Minha sobrinha leva uma pá pequena para brincar na areia.

Because sobrinha is a feminine singular noun, the possessive has to agree with it.

• meu sobrinho = my nephew
• minha sobrinha = my niece

In Portuguese, possessives usually agree with the thing possessed, not with the owner.

Sobrinha means niece. It is the feminine form of sobrinho, which means nephew.

This is a very common masculine/feminine pattern:

• -o ending often marks masculine: sobrinho
• -a ending often marks feminine: sobrinha

Leva is the third-person singular present tense of levar.

So it can mean:

• she takes
• she carries
• sometimes, depending on context, she is taking

Here, with minha sobrinha, it means my niece takes/carries.

A quick conjugation:

• eu levo = I take
• você/ele/ela leva = you/he/she takes
• nós levamos = we take
• eles/elas levam = they take

In Portuguese, adjectives often come after the noun, especially in ordinary, literal descriptions.

So:

• uma pá pequena = a small shovel/spade

Putting the adjective before the noun is sometimes possible, but it can sound more literary, emphatic, or stylistically marked. For basic descriptive use, noun + adjective is the safest pattern.

Pá usually means shovel, spade, or scoop, depending on context.

In this sentence, since the niece is going to play in the sand, pá pequena suggests a small shovel or little spade, like a toy or beach shovel.

Also note the accent:

• pá has a stressed vowel and is pronounced differently from an unaccented pa

The accent mark shows the stressed vowel and helps distinguish the word.

In practice, you should just learn pá as the normal spelling of this word. Portuguese uses written accents to mark stress and sometimes to distinguish words clearly.

For a learner, the important thing is:

• spell it pá
• pronounce it with a clear stressed a

Para + infinitive often expresses purpose in Portuguese.

So:

• para brincar = to play / in order to play

In the sentence, it tells us why she takes the shovel:

• She takes a small shovel to play in the sand.

This is very common:

• Estudo para aprender. = I study to learn.
• Trouxe água para beber. = I brought water to drink.

Because after para, Portuguese normally uses the infinitive when the subject is general or understood from context.

So:

• para brincar = to play

If you said para brinca, that would be grammatically wrong.

The infinitive is the dictionary form of the verb:

• brincar = to play

Na is a contraction of:

• em
  • a = na

So:

• na areia literally = in the sand

This kind of contraction is extremely common in Portuguese:

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

Examples:

• no parque = in the park
• na praia = at/on the beach

Because Portuguese usually uses an article where English often does not.

• na areia = literally in the sand
• natural English often just says in sand or in the sand, depending on context

Here, a areia refers to the sand as a known material or place of play, so na areia sounds natural.

This is a common difference from English. Portuguese frequently uses definite articles in places where English leaves them out.

A natural approximate pronunciation is:

MIN-ya so-BRIN-ya LE-va OO-ma PA pe-KE-na PA-ra brin-CAR na a-REI-a

A few useful notes:

• nh in minha and sobrinha is like the ny sound in canyon
• lh would be a different sound, but there is no lh here
• r in brincar at the end is softer in many Brazilian accents
• areia is pronounced roughly a-REI-a

Yes. Levar is a flexible verb. Depending on context, it can mean:

• to take
• to carry
• to bring along

In this sentence, English could naturally say either:

• My niece takes a small shovel to play in the sand.
• My niece carries a small shovel to play in the sand.

Takes is probably the most neutral translation, but carries also fits the image.

Yes. In informal spoken Brazilian Portuguese, para is very often pronounced and written as pra.

So in casual speech, many people would say:

• Minha sobrinha leva uma pá pequena pra brincar na areia.

Both are correct, but:

• para = more standard/full form
• pra = more informal, very common in speech and messages