À tarde, eu corto a maçã e a laranja e faço suco para as crianças.

Because à here is a crase, which happens when a + a come together.

In à tarde, the idea is historically like a a tarde, which contracts to à tarde. In modern Brazilian Portuguese, à tarde is a fixed time expression meaning in the afternoon.

A few useful comparisons:

• de manhã = in the morning
• à tarde = in the afternoon
• à noite = at night / in the evening

So the accent is not just decoration—it shows a contraction.

You can leave out eu in Portuguese, because the verb form often already shows who the subject is.

So both are possible:

• À tarde, eu corto a maçã...
• À tarde, corto a maçã...

Both mean the same thing here. Including eu can make the subject a little clearer or more emphatic, but it is often optional.

Those are the first-person singular present tense forms:

• cortar → eu corto
• fazer → eu faço

So the sentence is using the present tense with eu:

• eu corto = I cut
• eu faço = I make

This is very normal in Portuguese for habitual actions or simple present statements.

Because the verb fazer is irregular in the eu form:

• eu faço
• você faz
• ele/ela faz

The ç keeps the s sound before o. If it were written faco, it would suggest a different pronunciation.

This same spelling logic appears in other Portuguese words too:

• moço
• açaí
• maçã

So faço is just the correct spelling and pronunciation for I make / I do.

Because Portuguese often uses articles more consistently than English does.

So a maçã e a laranja is very natural. It literally looks like:

• the apple and the orange

Even when English might sound more natural without repeating the, Portuguese commonly keeps the article with each noun.

You may also hear omission in some contexts, but in standard neutral Portuguese, a maçã e a laranja sounds perfectly natural.

Because fazer suco is a natural way to say make juice in a general sense.

Here, suco is being treated more like an uncountable substance or a general result, not a specific previously identified juice.

Compare:

• faço suco = I make juice
• faço o suco = I make the juice

The second one sounds like a specific juice already known in the conversation.

Because para means for, and as crianças means the children.

So:

• para = for
• as = the (plural feminine)
• crianças = children

Together:

• para as crianças = for the children

In everyday spoken Brazilian Portuguese, this is often contracted informally to:

• pras crianças

But in careful writing, para as crianças is the full standard form.

Portuguese uses definite articles more often than English.

So where English might say simply for children or for the children, Portuguese very often says:

• para as crianças

This can refer to children in a general real-world sense or to a specific group understood from context. Using the article is extremely common and natural.

Maçã is roughly pronounced like mah-SAHN, but with a nasal ending.

A few key points:

• ç sounds like s
• the final ã is nasal, not a plain a
• the stress is on the last syllable

So it is approximately:

• ma-ÇÃ
• sounding like mah-SOWN / mah-SAHN with nasalization

English does not have exactly this sound, so the most important thing is:

• say s for ç
• make the final vowel nasal

The letter ç is called c-cedilla. In Portuguese, it makes a soft s sound before a, o, or u.

Examples:

• maçã → s sound
• faço → s sound
• açúcar → s sound

Without the cedilla, c before a, o, or u would normally sound hard, more like k.

So ç is basically there to signal: pronounce this like s.

Both exist in Brazilian Portuguese, but they are not identical in tone or usage.

• à tarde is a very standard, widely accepted time expression meaning in the afternoon
• de tarde is also common in Brazil, especially in speech, but can feel a bit more colloquial depending on region and context

So in a neutral textbook-style sentence, À tarde is a very natural choice.

Yes. In Portuguese, the simple present often expresses habitual actions as well as present-time actions.

So this sentence can easily mean something like:

• In the afternoon, I cut the apple and the orange and make juice for the children

That may describe a routine or regular activity, not necessarily something happening at this exact moment.

Because À tarde is an introductory time expression, and Portuguese often sets that off with a comma.

So:

• À tarde, eu corto...

This is very natural punctuation. In informal writing, some people might omit the comma, but using it here is standard and clear.