O filhote machucou a pata.

Filhote usually means a baby animal or young animal. Depending on context, it can be translated as puppy, cub, kitten, and so on.

In O filhote machucou a pata, it most naturally means something like the puppy or the young animal.

A useful contrast:

• filho / filha = son / daughter
• filhote = baby animal, young one

O means the, while um means a/an.

So:

• O filhote = the puppy / the young animal
• Um filhote = a puppy / a young animal

Portuguese uses definite and indefinite articles much like English, but often a bit more frequently. Here, o tells us the speaker has a specific animal in mind.

Machucou is the simple past form of the verb machucar.

So:

• machucar = to hurt / to injure
• machucou = hurt / injured

In this sentence, it means the action happened in the past:

• O filhote machucou a pata = The puppy hurt its paw / The young animal injured its paw

Because machucar is an -ar verb, and -ou is the 3rd person singular ending in the simple past.

So for machucar:

• eu machuquei = I hurt
• você/ele/ela machucou = you/he/she hurt

Since o filhote is a third-person singular subject, machucou is the correct form.

This is a very common and important feature of Portuguese.

Portuguese often uses the definite article (o, a, os, as) with body parts, instead of a possessive like my, your, or its, when the owner is already clear from context.

So:

• machucou a pata literally = hurt the paw
• but in natural English, we usually say = hurt its paw

Other examples:

• Ela lavou as mãos. = She washed her hands.
• Ele machucou o braço. = He hurt his arm.

Portuguese sounds more natural with the article here than with sua.

Grammatically, the phrase itself just says hurt the paw, but in normal context, listeners usually understand it as its own paw, because the body part naturally belongs to the subject.

If you really needed to make it explicit, you could say:

• O filhote machucou a própria pata. = The puppy hurt its own paw.

So in ordinary use, a pata is enough.

Because pata is a feminine noun in Portuguese. That is why it takes the feminine article a:

• a pata

Grammatical gender in Portuguese does not always match biological sex. Here, pata is simply the normal noun for an animal’s paw, and it is feminine.

That is also why you say:

• a pata not
• o pata

Pata is normally used for the paw, foot, or leg of an animal, especially a four-legged animal.

Pé usually means foot in general, especially for humans.

So:

• O cachorro machucou a pata. = The dog hurt its paw.
• Ele machucou o pé. = He hurt his foot.

For animals, pata is the natural choice here.

No. Filhote is broader than English puppy.

It can refer to the young of many animals:

• filhote de cachorro = puppy
• filhote de gato = kitten
• filhote de leão = lion cub

If the sentence is shown without context, the young animal is the safest general meaning. If the surrounding context is about a dog, then the puppy is a very natural translation.

Yes. This is a very standard Portuguese word order:

Subject + verb + object

• O filhote = subject
• machucou = verb
• a pata = object

This is the most neutral, natural order for a basic statement.

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

oo fee-LYO-chee mah-shoo-KOH ah PAH-tah

A few notes:

• filhote has lh, which sounds like the lli in million
• machucou ends with stress on the last syllable: -cou
• pata has stress on the first syllable: PA-ta

Pronunciation varies by region, but this approximation is good for Brazilian Portuguese.

Yes. Machucar can cover both ideas depending on context.

It can mean:

• to hurt
• to injure
• to get hurt in some contexts when used reflexively: machucar-se

So:

• O filhote machucou a pata could be translated as:
  • The puppy hurt its paw
  • The puppy injured its paw

Both are natural.

You would make the subject plural and change the verb accordingly:

• Os filhotes machucaram a pata. = The puppies hurt a paw / their paw
• Os filhotes machucaram as patas. = The puppies hurt their paws

Most of the time, if each one hurt its own paw or more than one paw is involved, as patas may sound more natural. But the exact choice depends on the situation.