two main uses:

As an adverb = very / really / a lot
- It does not change form here.
- muito + adjective/adverb/verb
- muito inteligente = very intelligent
  (muito stays the same regardless of masculine/feminine/singular/plural)
As an adjective/pronoun = much / many / a lot of
- It agrees in gender and number: muito, muita, muitos, muitas
- muitos artigos = many articles
- muitas revistas = many magazines

In um professor muito inteligente:

muito is an adverb modifying inteligente, so it does not take a plural -s and does not change for gender or number.

Why do some adjectives change for gender (chata) and others don’t (interessante, inteligente)?

Portuguese adjectives follow patterns:

Adjectives ending in -o in the masculine usually have:
- -o for masculine
- -a for feminine
- -os / -as for plurals
- chato (m.sg.), chata (f.sg.), chatos (m.pl.), chatas (f.pl.)
Adjectives ending in -e (like interessante, inteligente) usually:
- Have the same form for masculine and feminine
- Only change for plural: add -s
- interessante (m/f.sg.), interessantes (m/f.pl.)
- inteligente (m/f.sg.), inteligentes (m/f.pl.)

So:

uma revista chata – revista is feminine, so chata.
um artigo interessante – interessante doesn’t change for gender.
um professor muito inteligente – inteligente is the same for masculine/feminine.

Why is there a comma after Na biblioteca?

The phrase Na biblioteca is an introductory adverbial phrase that sets the scene (location) for the action.

Portuguese normally uses a comma to separate an introductory element from the main clause:

Na biblioteca, ele achou…
Ontem, ele saiu cedo. = Yesterday, he left early.
De manhã, eu estudo. = In the morning, I study.

So the comma there:

Matches a common pattern in Portuguese punctuation.
Helps mark “In the library” as background information before the main action.

How would you pronounce some tricky parts, like ch in chata and achou, and r in artigo?

Key points for Brazilian Portuguese (general/standard-ish):

ch in achou, chata
- Pronounced like English “sh” in “shoe”:
  - achou ≈ ah-SHOW
  - chata ≈ SHAH-tah
r in artigo, professor
- Single r between vowels is a soft flap, similar to the tt in American “water” (quick tap of the tongue):
  - artigo ≈ ar-TEE-goo (with a quick flap on r)
  - professor ≈ pro-feh-SOR (final r changes depending on region; often like English h or very weak in Brazil)
Final e in ele, interessante, inteligente
- Usually pronounced like a weak “ee” or “eh”, not silent:
  - ele ≈ EH-lee
  - interessante ≈ in-te-re-SAN-chee
  - inteligente ≈ in-te-li-ZHEN-chee (the g before e sounds like “zh”)

Pronunciation varies by region, but these guidelines will make you understandable across Brazil.