O cartório fica perto do posto de atendimento.

Cartório is a very Brazilian term. It usually refers to an official registry or notary office where people handle legal and civil paperwork, such as:

• birth, marriage, and death records
• notarized signatures
• certified copies
• property records in some cases

There is no perfect one-word English equivalent, so learners often need to understand it as a specifically Brazilian institution.

Because cartório is a masculine singular noun, and Portuguese commonly uses the definite article o before nouns when talking about a specific place.

So:

• o cartório = the registry office / the notary office

In Portuguese, articles are often used more naturally and more frequently than in English.

In this sentence, fica means is located or is situated.

The verb ficar has several meanings in Portuguese, but one very common use is location:

• O banco fica na esquina. = The bank is on the corner.
• Minha casa fica longe. = My house is far away.

So O cartório fica perto... literally feels like The registry office is located near...

Sometimes yes, but fica is usually more natural when giving the location of a place.

Compare:

• O cartório fica perto do posto de atendimento. = natural for location
• O cartório está perto do posto de atendimento. = understandable, but slightly less standard in this kind of description

A helpful shortcut:

• ficar = to be located
• estar = to be / to be in a temporary state or position

For addresses and geographic location, ficar is extremely common.

Perto means near, but it normally comes with de:

• perto de = near

Since de is followed by o, they contract:

• de + o = do

So:

• perto do posto = near the service post/office

In standard Portuguese, de o is normally not used here; the contraction do is expected.

Posto de atendimento usually means a service point, service desk, service office, or customer service location, depending on context.

Breakdown:

• posto = post, station, service point
• atendimento = service, assistance, customer service, attendance

Together, it refers to a place where people go to receive some kind of service or assistance.

This is a very common Portuguese noun pattern:

• noun + de + noun

Here, de connects the two nouns and shows what kind of posto it is:

• posto de atendimento = service post / assistance office
• posto de gasolina = gas station
• sala de aula = classroom

So de atendimento describes the function of the posto.

Do is a contraction of:

• de + o

It can mean things like:

• of the
• from the
• sometimes just part of a fixed expression after a preposition

In this sentence:

• perto do posto de atendimento

the do comes from perto de + o posto.

Yes, it is fairly similar here:

• O cartório = the subject
• fica = the verb
• perto do posto de atendimento = location phrase

So the structure is basically:

• The registry office is located near the service office.

This sentence is very straightforward for an English speaker.

A rough pronunciation guide:

• cartório → car-TO-ryo
• atendimento → a-ten-de-MEN-too

A few notes:

• The accent mark in cartório shows the stress: tó
• The r in Brazilian Portuguese can vary by region
• The final o in Brazil is often pronounced like a light oo sound

So cartório does not sound like English cartorio with stress on the wrong syllable; the stress is clearly on tó.

Yes. Próximo de and perto de both mean near.

So these are both possible:

• O cartório fica perto do posto de atendimento.
• O cartório fica próximo do posto de atendimento.

In everyday speech, perto de is often simpler and very common. Próximo de can sound a little more formal, depending on context.