Depois do jantar, lavei a frigideira e guardei a chaleira no armário.

In Portuguese, the subject pronoun is often omitted when the verb ending already makes the subject clear.

• lavei = I washed
• guardei = I put away / stored

The ending -ei tells you the subject is eu in the simple past for regular -ar verbs.

So:

• Eu lavei a frigideira = correct
• Lavei a frigideira = also correct, and very common

Portuguese does this much more often than English.

Do is a contraction of de + o.

• depois de = after
• o jantar = the dinner
• depois do jantar = literally after the dinner

So do comes from:

• de + o = do

This kind of contraction is extremely common in Portuguese.

Because depois normally needs the preposition de before a noun.

So you say:

• depois de + noun
• depois do jantar
• depois da aula
• depois do trabalho

Without de, it sounds incomplete or incorrect in standard Portuguese.

They are in the preterite (pretérito perfeito), which is the normal tense for completed past actions.

Here, the speaker is describing finished actions:

• first, they washed the frying pan
• then, they put the kettle away

So the preterite is the natural choice.

Compare:

• lavei = I washed
• guardei = I put away / stored

If the sentence were describing an ongoing or habitual past action, Portuguese might use the imperfect instead, but not here.

Because both verbs are regular -ar verbs in the eu form of the preterite.

Infinitives:

• lavar = to wash
• guardar = to put away, keep, store

Preterite, eu form:

• lavar → lavei
• guardar → guardei

This is a very common pattern:

• falei = I spoke
• comprei = I bought
• arrumei = I arranged / tidied

So once you know the pattern, forms like these become much easier to recognize.

Those are the definite articles that match the gender of each noun.

• a frigideira — feminine
• a chaleira — feminine
• o armário — masculine

In Portuguese, nouns have grammatical gender, and articles must agree with them.

That is why you get:

• a for feminine singular nouns
• o for masculine singular nouns

This is not about biological gender here; it is just part of the grammar of the noun.

Because no is the contraction of em + o.

• em = in
• o armário = the cabinet / cupboard / closet
• em o armário → no armário

So:

• no = in the (masculine singular)
• na = in the (feminine singular)

Examples:

• no armário
• na cozinha
• nos quartos
• nas gavetas

These contractions are required in normal Portuguese.

Here it means dinner, a noun.

You can tell because it appears after an article:

• o jantar = the dinner

And in the phrase:

• depois do jantar = after dinner

But jantar can also be a verb:

• Vou jantar agora. = I’m going to have dinner now.

So jantar can be either a noun or a verb, depending on the structure.

Guardei usually means something like:

• I put away
• I stored
• I kept
• I put it back

In this sentence, guardei a chaleira no armário sounds more like I put the kettle away in the cupboard/cabinet, not just I put the kettle in the cupboard in a neutral sense.

If you used coloquei, that would focus more on physically placing it somewhere:

• coloquei a chaleira no armário = I placed/put the kettle in the cupboard

So guardei suggests tidying away or storing after use.

They are different kinds of cookware.

• frigideira = frying pan / skillet
• panela = pot / saucepan

So in this sentence, frigideira is specifically a frying pan, not a generic pan in every possible sense.

Learners often confuse these because English pan can cover several things, while Portuguese usually uses more specific words.

This word order is natural and standard:

• Depois do jantar, lavei a frigideira e guardei a chaleira no armário.

Portuguese does allow some flexibility, but not every change sounds equally natural.

For example:

• Depois do jantar, guardei a chaleira no armário e lavei a frigideira.
  This is also correct, but it changes the order of the actions.

• Lavei a frigideira depois do jantar e guardei a chaleira no armário.
  Also correct.

But something like:

• Guardei no armário a chaleira

is grammatically possible, yet less neutral in everyday speech. The original order is the most straightforward for a learner.

Because Portuguese, like English, often keeps full nouns when introducing or listing actions clearly.

So:

• lavei a frigideira e guardei a chaleira no armário

is very natural.

You could use pronouns in some contexts, especially if the objects were already established:

• Lavei-a e guardei-a no armário.

But that sounds more formal or literary in Brazilian Portuguese, and it is not the most natural everyday version.

In spoken Brazilian Portuguese, people often prefer full nouns or different pronoun strategies instead of these attached object pronouns.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Depois do jantar ≈ de-POYZ do jan-TAR
• lavei ≈ la-VEY
• a frigideira ≈ a free-zhee-DAY-ra or free-jee-DAY-ra, depending on accent
• e guardei ≈ ee gwar-DAY
• a chaleira ≈ a sha-LAY-ra
• no armário ≈ nu ar-MA-ryu

A few useful notes for Brazilian Portuguese:

• depois usually sounds like depoiz
• unstressed o at the end of a word often sounds like u
• lh in chaleira is like the lli in million, but smoother
• r in armário depends on accent, but learners can start with a light flap or soft h-like sound depending on position

You do not need perfect pronunciation at first; recognizing these sound patterns is already very helpful.