De manhã começou uma garoa, mas agora o tempo está melhor.

De manhã means in the morning here.

In Brazilian Portuguese, de manhã and pela manhã are both common and usually mean the same thing.

• De manhã is a little more everyday and conversational.
• Pela manhã can sound slightly more formal or a bit more explicit.

So this sentence could also be: Pela manhã começou uma garoa, mas agora o tempo está melhor.

Both are natural.

Começou is the preterite, which is used for a completed event: it started / it began.

Here, the sentence is talking about a specific change:

• In the morning, the drizzle started
• Now, the weather is better

So começou fits well because it marks the beginning of the drizzle as a single event.

If you said começava, that would be the imperfect, which usually gives background, repeated actions, or an action in progress in the past. It would sound less natural in this sentence unless there were more context.

Garoa means drizzle: very light rain, usually fine and gentle.

It is not exactly the same as chuva, which is the general word for rain.

So:

• chuva = rain
• garoa = drizzle / light misty rain

In Brazilian Portuguese, garoa is a very common weather word, especially in everyday speech.

In Portuguese, it is very normal to use an indefinite article with weather-related nouns when referring to a type or instance of something.

So começou uma garoa literally looks like a drizzle started, which sounds a bit unusual in English, but it is natural in Portuguese.

Other similar patterns:

• Começou uma chuva forte. = A heavy rain started / It started raining heavily.
• Veio um vento gelado. = A cold wind came up.

Portuguese often uses a noun phrase where English might prefer a verb phrase.

Portuguese often prefers a structure with começar + noun to describe the start of weather conditions:

• começou uma garoa
• começou uma chuva
• começou um temporal

A verb like garoar does exist, and garoou can be understood, but começou uma garoa is more common and natural for many speakers.

So the sentence uses a very standard everyday pattern.

Yes, tempo can mean time, but it can also mean weather, depending on context.

Here, o tempo está melhor means the weather is better.

This is a very important Portuguese word because it has both meanings:

• Não tenho tempo. = I don’t have time.
• O tempo está bom hoje. = The weather is good today.

Context tells you which meaning is intended.

Portuguese uses estar for temporary states or conditions, and weather is treated as a current condition.

So:

• O tempo está melhor. = The weather is better.

Using ser here would sound wrong, because ser is not normally used for changing weather conditions like this.

A good way to think about it:

• estar = current state, how something is right now
• ser = essential identity or more permanent characteristic

Since the weather can change from hour to hour, estar is the natural choice.

Melhor is the irregular comparative form of bom, just like better is the comparative of good in English.

So:

• bom = good
• melhor = better

You do not normally say mais bom for standard comparison.

Examples:

• Hoje está bom. = Today it’s good.
• Agora está melhor. = Now it’s better.

Mas means but, and agora means now.

Together, they create a contrast:

• earlier: drizzle started in the morning
• now: the weather is better

So mas agora is a very natural way to say: but now...

It helps show the change between the earlier weather and the current situation.

Both are possible, but starting with De manhã puts the time first and sets the scene immediately.

Compare:

• De manhã começou uma garoa. = In the morning, a drizzle started.
• Uma garoa começou de manhã. = A drizzle started in the morning.

The first version sounds especially natural if the speaker wants to organize the sentence by time:

1. morning
2. what happened
3. contrast with now

Portuguese is fairly flexible with word order, especially when moving time expressions to the front.

Yes, beginners often confuse them because they sound somewhat similar, but they mean completely different things:

• de manhã = in the morning
• amanhã = tomorrow

Examples:

• De manhã começou uma garoa. = In the morning, a drizzle started.
• Amanhã vai chover. = Tomorrow it will rain.

It is a very common mix-up for English speakers, so it is worth paying attention to.

Yes. Agora o tempo melhorou is also correct and natural.

There is a small difference in focus:

• o tempo está melhor = the weather is better now; focus on the current state
• o tempo melhorou = the weather improved; focus on the change

In many situations, they are very close in meaning.
The original sentence uses está melhor because it emphasizes how the weather is at this moment.

The original sentence is already natural. In casual speech, you might also hear:

• De manhã começou uma garoa, mas agora o tempo tá melhor.
• Hoje de manhã começou uma garoa, mas agora o tempo está melhor.
• Mais cedo começou uma garoa, mas agora o tempo está melhor.

The main spoken change is that está often becomes tá in informal conversation:

• está melhor → tá melhor

That is very common in Brazil.