A carne está em promoção hoje.

In Portuguese, it is very common to use the definite article with general or specific nouns where English often uses no article.

So a carne can mean:

• the meat
• or, in context, meat as a product category

In a supermarket-style sentence like this, a carne sounds very natural in Brazilian Portuguese. Leaving out the article (carne está em promoção hoje) would sound less standard in most everyday contexts.

Because carne is a feminine noun in Portuguese.

• o = masculine singular
• a = feminine singular

So:

• a carne
• a promoção

This is a grammatical gender feature. It does not mean the meat is “female”; it just means the noun belongs to the feminine grammatical class.

Portuguese has two main verbs for to be: ser and estar.

Here, está is used because being on sale / on promotion is seen as a temporary condition, not a permanent characteristic.

• estar = temporary state, condition, situation
• ser = identity, essence, permanent or defining trait

So:

• A carne está em promoção hoje = the meat is on sale today

Using é here would sound unnatural.

Em promoção is a very common expression in Brazilian Portuguese meaning:

• on sale
• on special
• being sold at a reduced promotional price

Literally, promoção is promotion, but in shopping contexts estar em promoção usually means there is a discount or special offer.

Other common examples:

• O leite está em promoção.
• Esses produtos estão em promoção.

Because Portuguese does not translate expressions word-for-word from English.

English says:

• on sale

Portuguese says:

• em promoção

Here em means in, but the full expression functions idiomatically. So it is best to learn estar em promoção as a set phrase rather than translating each word separately.

Está is the third-person singular form of the verb estar in the present tense.

Conjugation of estar in the present:

• eu estou
• você / ele / ela está
• nós estamos
• vocês / eles / elas estão

Since a carne is singular, the verb must also be singular:

• A carne está...

Putting hoje at the end is very natural in Portuguese. It works a lot like English adverbs of time.

• A carne está em promoção hoje.
• Hoje, a carne está em promoção.

Both are correct, but the version with hoje at the end often sounds more neutral and conversational.

The end position also gives a slight emphasis to today, as in: it is on sale today.

Usually, em promoção is the more standard and common expression when you mean on sale.

Na promoção can also appear in Brazilian Portuguese, especially in casual speech, but it can sound more like:

• in the promotion
• among the items in the sale
• or just a more colloquial variant depending on region and context

For learners, estar em promoção is the safest expression to use.

It depends on context.

In Brazilian Portuguese, carne often means:

• meat in general

But in everyday usage, it can also sometimes suggest beef, especially when contrasted with:

• frango = chicken
• porco = pork
• peixe = fish

In a supermarket sentence like this, a carne often refers to the meat section or a particular kind of meat being sold, and context tells you more.

A natural pronunciation is roughly:

a KAR-nee es-TA em pro-mo-SÃW OH-zhee

A few pronunciation notes:

• carne: the r is usually light in this position
• está: stress on the last syllable, -tá
• promoção: the ending -ção sounds like sãw
• hoje: the j sounds like the s in measure

In connected speech, native speakers may pronounce it smoothly as one flow: A carne está em promoção hoje.

Yes, absolutely. It sounds natural, especially in contexts like:

• supermarkets
• butcher shops
• advertisements
• store flyers
• conversations about prices

It is a very typical sentence structure in Brazilian Portuguese:

• [item] + está em promoção + time expression

For example:

• O arroz está em promoção hoje.
• A cerveja está em promoção esta semana.
• Esses produtos estão em promoção.