Eu sempre olho a etiqueta da camisa antes de pagar.

Here, olho is the 1st person singular present tense form of olhar (to look).

So:

• eu olho = I look
• eu sempre olho = I always look

A common beginner confusion is that olho can also be a noun meaning eye. In this sentence, though, it is clearly the verb, because it comes after eu and before the object a etiqueta.

Yes. In Brazilian Portuguese, subject pronouns are often optional when the verb form already makes the subject clear.

So both of these are natural:

• Eu sempre olho a etiqueta da camisa antes de pagar.
• Sempre olho a etiqueta da camisa antes de pagar.

Including eu can add a little emphasis or clarity, but it is not required.

Sempre means always, and its position is flexible. In this sentence, Eu sempre olho... is very natural.

You can also say:

• Sempre olho a etiqueta da camisa antes de pagar.

Both are common.
The version with eu sempre sounds slightly more neutral and conversational.
Starting with sempre gives a bit more emphasis to the idea of always.

In Brazilian Portuguese, olhar can be used in two common ways:

• olhar algo = look at something
• olhar para algo = look at something

So both are possible:

• Eu sempre olho a etiqueta da camisa...
• Eu sempre olho para a etiqueta da camisa...

The version without para is very common and natural in Brazil.
Using para is also correct, but it can sound a little more explicit.

Here, etiqueta means tag or label on the clothing.

Depending on context, it could refer to:

• the price tag
• the brand label
• the care label

The clothing context makes that meaning clear.

Be careful: etiqueta can also mean etiquette or manners in other contexts, but not in this sentence.

Da is a contraction of:

• de
  • a = da

So:

• a etiqueta da camisa = the label of the shirt / the shirt's label

This is extremely common in Portuguese.

Other similar contractions are:

• de + o = do
• de + os = dos
• de + as = das

Not exactly.

In Brazilian Portuguese:

• camisa usually means shirt
• camiseta usually means T-shirt

So camisa often suggests a more general or more structured shirt, while camiseta is specifically a T-shirt.

That said, in everyday speech, people may sometimes use camisa a bit more broadly depending on the situation.

Portuguese uses definite articles more often than English does.

So a etiqueta da camisa is perfectly natural, even if English might sometimes say:

• the shirt's label
• a shirt label
• the tag on the shirt

In Portuguese, using a here sounds normal and expected because you are talking about a specific label on a specific shirt.

After antes (before), Portuguese normally uses de + infinitive when talking about an action:

• antes de pagar = before paying
• antes de sair = before leaving
• antes de comprar = before buying

So this structure is very important:

• antes de + verb in the infinitive

That is why antes de pagar is correct.

The object is simply understood from context.

In this sentence, pagar means something like:

• pay
• pay for it
• go pay for the shirt

Portuguese often leaves out an object when it is obvious. Since the sentence is already about the shirt, the listener naturally understands what is being paid for.

So antes de pagar sounds complete and natural here.

Yes, but it changes the feel slightly.

• antes de pagar = the normal, simple way when the subject is clearly the same person
• antes de eu pagar = more explicit, a bit heavier, sometimes used for emphasis or clarity

In this sentence, antes de pagar is the most natural choice.

Olho is pronounced approximately like OH-lyoo in a rough English-friendly way, but the lh sound is special in Portuguese.

• lh is a palatal sound, similar to the lli in some pronunciations of million
• it is not a hard l
• it is not exactly the English y either

So olho is one of those words worth hearing from native audio and repeating a few times. The spelling is common, and the lh sound appears in many Portuguese words.