A criança quebrou a xícara sem querer.

In Portuguese, it is very common to use the definite article before nouns, especially when talking about a specific person or thing.

So A criança means the child.

If you said just criança, it would sound less complete here. In a full sentence like this, Portuguese normally wants the article:

• A criança quebrou a xícara. = The child broke the cup.

Criança can refer to either a boy or a girl. It means child in a general sense.

Even though criança is grammatically feminine, that does not mean the child must be female. Portuguese grammatical gender and real-life gender are not always the same thing.

So:

• A criança = the child
  and it could be a boy or a girl.

If you later describe the child with an adjective or pronoun, speakers may sometimes choose forms based on the actual child, depending on context.

Because criança is a feminine noun grammatically. In Portuguese, nouns have grammatical gender, and articles must agree with the noun.

So we say:

• a criança
• not o criança

This is true even when the child is male.

Quebrou is the preterite form of the verb quebrar (to break).

Here it means a completed action in the past:

• quebrou = broke

Conjugation:

• eu quebrei = I broke
• você/ele/ela quebrou = you/he/she broke
• a criança quebrou = the child broke

So the sentence describes one finished event.

Because quebrou refers to a single completed action: the child broke the cup.

Quebrava is the imperfect tense, which usually suggests:

• repeated past actions,
• ongoing past actions,
• or background description.

Compare:

• A criança quebrou a xícara. = The child broke the cup.
• A criança quebrava brinquedos com frequência. = The child used to break toys often.

In your sentence, the event is a one-time completed action, so quebrou is the natural choice.

Xícara is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine article a.

• a xícara = the cup
• uma xícara = a cup

So both article-noun pairs in the sentence agree in gender:

• a criança
• a xícara

No. Xícara and copo are different.

• xícara = a cup, usually with a handle, often for coffee or tea
• copo = a glass or drinking tumbler, usually without a handle

So in this sentence, xícara specifically means cup, not just any drinking container.

The accent in xícara shows the stressed syllable and helps with pronunciation.

It is pronounced with stress on the first syllable:

• XÍ-ca-ra

Without the accent, the reader might not know the correct stress pattern.

Literally, sem querer means without wanting to.

• sem = without
• querer = to want

But in natural English, the whole expression usually means:

• by accident
• accidentally
• without meaning to

So in this sentence, it tells us the child did not do it intentionally.

Yes, very common. Brazilians use sem querer all the time to talk about accidental actions.

Examples:

• Desculpa, fiz isso sem querer. = Sorry, I did that by accident.
• Apertei o botão sem querer. = I pressed the button accidentally.

It is one of the most useful everyday expressions for learners.

Very often, yes. In many contexts, sem querer and accidentally are excellent translations.

But literally, sem querer focuses on lack of intention: without meaning to.

So depending on context, it may sound closer to:

• accidentally
• by accident
• without meaning to

All three are good English equivalents in many cases.

Because it modifies the action quebrou and adds the idea that it happened unintentionally.

Putting it at the end is very natural in Portuguese:

• A criança quebrou a xícara sem querer.

This is similar to English:

• The child broke the cup by accident.

You may also hear slight variations depending on emphasis, but the version in your sentence is the most natural and common.

Yes. Quebrar has several uses, just like to break in English.

Common meanings include:

• to break something physically
  
  • Ela quebrou o prato.
• to violate / break a rule
  
  • quebrar uma regra
• to interrupt / break a silence
  
  • quebrar o silêncio
• to go bankrupt / ruin financially in some contexts
  
  • A empresa quebrou.

But in your sentence, the meaning is the basic physical one: the child broke the cup.

Not usually in Brazilian Portuguese for this situation.

In Brazil, quebrar is the normal verb for breaking a cup, glass, plate, etc.

Partir often means to split, to cut, or to divide, and in many contexts it does not sound as natural for accidentally breaking a cup.

So:

• A criança quebrou a xícara. = natural
• A criança partiu a xícara. = unusual in most Brazilian contexts

No. Portuguese often leaves out subject pronouns when the subject is already stated or clear.

Here the subject is explicitly A criança, so there is no need to add a pronoun:

• A criança quebrou a xícara.

Adding ela would usually be unnecessary and could sound repetitive unless you want extra emphasis.

The basic structure is:

• A criança = subject
• quebrou = verb
• a xícara = direct object
• sem querer = expression modifying the action

So the order is basically:

Subject + Verb + Object + Expression

That is very similar to English:

• The child broke the cup by accident.

Yes, but it would change the meaning slightly.

• a xícara = the cup
  a specific cup, known in the context
• uma xícara = a cup
  any cup, not specifically identified

So:

• A criança quebrou a xícara sem querer. = The child broke the cup by accident.
• A criança quebrou uma xícara sem querer. = The child broke a cup by accident.

Both are grammatical; they just mean different things.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

a kree-AN-sa keh-BROH a SHEE-ka-ra seng keh-RER

A few notes:

• criança has nasal sound in -an-
• quebrou is stressed on the last syllable: -brou
• xícara in Brazil usually begins with a sh sound: SHEE-ka-ra
• sem has a nasal ending
• querer ends with stress on the last syllable

Exact pronunciation varies by region, but this is a good Brazilian approximation.