O motorista precisa testar o freio antes de sair da garagem.

In Brazilian Portuguese, the most natural pattern is precisar + infinitive when you mean need to do something.

• O motorista precisa testar o freio. = The driver needs to test the brake.

But when precisar is followed by a noun, you usually use de:

• O motorista precisa de ajuda. = The driver needs help.
• Eu preciso de dinheiro. = I need money.

In some varieties of Portuguese, especially European Portuguese, you may hear precisar de + infinitive, but in Brazilian Portuguese precisa testar is the standard and most common choice.

O is the definite article the.

• o motorista = the driver

Portuguese uses articles very often, sometimes more often than English does. In this sentence, it refers to a specific driver in the situation, so o motorista is completely natural.

Motorista is interesting because the noun itself usually stays the same for both genders.

• o motorista = the male driver
• a motorista = the female driver

So the article tells you the gender here, not the ending of the noun.

This is common with some nouns ending in -ista:

• o artista / a artista
• o dentista / a dentista

Yes, English often says the brakes, but Portuguese can use the singular o freio to refer to the braking system, the brake, or the brake pedal in a general sense.

• testar o freio = test the brake / brakes

You can also hear os freios in other contexts, especially when talking about the brakes as a set:

• Os freios do carro não estão bons. = The car’s brakes aren’t good.

So the singular here is normal and idiomatic.

Antes de means before when it is followed by a verb in the infinitive.

• antes de sair = before leaving / before going out

This is a very common pattern in Portuguese:

• antes de dormir = before sleeping
• antes de comer = before eating
• antes de entrar = before entering

So you should think of antes de + infinitive as a fixed structure.

The verb sair usually goes with de when you say where someone is leaving from.

• sair de casa = leave home
• sair do carro = get out of the car
• sair da garagem = leave the garage / drive out of the garage

Since garagem is feminine, de + a garagem becomes da garagem.

So:

• de + a = da
• de + o = do

Da is a contraction of de + a.

• de = from / of
• a = the for feminine singular nouns

So:

• da garagem = from the garage

Other very common contractions are:

• do = de + o
• na = em + a
• no = em + o

These contractions are extremely common in Portuguese, so it is important to get used to them early.

Yes. In this sentence, that is probably exactly what it means.

Literally, sair da garagem is leave the garage, but in context it can naturally mean:

• drive out of the garage
• pull out of the garage

Portuguese often leaves that kind of detail to context.

Yes. Portuguese is flexible here. You could also say:

• Antes de sair da garagem, o motorista precisa testar o freio.

This means the same thing: Before leaving the garage, the driver needs to test the brake.

Both versions are natural. The original sentence puts the main action first; the reordered version emphasizes the time phrase antes de sair da garagem.

Freio is pronounced roughly like FRAY-oh in Brazilian Portuguese.

A helpful approximation:

• frei- sounds a bit like fray
• -o is a short final vowel, often lighter than in English

So: FRAY-u or FRAY-oh, depending on accent and speed.

Also note:

• r in freio is not like the strong rr sound in words like rua or carro
• here it is the softer single r sound

Testar is an infinitive verb. Its basic meaning is to test.

In the sentence:

• precisa testar = needs to test

The infinitive is very common after another verb in Portuguese:

• quero sair = I want to leave
• vou estudar = I am going to study
• precisa testar = needs to test

Yes, garagem is feminine:

• a garagem
• da garagem

There is not always a perfect rule for noun gender, but the article tells you clearly here. Since the sentence has da garagem, and da = de + a, you know the noun is feminine.

You could, but it is not necessary. The original sentence is natural because the context already makes it clear that the driver is dealing with a vehicle.

Possible expanded versions include:

• O motorista precisa testar o freio do carro antes de sair da garagem.
• Antes de tirar o carro da garagem, o motorista precisa testar o freio.

These are also natural, but the original sentence is shorter and perfectly normal.