A vendedora me explicou a garantia do celular novo.

Portuguese often uses the definite article before nouns in places where English would not. So a vendedora means the saleswoman.

In Brazilian Portuguese, using the article with a profession or role is very normal when you are talking about a specific person already identifiable in the situation.

• A vendedora me explicou... = The saleswoman explained to me...

If you said just vendedora, it would usually sound incomplete in this kind of sentence.

Vendedora means saleswoman or female salesperson.

It is the feminine form of:

• vendedor = salesman / male salesperson
• vendedora = saleswoman / female salesperson

The ending -a often marks a feminine noun for a person, while -o often marks a masculine one.

In Brazilian Portuguese, object pronouns like me, te, lhe, nos often come before the verb in normal speech and writing.

So:

• A vendedora me explicou... = The saleswoman explained to me...

This is the most natural order in everyday Brazilian Portuguese.

You may also learn forms like explicou-me, but that is more formal and much less common in everyday Brazilian speech.

Here, me means to me.

The verb explicar is usually understood as:

• explicar algo a alguém = to explain something to someone

So in this sentence:

• a garantia = the thing being explained
• me = the person receiving the explanation

Even though Portuguese just says me, in English you usually translate it as to me.

Because with explicar, Portuguese normally uses an object pronoun like me for the person who receives the explanation.

So the natural structure is:

• A vendedora me explicou a garantia...

Using para mim here would usually sound less direct or unnecessary in a basic sentence like this.

Compare:

• Ela me explicou a garantia. = She explained the warranty to me.
• Ela explicou a garantia para mim. = possible, but less neutral and often more emphatic

In most ordinary situations, me explicou is the better choice.

Explicou is the preterite form of explicar.

It is:

• third person singular
• used for a completed action in the past

So:

• eu expliquei = I explained
• você/ele/ela explicou = you/he/she explained

In this sentence, explicou tells you that the explaining happened and was completed.

Because garantia is a feminine singular noun, and here it is being used with the definite article:

• a garantia = the warranty

So:

• garantia = warranty
• a garantia = the warranty

Portuguese uses articles very often, sometimes more often than English.

Do is a contraction of:

• de + o = do

So:

• a garantia do celular novo literally means the warranty of the new cellphone

This is a very common contraction in Portuguese.

Other common ones are:

• da = de + a
• dos = de + os
• das = de + as

Portuguese usually expresses possession or association with de rather than with an apostrophe structure like English.

So English:

• the new cellphone’s warranty

often becomes Portuguese:

• a garantia do celular novo
• literally: the warranty of the new cellphone

This is one of the most common ways Portuguese links two nouns.

Novo describes celular, not garantia.

So the structure is:

• a garantia
• do celular novo

That means:

• the warranty
• of the new cellphone

It does not mean the new warranty of the cellphone.

If you wanted new warranty, you would say:

• a garantia nova do celular

So adjective placement matters a lot here.

In Portuguese, adjectives often come after the noun.

So:

• celular novo = new cellphone
• carro novo = new car
• telefone novo = new phone

This is one of the most common differences from English, where adjectives usually come before the noun.

In Brazilian Portuguese, celular means cell phone or mobile phone.

This is the everyday word in Brazil.

European Portuguese more commonly uses telemóvel, but in Brazil the normal word is celular.

Yes, grammatically that is possible, but in Brazilian Portuguese it sounds more formal, literary, or old-fashioned.

Brazilian Portuguese strongly prefers:

• A vendedora me explicou...

European Portuguese is more comfortable with forms like:

• A vendedora explicou-me...

So for Brazilian Portuguese, me explicou is the form learners should usually prioritize.

Portuguese does not always include possessives when the context already makes ownership clear.

So depending on the intended meaning, a garantia do celular novo may naturally be understood from context without explicitly saying my.

If you wanted to make it explicit, you could say:

• A vendedora me explicou a garantia do meu celular novo.

That means The saleswoman explained the warranty of my new cellphone to me.

Portuguese often leaves out possessives when they are obvious from the situation.

Very often, yes. A common pattern is:

• explicar algo a alguém = to explain something to someone

Examples:

• Ela me explicou o problema. = She explained the problem to me.
• Eu expliquei a situação para ele. = I explained the situation to him.

In your sentence:

• a garantia = the thing explained
• me = the person it was explained to

So this sentence is a very useful model for how explicar works.