O carrapato está no pelo.

Because Portuguese often uses an article where English might not.

• o = the for a masculine singular noun
• carrapato is a masculine singular noun

So o carrapato means the tick.

If you wanted a tick, you would say um carrapato.

Using just carrapato with no article is possible in some contexts, but in a simple sentence like this, o carrapato sounds natural if you mean a specific tick.

Not necessarily. In Portuguese, nouns have grammatical gender, and that does not always match biological sex.

So carrapato is treated as a masculine noun, which is why it takes o. That does not automatically mean the tick is biologically male.

This is similar to how many Portuguese nouns are grammatically masculine or feminine even when no real-world sex is involved.

Because Portuguese uses estar for location.

• está = is from estar
• é = is from ser

When you say where something is, Portuguese normally uses estar:

• O carrapato está no pelo. = The tick is in/on the fur.
• A chave está na mesa. = The key is on the table.

Use ser for identity, definition, or more permanent characteristics:

• É um carrapato. = It is a tick.

So here, since the sentence is talking about where the tick is, está is the correct choice.

No is a contraction of:

• em = in / on / at
• o = the

So:

• em + o = no

That means no pelo literally means something like in the fur or on the fur, depending on the context.

This kind of contraction is extremely common in Portuguese:

• em + a = na
• em + os = nos
• em + as = nas

So O carrapato está no pelo is the natural form, not em o pelo.

Here, pelo means fur, coat, or body hair.

It is usually used for an animal’s hair or fur, not usually a person’s head hair.

A useful contrast is:

• pelo = fur / body hair
• cabelo = head hair

So if you are talking about a tick on a dog or another animal, pelo is a very natural choice.

Yes. Pelo can also be a contraction of:

• por + o = pelo

In that case, it can mean things like by the, through the, or for the, depending on context.

But in this sentence, pelo is clearly the noun meaning fur/hair, not the contraction.

Why?

Because the structure is:

• no pelo = in/on the fur

So here pelo is the thing where the tick is located.

Either can make sense depending on how you picture it.

Portuguese em is broader than English in. It can cover meanings that English expresses as:

• in
• on
• sometimes at

So no pelo can correspond to:

• in the fur
• on the fur

With a tick, English speakers might often say in the fur if they imagine it hidden among the hairs, or on the fur if they imagine it attached on the surface. Portuguese can use no pelo for that general location.

Because cabelo usually refers to human head hair, while pelo usually refers to animal fur or body hair.

So:

• no cabelo = in the hair
• no pelo = in/on the fur

If the sentence is about a tick on an animal, pelo is the expected word.

If it were about a person’s hair, cabelo would make more sense.

The accent mark shows that the stress falls on the last syllable:

• es-TÁ

It also helps distinguish está from esta, which is a different word:

• está = is
• esta = this (feminine)

So the accent is important both for pronunciation and for meaning.

A simple approximate pronunciation for an English speaker is:

oh kah-hah-PAH-too es-TAH noo PEH-loo

A few helpful notes:

• carrapato: the rr in Brazilian Portuguese is often pronounced like an English h sound, especially at the start of that syllable
• está: stress on the last syllable, -tá
• no: sounds like noo
• pelo: stress on pe-, and the final o in Brazilian Portuguese often sounds like a light oo

That is only an approximation, but it is a useful starting point.

You can, but O carrapato está no pelo is the normal, neutral word order.

It follows the common pattern:

• subject + verb + location

So:

• O carrapato = subject
• está = verb
• no pelo = location

A different order, such as No pelo está o carrapato, is possible, but it sounds more marked, literary, or emphatic. For everyday use, the original sentence is the best choice.