Quando faz frio, eu costumo beber café quente em casa.

In Portuguese, weather is often expressed with fazer:

• faz frio = it’s cold
• faz calor = it’s hot
• faz sol = it’s sunny

This is just a common weather pattern, and it does not literally mean does cold in natural English.

You can say está frio too, but that usually means it is cold in a more general sense, such as talking about the temperature right now. In weather expressions, faz frio is extremely common.

Both can be possible, but they are used a little differently.

• Quando faz frio = when the weather is cold / whenever it gets cold
• Quando está frio = when it is cold

In this sentence, faz frio sounds very natural because it refers to a general weather condition, especially a habitual one. Since the sentence talks about something the speaker usually does, quando faz frio fits very well.

Costumo comes from the verb costumar, which means to usually do or to be in the habit of doing something.

So:

• eu costumo beber = I usually drink / I tend to drink

This verb is followed by another verb in the infinitive:

• costumo beber
• costumo estudar
• costumo acordar cedo

It is a very useful way to talk about habits.

Yes. Portuguese often drops subject pronouns when the verb already makes the subject clear.

So both are natural:

• Quando faz frio, eu costumo beber café quente em casa.
• Quando faz frio, costumo beber café quente em casa.

Because costumo clearly shows I, the pronoun eu is optional. It may be included for emphasis, clarity, or simply personal style.

In Portuguese, when talking about something in a general or indefinite way, you often do not use an article.

• beber café = drink coffee, coffee in general
• comer pão = eat bread
• comprar leite = buy milk

If you say beber o café quente, that sounds like a specific coffee, such as the hot coffee already being referred to.

In this sentence, the meaning is general: the person usually drinks hot coffee when it is cold.

In Portuguese, adjectives usually come after the noun:

• café quente = hot coffee
• casa grande = big house
• livro interessante = interesting book

This is one of the most common differences from English, where adjectives usually come before the noun.

Sometimes Portuguese adjectives can come before the noun, but that often changes the tone or emphasis. In this sentence, café quente is the normal order.

Yes, definitely. In Brazilian Portuguese, both beber café and tomar café are possible.

• beber café = to drink coffee
• tomar café = also very common for drinking coffee

In fact, tomar is often used for drinks in everyday Brazilian Portuguese:

• tomar água
• tomar suco
• tomar café

So this sentence could also be:

• Quando faz frio, eu costumo tomar café quente em casa.

That would sound very natural too.

Here, em casa means at home.

This is a very common expression in Portuguese:

• Estou em casa. = I’m at home.
• Gosto de ficar em casa. = I like staying at home.

Even though em often means in, the expression em casa is usually understood as at home, not literally inside the house.

Because Quando faz frio is an introductory time clause.

Portuguese, like English, often uses a comma after an introductory clause:

• Quando faz frio, eu costumo beber café quente em casa.
• Se chover, eu fico em casa.

The comma helps separate the condition or time expression from the main clause. In short sentences, people sometimes omit commas informally, but here the comma is standard and clear.

It can feel like either one, depending on context.

In this sentence, because costumo expresses a habit, quando is understood more like whenever:

• Quando faz frio, eu costumo beber café quente em casa. = Whenever it’s cold, I usually drink hot coffee at home.

So the Portuguese word is quando, but the natural English sense here is often whenever.

In weather expressions like faz frio, there is no real subject in the usual sense. The verb is used in the third person singular:

• faz frio
• faz calor
• faz vento

This is similar to English using it in it’s cold, even though it does not refer to a real thing. So faz stays singular because that is the normal pattern for this kind of expression.

Yes, a little, but the original is the most neutral and natural.

Original:

• Quando faz frio, eu costumo beber café quente em casa.

Possible variations:

• Eu costumo beber café quente em casa quando faz frio.
• Em casa, eu costumo beber café quente quando faz frio.

These are grammatically fine, but they shift the emphasis a bit. The original sentence starts with the condition when it’s cold, which sounds very natural.

Yes, it works perfectly in Brazilian Portuguese, and it would also be understood in other varieties of Portuguese.

A few points that feel especially natural in Brazil:

• costumo for habits
• beber or tomar café
• em casa for at home

So the sentence is fully natural for Brazilian Portuguese learners to study.