Na terça-feira, minha tia vai me encontrar na praça onde eu costumo ler.

Na terça-feira means on Tuesday.

Here, na is a contraction of em + a. With days of the week in Portuguese, this structure is very common:

• na segunda-feira = on Monday
• na terça-feira = on Tuesday

Starting the sentence with the time expression is also very natural in Portuguese, just like On Tuesday, ... in English.

This usually refers to a specific Tuesday. If you wanted to talk about a repeated habit, you would more likely say something like às terças-feiras = on Tuesdays.

The comma separates the introductory time phrase from the rest of the sentence.

Portuguese often uses a comma after a phrase like Na terça-feira when it comes at the beginning of the sentence. It helps mark the pause, much like in English:

• On Tuesday, my aunt is going to meet me...

You may sometimes see sentences without this comma in less careful writing, but with an opening time phrase, the comma is very common and natural.

The names of weekdays from Monday to Friday are written with hyphens in Portuguese:

• segunda-feira
• terça-feira
• quarta-feira
• quinta-feira
• sexta-feira

This is just the standard spelling. You need to memorize it as part of the weekday names.

Both are possible in Portuguese.

In Brazilian Portuguese, possessives like meu, minha, seu, nossa, etc. can appear:

• without an article: minha tia
• with an article: a minha tia

So both minha tia and a minha tia can mean my aunt.

In Brazilian Portuguese, leaving out the article is very common, especially in simple, everyday sentences like this one.

Vai encontrar is the very common spoken way to express the future in Brazilian Portuguese.

This is the structure:

• ir in the present tense + infinitive

So:

• vai encontrar = is going to meet / will meet

Portuguese also has a simple future form:

• encontrará

But in everyday Brazilian Portuguese, vai encontrar sounds much more natural in conversation.

So:

• minha tia vai me encontrar = very common spoken Brazilian Portuguese
• minha tia me encontrará = correct, but more formal or written

In Brazilian Portuguese, object pronouns like me, te, nos often go before the infinitive when you have ir + infinitive:

• vai me encontrar
• vou te ligar
• vamos nos ver

So vai me encontrar is the normal Brazilian Portuguese order.

Other placements are possible in more formal grammar or in European Portuguese, such as vai encontrar-me, but in Brazil that sounds formal, literary, or unnatural in everyday speech.

So for a learner of Brazilian Portuguese, vai me encontrar is the pattern to remember.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

• encontrar alguém can mean to find someone
• it can also mean to meet someone

In this sentence, meet me is the natural interpretation, because of the context:

• na praça = at the square/plaza
• na terça-feira = on Tuesday

That sounds like an arranged meeting, not literally searching for and finding someone.

So here vai me encontrar is best understood as is going to meet me.

Because praça is a feminine noun, and Portuguese contracts em + a into na.

So:

• em a praça becomes na praça

This contraction is required in normal Portuguese.

You will see the same pattern with other feminine singular nouns:

• na escola = in/at the school
• na rua = on the street
• na casa = in/at the house

With masculine nouns, you get no:

• no parque
• no mercado

Onde means where, and it is used to refer back to a place.

In this sentence, it refers to a praça:

• na praça onde eu costumo ler = in the square where I usually read

Because praça is a location, onde is the natural relative word.

You could also hear or read more formal alternatives like:

• na praça em que eu costumo ler
• na praça na qual eu costumo ler

But onde is the most common and natural choice here.

Costumo ler means I usually read or I tend to read.

The verb costumar is used with an infinitive to talk about habits:

• costumo ler = I usually read
• costumo estudar à noite = I usually study at night
• ela costuma correr de manhã = she usually runs in the morning

So onde eu costumo ler means where I usually read.

This emphasizes habit more clearly than just onde eu leio, which can also mean where I read, but is less explicit about it being something habitual.

Yes, onde costumo ler would also be possible.

Portuguese often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is:

• costumo already tells you the subject is I

So both of these are natural:

• onde eu costumo ler
• onde costumo ler

Including eu can make the sentence a little clearer, more explicit, or more rhythmically natural. It does not add a big change in meaning here.

Costumo is the first person singular present tense form of costumar.

The infinitive is:

• costumar = to usually do / to be in the habit of doing

The form costumo means:

• I usually
• I tend to

So:

• eu costumo ler = I usually read

Yes, some parts can move around, depending on what you want to emphasize.

For example, these are all possible:

• Na terça-feira, minha tia vai me encontrar na praça onde eu costumo ler.
• Minha tia vai me encontrar na praça onde eu costumo ler na terça-feira.
• Minha tia vai me encontrar na terça-feira na praça onde eu costumo ler.

The original version puts the time first, which gives it a natural setting-the-scene feel: On Tuesday, ...

So the original order is very normal, but not the only possible one.

Often yes, but not always exactly.

Praça usually refers to an open public space in a town or city, often translated as:

• square
• plaza

In many contexts, plaza may sound more natural in English, depending on the kind of place. So the exact translation can vary with context.

The important thing for the learner is that praça is a public open place in the city, and that is why onde fits well in the sentence.