Hoje eu tive sorte e encontrei minha carteira no sofá.

Because tive and encontrei are in the simple past (pretérito perfeito), which is used for completed actions in the past.

• tive = I had
• encontrei = I found

So the sentence is talking about something that happened today, but it is still viewed as a finished event:

• Hoje eu tive sorte = Today I was lucky / had luck
• encontrei minha carteira = I found my wallet

In Portuguese, hoje does not force the present tense. You can still use the past if the event already happened.

In Portuguese, ter sorte is the most natural way to say to be lucky in many situations.

• ter sorte = to have luck
• eu tive sorte = I was lucky / I got lucky

You could say fui sortudo, but that sounds less natural here and more like describing someone as a generally lucky person. In this sentence, tive sorte fits better because it refers to a specific event.

Not always. Portuguese often drops subject pronouns when the verb already makes the subject clear.

So both of these are correct:

• Hoje eu tive sorte e encontrei minha carteira no sofá.
• Hoje tive sorte e encontrei minha carteira no sofá.

The eu may be included for:

• emphasis,
• clarity,
• natural speech rhythm.

Since tive and encontrei clearly show I, leaving out eu is very common.

E means and.

It connects the two past actions:

• tive sorte = I was lucky
• encontrei minha carteira no sofá = I found my wallet on the couch

So the structure is simply:

Hoje + eu tive sorte + e + encontrei minha carteira no sofá

Portuguese often uses a possessive like meu / minha when talking about personal belongings.

• minha carteira = my wallet

Using minha makes it explicit whose wallet it is. That is very natural in Portuguese.

You may also notice that Portuguese often uses the definite article with possessives in many contexts:

• a minha carteira

But in this sentence, minha carteira without the article is also completely natural.

Yes. Carteira can mean different things depending on context.

Common meanings include:

• wallet
• school desk
• ID card / work card in some contexts

In this sentence, because of encontrei minha carteira no sofá, the meaning is clearly wallet.

This is a good example of why context matters in Portuguese vocabulary.

Because no is a contraction:

• em + o = no

So:

• no sofá = on the couch / on the sofa
• literally: in/on the sofa

Portuguese regularly contracts em with definite articles:

• em + o = no
• em + a = na
• em + os = nos
• em + as = nas

Examples:

• na mesa = on the table
• no carro = in the car

Portuguese em covers both in and on in many situations. The exact translation depends on context.

So:

• no sofá usually means on the couch
• na cadeira = on the chair
• na caixa = in the box

English makes a stronger distinction between in and on than Portuguese often does. In Portuguese, em is broader.

The basic order is:

Hoje | eu | tive sorte | e | encontrei | minha carteira | no sofá

Broken down:

• Hoje = time expression
• eu = subject
• tive / encontrei = verbs
• minha carteira = object
• no sofá = place

This word order is very natural in Portuguese.

You could also hear variations like:

• Eu encontrei minha carteira no sofá hoje.
• Hoje encontrei minha carteira no sofá.

But the original sentence sounds very normal and clear.

Usually, in normal conversation, no sofá would be understood as on the couch unless context suggests otherwise.

If you wanted to be very explicit, you could say:

• em cima do sofá = on top of the couch
• dentro do sofá = inside the couch

But in everyday Portuguese, encontrei minha carteira no sofá naturally suggests the wallet was on the sofa.

A rough pronunciation guide for Brazilian Portuguese is:

OH-zhee eh-oo CHEE-vee SOR-chee ee en-kohn-TREY mee-nyah car-TAY-rah no soh-FA

A few useful notes:

• Hoje: the j sounds like the s in measure
• tive: in Brazilian Portuguese, ti often sounds like chee
• sorte: final te often sounds like chee
• encontrei: stress is on the last syllable -trei
• minha: sounds roughly like mee-nyah
• sofá: stress is on the last syllable -fá

Pronunciation varies by region, but this is a good Brazil-focused approximation.

Yes, often you can.

• encontrar = to find
• achar can also mean to find

So Achei minha carteira no sofá is very common in everyday Brazilian Portuguese.

However, achar also means to think / to find (in the sense of opinion):

• Acho que vai chover = I think it’s going to rain

Because of that, encontrar is more specific and unambiguous, while achar is often more colloquial.

It could be. That would also be a perfectly natural sentence.

The difference is in the relationship between the ideas:

• e = simply links two events: I was lucky and I found my wallet
• porque = makes the cause explicit: I was lucky because I found my wallet

So:

• Hoje eu tive sorte e encontrei minha carteira no sofá.
  More like a simple narration.

• Hoje tive sorte porque encontrei minha carteira no sofá.
  More explicitly explains why the speaker was lucky.

Both are correct; they just emphasize the connection differently.