A senhora pode me passar o controle remoto? Quero ver se esse botão ainda funciona.

A senhora is a polite, formal way to say you when speaking to a woman in Brazilian Portuguese.

A few useful points:

• senhora by itself means lady or madam
• a senhora functions like a 3rd-person pronoun meaning you, ma’am
• It is more formal and respectful than você
• It is commonly used with older people, strangers, customers, or in more polite situations

So A senhora pode... literally looks like Can the lady..., but it really means Can you... in a respectful way.

Because a senhora takes 3rd-person verb forms in Portuguese, even though it means you.

So:

• você pode
• a senhora pode
• o senhor pode

All of these use pode, not podes.

This is very common in Brazilian Portuguese: forms like você, o senhor, and a senhora refer to you, but they use 3rd-person singular verbs.

Here passar means to hand something over, to pass, or to give someone something by handing it to them.

So me passar o controle remoto means:

• pass me the remote control
• literally: pass the remote control to me

The pronoun me means to me.

This structure is very common:

• Pode me ajudar? = Can you help me?
• Pode me dar isso? = Can you give me that?
• Pode me passar o sal? = Can you pass me the salt?

In Brazilian Portuguese, putting the object pronoun before the infinitive or before the verb is very common in everyday speech.

So pode me passar sounds natural in Brazil.

You may also see more formal or more traditional placements such as:

• pode passar-me
• pode passar o controle remoto para mim

But in normal Brazilian speech, pode me passar is the most natural choice.

Portuguese uses definite articles much more often than English.

So where English says:

• the remote control

Portuguese says:

• o controle remoto

That part is straightforward here because it is a specific object: the remote.

More generally, Portuguese often uses articles in places where English might not, so getting used to o / a / os / as is important.

Yes. Controle remoto is the standard and most common term in Brazilian Portuguese.

You will often hear:

• Cadê o controle remoto? = Where’s the remote?
• Pega o controle pra mim. = Get the remote for me.

In casual speech, many people may shorten it to just controle when the context is obvious.

Quero ver se literally means I want to see if/whether.

In this sentence, it means the speaker wants to test something:

• Quero ver se esse botão ainda funciona.
• I want to see if that button still works.

This structure is very common in Portuguese:

• Quero ver se ele vem. = I want to see if he comes.
• Vamos ver se dá certo. = Let’s see if it works out.
• Vou ver se consigo. = I’ll see if I can.

So ver se often means check whether or see if.

In Brazilian Portuguese, esse is very commonly used in everyday speech for this or that, depending on context.

Traditional grammar often gives this distinction:

• este = this, near the speaker
• esse = that, near the listener
• aquele = that over there, farther from both

But in real Brazilian usage, esse often replaces este in conversation.

So esse botão sounds very natural in Brazil, even if an older grammar explanation might make you expect este botão.

Ainda means still and funciona means works / is working / functions.

So ainda funciona means:

• still works
• is still working

Examples:

• Esse celular ainda funciona. = This phone still works.
• A TV ainda funciona? = Does the TV still work?

The idea is that the speaker is checking whether the button continues to work now, perhaps after time or after a problem.

Portuguese often omits subject pronouns when the meaning is clear from the verb form.

So Quero already tells you the subject is I:

• quero = I want

The full version would be:

• Eu quero ver se esse botão ainda funciona.

But eu is often omitted because it is unnecessary unless the speaker wants emphasis or contrast.

Yes, but the structure would change a little.

Natural options include:

• A senhora pode me passar o controle remoto?
• A senhora pode passar o controle remoto pra mim?

Both are common in Brazilian Portuguese.

The first one is a bit more compact and very natural. The second one is also extremely common in speech, especially informal speech.

What you normally would not say is:

• A senhora pode passar-me o controle remoto?

That is grammatically possible, but it sounds more formal or less typically Brazilian in everyday conversation.

Yes, it already sounds polite because it uses A senhora.

But there are ways to make it even softer or more polite:

• A senhora pode me passar o controle remoto, por favor?
• A senhora poderia me passar o controle remoto?
• Por favor, a senhora pode me passar o controle remoto?

A useful nuance:

• pode = can
• poderia = could

So poderia often sounds a little more courteous or less direct.

A very natural informal Brazilian version would be:

• Você pode me passar o controle remoto? Quero ver se esse botão ainda funciona.

Even more casual possibilities:

• Você me passa o controle? Quero ver se esse botão ainda funciona.
• Me passa o controle? Quero ver se esse botão ainda funciona.

The original sentence is more respectful because of A senhora.

Botão means button, and the ending -ão is a very common Portuguese ending.

Pronunciation-wise:

• bo sounds roughly like bo
• tão has a nasal sound, not a full English ow

A rough approximation for English speakers is bo-TAUNG, but with a nasal ending rather than a clear final g sound.

The -ão ending appears in many nouns:

• botão = button
• pão = bread
• televisão = television

It is worth practicing because it is one of the characteristic sounds of Portuguese.

Yes. In context, funciona can often be translated as either:

• works
• is working

Portuguese present tense is more flexible than English here.

So:

• esse botão ainda funciona = that button still works
• or that button is still working

Usually still works sounds most natural in English for this sentence, but both capture the idea.