Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Brazil): A técnica ainda não chegou, então vou ligar para ela. - The technician has not arrived yet, so I will call her.

In this sentence, a técnica most naturally means the (female) technician. Portuguese uses técnico / técnica as a person’s job title (male/female).
If you wanted “the technique,” you’d usually still say a técnica, but the rest of the sentence (vou ligar para ela = “I’m going to call her”) strongly points to a person, not a method.

Why is it a técnica and not o técnico?

Because the speaker is referring to a woman, so the noun and article are feminine: a técnica.
If it were a man: O técnico ainda não chegou, então vou ligar para ele.

What does ainda não mean, and why is it in that order?

ainda não means “still not / hasn’t … yet”. The common pattern is:

ainda não + verb → ainda não chegou = “still hasn’t arrived / hasn’t arrived yet”

You can sometimes see não … ainda too, but ainda não is extremely common in Brazilian Portuguese.

Why is chegou in the past tense if it means “hasn’t arrived yet”?

Portuguese often uses pretérito perfeito (here chegou) to talk about a completed event that has not happened up to now:

ainda não chegou = “hasn’t arrived yet” (up to this moment)

It’s a normal way to express “not yet” in Portuguese.

Why isn’t it A técnica ainda não tem chegado or something with a “have” verb?

Portuguese doesn’t form the present perfect the same way English does. Instead of “has arrived,” Portuguese commonly uses:

chegou (simple past) with time words like já, ainda não, hoje, etc.

tem chegado exists, but it usually means repeated/ongoing arrival over time (e.g., “has been arriving”), not the one-time “has arrived.”

What’s the role of então here?

então means “so / therefore / then”, linking the first clause to the consequence:

“She still hasn’t arrived, so I’m going to call her.”

It can also be a discourse marker (“so, then...”), but here it’s clearly causal.

Why is there a comma before então?

Because the sentence has two independent clauses:

A técnica ainda não chegou (clause 1)
vou ligar para ela (clause 2)

The comma helps separate them, and it’s very natural before connectors like então in this structure.

What tense is vou ligar?

It’s the ir + infinitive structure: vou + ligar, used for the near future / intention:

vou ligar = “I’m going to call” / “I’ll call (now/in a moment)”

It’s very common in Brazilian Portuguese, often preferred over the simple future ligarei in everyday speech.

Does ligar always mean “to call”?

No. ligar has multiple common meanings, including:

to call (by phone) → ligar para alguém
to turn on (a device) → ligar a TV / ligar o computador
to care / to mind (often with se importar) → não ligo (“I don’t care”)

Here, ligar para ela clearly means “call her.”

Why is it ligar para ela and not just ligar ela?

In Brazilian Portuguese, the most common everyday way to say “call someone” is ligar para alguém:

vou ligar para ela

You may hear ligar pra ela in speech (same meaning).
ligar ela is generally not the standard form for “call her.”

Could you replace para ela with an object pronoun like lhe?

Yes, but it changes the register. More formal/written:

vou lhe ligar or vou ligar-lhe (less common in everyday Brazilian speech)

In most spoken Brazilian Portuguese, vou ligar para ela sounds more natural.

Can I drop para and just say vou ligar nela?

Not for “call.” ligar nela sounds wrong for a phone call.
Use ligar para ela (or ligar pra ela in casual speech).

Why is there no eu before vou ligar?

Portuguese often omits subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows the subject.
vou clearly signals eu (“I”), so (eu) vou ligar para ela and vou ligar para ela are both correct. The version without eu is very common.