O professor disse que, na universidade, tanto a experiência profissional quanto o diploma são importantes.

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

So:

• o professor = the professor
• professor by itself can sound more general, like professor/teacher as a role or label

Here, O professor disse... means The professor said..., referring to a particular professor.

English often leaves out articles in places where Portuguese prefers them, so this is something learners notice a lot.

Disse is the past tense of dizer (to say):

• dizer = to say
• ele/ela disse = he/she said

The word que here means that and introduces the content of what was said.

So:

• O professor disse que... = The professor said that...

In English, that is often optional:

• The professor said that...
• The professor said...

In Portuguese, que is normally kept.

The phrase na universidade is inserted as extra contextual information, almost like at the university or in the university setting.

So the sentence is structured like this:

• O professor disse que
• na universidade
• tanto a experiência profissional quanto o diploma são importantes

The commas show that na universidade is a parenthetical or inserted phrase, not the main backbone of the clause.

Without the commas, the sentence would still be understandable:

• O professor disse que na universidade tanto a experiência profissional quanto o diploma são importantes.

That version is also natural. The commas just add a slight pause and make the setting stand out a bit more.

Na is a contraction of:

• em = in, at
• a = the

So:

• em + a = na

That means:

• na universidade = in the university / at the university

Portuguese very often contracts em with articles:

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

This is something you will see constantly.

Portuguese usually uses an article where English may not.

So Portuguese prefers:

• na universidade = literally in the university / at the university

rather than:

• em universidade, which sounds unnatural in most normal contexts

The article helps make the phrase sound complete and idiomatic. Even when English says something like in college or at university, Portuguese often still uses the article.

This is a very useful structure.

Tanto ... quanto ... means:

• both ... and ...
• sometimes also as much ... as ..., depending on context

In your sentence, it connects two nouns:

• tanto a experiência profissional quanto o diploma
• both professional experience and the diploma

So the pattern is:

• tanto + item 1 + quanto + item 2

Examples:

• Tanto o inglês quanto o português são úteis.
  = Both English and Portuguese are useful.
• Tanto Maria quanto João vieram.
  = Both Maria and João came.

Yes, quanto can mean how much, but here it is part of the fixed pairing tanto ... quanto ....

So in this sentence, you should not read quanto separately. Think of the whole structure together:

• tanto ... quanto ... = both ... and ...

It is not asking a question and it is not about quantity here.

Because the subject is made up of two things joined together:

• a experiência profissional
• o diploma

Together, they form a compound subject:

• tanto a experiência profissional quanto o diploma

Since there are two items, Portuguese uses a plural verb:

• são importantes = are important

This is the same idea as in English:

• Experience and the diploma are important.

Even though each noun is singular individually, together they are plural in meaning.

Because the sentence is talking about two things together, not one:

• a experiência profissional
• o diploma

That requires plural agreement:

• são = are
• importantes = plural form of important

So:

• é importante = is important for one thing
• são importantes = are important for more than one thing

In Portuguese, adjectives often come after the noun, especially in straightforward descriptive statements.

Here, importantes describes both:

• a experiência profissional
• o diploma

So Portuguese naturally says:

• ... são importantes = ... are important

This is very normal word order.

Adjectives in Portuguese usually agree in number with the noun or nouns they describe.

Since importantes refers to two things together, it must be plural:

• singular: importante
• plural: importantes

Compare:

• O diploma é importante.
  = The diploma is important.
• O diploma e a experiência são importantes.
  = The diploma and experience are important.

Yes, it is very close.

• experiência = experience
• profissional = professional

So experiência profissional usually means:

• professional experience
• work experience

In many contexts, English speakers might naturally say work experience, even though the Portuguese uses profissional.

Because Portuguese nouns have grammatical gender.

• experiência is feminine, so it takes a
• diploma is masculine, so it takes o

So:

• a experiência
• o diploma

This gender does not necessarily match biological sex or English logic. It is just part of how the noun works in Portuguese, so it has to be learned with the noun.

Profissional is an adjective describing the type of experience.

So:

• experiência = experience
• experiência profissional = professional/work-related experience

It tells you this is not just any life experience, but experience connected to work or a profession.

Yes. That would also be correct.

For example:

• Na universidade, o diploma e a experiência profissional são importantes.

This simply states that both are important.

Using tanto ... quanto ... adds emphasis to the idea of both items being important. It highlights the pairing more clearly than a simple e.

So:

• o diploma e a experiência profissional = neutral the diploma and professional experience
• tanto a experiência profissional quanto o diploma = more explicit both professional experience and the diploma

Yes. You can reverse the two items if you want:

• ... tanto o diploma quanto a experiência profissional são importantes.

This still means the same thing: both the diploma and professional experience are important.

Usually, the order may depend on emphasis, style, or what the speaker wants to mention first.

Because dizer normally introduces reported speech or a full statement with que.

So Portuguese says:

• O professor disse que... = The professor said that...

After que, you get a complete clause with its own subject and verb:

• tanto a experiência profissional quanto o diploma são importantes

You would not use an infinitive here because the professor is not saying to do something. He is reporting an idea or statement.

It would be:

• O professor disse que tanto a experiência profissional quanto o diploma são importantes.

That means:

• The professor said that both professional experience and the diploma are important.

Adding na universidade narrows the context:

• specifically at the university or in the university context

They show pronunciation.

• experiência has an acute accent in ê/é-type stress marking that helps indicate where the stress goes and how the vowel is pronounced
• são has a tilde (ã), which shows a nasal sound

Very roughly:

• experiência sounds like the stress falls on ên
• são has a nasal vowel, something like sown but nasalized, not exactly like any normal English word

Accent marks in Portuguese are important because they often tell you:

• where the stress is
• whether a vowel is open/closed
• whether the sound is nasal

It can often be understood a bit more broadly than just the physical campus.

Depending on context, na universidade may mean:

• at the university
• in university life
• in the academic environment
• in higher education

So it may refer either to the institution itself or to the broader setting in which academic and professional qualifications matter.

Yes, very natural.

Several parts are especially common:

• O professor disse que...
• na universidade
• tanto ... quanto ...
• plural agreement in são importantes

So this sentence is a good example of normal, educated Brazilian Portuguese.