A esposa acendeu uma vela.

A is the feminine singular definite article, so here it means the.

• a esposa = the wife
• It is feminine singular because esposa is a feminine singular noun.

Also, Portuguese uses articles more often than English does, so a esposa sounds completely normal.

In normal Portuguese, esposa usually means wife, not a gender-neutral spouse.

That can confuse English speakers because it looks similar to spouse. The pair is:

• esposa = wife
• esposo = husband

If you want a more neutral word like spouse, Portuguese usually uses something else, such as cônjuge in more formal language.

Yes, esposa is correct and natural, but it can sound a bit more formal or explicit.

In everyday European Portuguese, people often say mulher to mean wife, depending on context. So both of these can work:

• A esposa acendeu uma vela.
• A mulher acendeu uma vela.

The first is clearer and a bit more formal. The second is often more everyday.

Uma is the feminine singular indefinite article, so here it means a/an.

• uma vela = a candle

Since vela is a singular countable noun, Portuguese normally uses an article here. Saying just acendeu vela would sound incomplete or unusual in this basic sentence.

The articles tell you:

• a esposa
• uma vela

Both a and uma are feminine singular articles.

It is true that many nouns ending in -a are feminine, and both esposa and vela are, but that is not a perfect rule for every noun in Portuguese. The safest habit is to learn nouns together with their article.

Acendeu is the past form of acender.

Here it means lit:

• A esposa acendeu uma vela. = The wife lit a candle.

Depending on the object, acender can also mean things like:

• turn on a light
• light a cigarette
• kindle a fire

So the core idea is to light / to switch on.

It is the preterite (simple past), third person singular.

So acendeu means:

• he lit
• she lit
• it lit
• sometimes you lit if você is the subject

In this sentence, the subject is A esposa, so it clearly means she lit.

The infinitive is acender.

A few useful forms are:

• eu acendo = I light / I turn on
• tu acendes = you light
• ele/ela/você acende = he/she/you light

Preterite:

• eu acendi = I lit
• tu acendeste = you lit
• ele/ela/você acendeu = he/she/you lit

So acendeu is the he/she/you past form.

No. It is the normal subject + verb + object order:

• A esposa = subject
• acendeu = verb
• uma vela = object

So the sentence structure is very straightforward.

Portuguese can sometimes omit the subject when it is understood from context, but here the speaker explicitly says who did the action: the wife.

No. Vela can have other meanings depending on context, including:

• candle
• sail
• in some contexts, vigil or wake

But in this sentence, acendeu uma vela clearly means lit a candle, because a candle is something you can light.

A useful way to hear the stress is:

• esPOsa
• acenDEU
• VEla

A few pronunciation notes for European Portuguese:

• The a in A esposa is very weak.
• In esposa, the first e is reduced.
• The second s in esposa sounds like z.
• In acendeu, the stress is on the last syllable.
• In vela, the stress is on the first syllable.

A word-by-word IPA guide is approximately:

• esposa = /ɨʃˈpɔzɐ/
• acendeu = /ɐsẽˈdew/
• vela = /ˈvɛlɐ/

So to an English-speaking learner, the sentence may sound more compressed and reduced than the spelling suggests, which is very typical of European Portuguese.