Apesar de estar cansada, Ana pegou o controle remoto e diminuiu o volume da televisão.

Apesar de means despite or in spite of.

So Apesar de estar cansada literally means despite being tired.

In natural English, this whole part can correspond to:

• Although she was tired
• Even though she was tired
• Despite being tired

A very common pattern is:

• apesar de + noun
• apesar de + infinitive

Examples:

• Apesar da chuva, saímos. = Despite the rain, we went out.
• Apesar de estudar muito, ele errou. = Despite studying a lot, he made a mistake.

Portuguese usually uses estar for a temporary state or condition, and ser for a more permanent characteristic or identity.

Here, cansada means tired, which is normally temporary, so estar is the natural choice:

• estar cansada = to be tired

If you used ser cansada, it would sound odd in this context, because it would suggest something more like a defining trait, not a temporary feeling.

Because cansada agrees with Ana, who is feminine.

In Portuguese, many adjectives change form to match the gender and number of the noun they describe:

• cansado = tired (masculine singular)
• cansada = tired (feminine singular)
• cansados = tired (masculine plural or mixed group)
• cansadas = tired (feminine plural)

Since Ana is one female person, the correct form is cansada.

After apesar de, Portuguese often uses the infinitive, especially when the subject is understood from the main clause.

So:

• Apesar de estar cansada, Ana...

means:

• Although Ana was tired, Ana...

The subject of estar is understood to be Ana.

You can also make the subject explicit:

• Apesar de Ana estar cansada, ...
• Apesar de ela estar cansada, ...

Those are also correct, but the original sentence is very natural and concise.

Both are in the pretérito perfeito (the simple past for completed actions).

• pegou = she took / she grabbed / she picked up
• diminuiu = she lowered / reduced / turned down

This tense is used for actions seen as completed events in the past.

Here it describes a sequence:

1. Ana picked up the remote
2. Ana lowered the volume

In Portuguese, pegar is a very common verb and often means:

• to take
• to grab
• to pick up

So pegou o controle remoto is very natural Portuguese for:

• picked up the remote control
• grabbed the remote control

Even if English would not always say took, Portuguese often uses pegar in this kind of everyday action.

Controle remoto means remote control.

• controle = control
• remoto = remote

In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, people often shorten it and just say:

• o controle

For example:

• Cadê o controle? = Where’s the remote?

So in context, pegou o controle remoto could also be said as pegou o controle if the context is clear.

Da is a contraction of de + a.

• de = of
• a televisão = the television
• de + a = da

So:

• o volume da televisão = the volume of the television
• more naturally in English: the TV’s volume

This is a very common Portuguese structure.

Other examples:

• a porta da casa = the door of the house / the house door
• o nome da professora = the teacher’s name

Portuguese uses definite articles much more often than English.

So where English says:

• television
• the television
• TV

Portuguese often naturally says:

• a televisão

That is why de + a televisão becomes da televisão.

This is completely normal and does not necessarily sound extra specific in Portuguese the way the television might in English.

Yes. Diminuir o volume means to lower the volume or to turn the volume down.

The verb diminuir means to decrease, reduce, or lower.

So:

• diminuiu o volume da televisão = she turned down the TV volume

Other common ways to say something similar are:

• baixou o volume = lowered the volume / turned it down

In everyday speech, baixar o volume is also very common.

Yes, but the structure would change.

You could say:

• Embora estivesse cansada, Ana pegou o controle remoto e diminuiu o volume da televisão.

Here:

• embora = although
• estivesse is in the subjunctive, which is required after embora

So the two versions are both natural, but they use different grammar:

• Apesar de estar cansada...
  uses apesar de + infinitive

• Embora estivesse cansada...
  uses embora + subjunctive

For learners, apesar de + infinitive is often easier to recognize and build.

Because once the subject is clear, Portuguese often leaves it out.

So:

• Ana pegou o controle remoto e diminuiu o volume...

naturally means:

• Ana picked up the remote control and lowered the volume...

Portuguese does not need to repeat Ana before diminuiu, because it is understood that the same person did both actions.

If you repeated it, it would still be grammatical:

• Ana pegou o controle remoto e Ana diminuiu o volume...

But that sounds unnecessarily repetitive.

Diminuiu is the past form of diminuir.

It can look difficult because of the vowel sequence, but it is a normal verb form in Portuguese.

Roughly, in Brazilian Portuguese it sounds like:

• dee-mee-noo-EE-o

The important thing is that it comes from:

• diminuir = to reduce

and in the simple past:

• eu diminuí
• você/ele/ela diminuiu

So diminuiu means he/she/you reduced/lowered.

Yes, very often.

A very natural everyday version would be:

• Apesar de estar cansada, Ana pegou o controle remoto e diminuiu o volume da TV.

Both are correct:

• televisão = full form
• TV = very common shorter form

In casual speech, TV is probably more common.