Você pode descascar a laranja antes que os convidados cheguem?

Yes. Você means you, and in Brazilian Portuguese it is the most common way to address someone in everyday speech.

It can often be omitted because the verb already helps show the subject:

• Você pode descascar a laranja...?
• Pode descascar a laranja...?

Both are natural. Including você can make the sentence a little clearer, more direct, or slightly more emphatic.

Because você takes third-person singular verb forms in Portuguese.

So:

• tu podes = you can
• você pode = you can

This is something that often surprises English speakers, because você means you, but grammatically it behaves like he/she.

In most of Brazil, você pode is much more common than tu podes, although that depends on the region.

Descascar means to peel or to remove the skin/peel from something.

So with fruit, vegetables, etc., it is the normal verb for peeling:

• descascar a laranja = to peel the orange
• descascar a batata = to peel the potato

It is more specific than a general verb like prepare. It focuses on removing the peel.

Portuguese uses definite articles much more often than English.

So a laranja literally looks like the orange, but in many contexts English would simply say the orange or even just an orange, depending on the situation.

Here, a laranja sounds natural because Portuguese often uses the article when referring to a specific item in the situation. Leaving it out would usually sound less natural in this kind of sentence.

Because antes que is used before a conjugated clause with its own subject and verb.

Here the second part has its own subject and verb:

• os convidados = the guests
• cheguem = arrive

So:

• antes que os convidados cheguem

If you use antes de, it normally comes before an infinitive structure, not a fully conjugated clause:

• antes de chegar = before arriving
• antes de os convidados chegarem = before the guests arrive

So both patterns can exist, but they are built differently.

Because antes que triggers the subjunctive.

So after antes que, Portuguese uses the present subjunctive when talking about something that has not happened yet:

• antes que os convidados cheguem

If you said chegam, that would be the present indicative, which is not the normal form after antes que in this kind of sentence.

This is one of the most important things to notice in the sentence:

• antes que
  • subjunctive

Cheguem is the present subjunctive form of chegar for eles/elas/vocês.

The steps are roughly:

1. Start from the eu form of the present indicative:

   • eu chego

2. Remove the -o

   • cheg-

3. Add the subjunctive ending for eles/elas/vocês

   • -uem

So you get:

• cheguem

The u is there to keep the hard g sound before e.

Compare:

• chega = zhEH-ga kind of sound
• chegue = keeps the hard g sound

Yes. That is also grammatical and natural.

Compare:

• antes que os convidados cheguem
• antes de os convidados chegarem

Both mean essentially before the guests arrive.

A few notes:

• antes que + subjunctive is a very common pattern.
• antes de + infinitive is also common.
• In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, people may also say antes dos convidados chegarem, especially in speech.

So the original sentence is fully correct, but it is not the only possible structure.

Again, Portuguese often uses articles where English may or may not.

Os convidados means the guests. The article makes them a definite group, presumably the guests expected for a particular event.

Without the article, convidados would often sound less complete or less natural in this sentence.

Yes. Convidados is masculine plural.

Portuguese uses the masculine plural for:

• a group of men
• a mixed group
• a group of unknown gender

If all the guests were women, you could say:

• as convidadas

So:

• os convidados = the guests (mixed group / masculine / unspecified)
• as convidadas = the female guests

Yes, but the original order is the most neutral and natural.

Standard order:

• Você pode descascar a laranja antes que os convidados cheguem?

Possible variations:

• Antes que os convidados cheguem, você pode descascar a laranja?
• Pode descascar a laranja antes que os convidados cheguem?

These are all understandable. The first version is the most straightforward everyday phrasing.

It is structurally a question with pode, which literally means can.

In context, though, Você pode...? often works like a polite request in Portuguese, just like Can you...? in English.

So depending on tone and situation, it can mean:

• Are you able to peel the orange before the guests arrive?
• Could you peel the orange before the guests arrive?

In real life, it will often sound like a request rather than a literal question about ability.

Sometimes, but it changes the nuance.

• Você pode descascar a laranja...? = Can you / Could you peel the orange...?
• Você consegue descascar a laranja...? = Are you able to manage to peel the orange...?

Consegue focuses more on whether the person is capable of doing it successfully.
Pode is more neutral and is the better choice for a normal polite request.

A few useful ones:

• você: the final e is usually like ee in Brazilian Portuguese
• descascar: the r at the end is often soft or barely pronounced, depending on accent
• laranja: the j sounds like the s in measure
• convidados: stress is on da
• cheguem: the gu keeps the hard g sound, and the ending is nasal in many accents

A rough learner-friendly pronunciation might be:

• vo-SÊ PO-deh jees-kahs-KAR ah lah-RAN-jah AN-tes kee ooz kohn-vee-DA-doos SHEH-gem

That is only approximate, but it highlights some of the trickier parts.

The biggest takeaway is this pattern:

• antes que + subjunctive

So when Portuguese says before and the following part has its own subject and verb, you often get:

• antes que
  • present subjunctive

Example from the sentence:

• antes que os convidados cheguem

That is probably the key structure an English-speaking learner should remember here.