Acabámos de vidrar a faiança.

It means have/has just done something.

So acabámos de vidrar a faiança means we have just glazed the earthenware/faience.

This is a very common Portuguese structure:

• Acabei de comer. = I’ve just eaten.
• Acabaram de sair. = They’ve just left.

Even though acabámos is a past form, the whole expression often corresponds to English have just + past participle.

In European Portuguese, the accent helps distinguish two different nós forms:

• acabamos = we finish / we are finishing (present)
• acabámos = we finished (simple past)

In the expression acabámos de vidrar, the past form is used as part of the fixed structure meaning we have just glazed.

This accent distinction is especially useful in European Portuguese.

Because the idiom is acabar de + infinitive.

It is a set grammatical pattern, not something you usually translate word for word. After acabar in this meaning, Portuguese requires de:

• acabar de fazer
• acabar de chegar
• acabar de vidrar

So de is not optional here.

Because after acabar de, Portuguese uses an infinitive.

So the structure is:

acabar + de + infinitive

Examples:

• acabámos de comer
• acabámos de sair
• acabámos de vidrar

This is similar to English to just do something, except Portuguese keeps the verb in the infinitive after de.

Yes, absolutely.

Portuguese often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is. Acabámos clearly means we.

So both are correct:

• Acabámos de vidrar a faiança.
• Nós acabámos de vidrar a faiança.

Adding nós can give extra emphasis, contrast, or clarity, but it is not necessary.

Because Portuguese often uses the definite article with direct objects where English might or might not use one.

Here, a is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the:

• a faiança = the faience / the earthenware

It is feminine because faiança is a feminine noun.

In some contexts, Portuguese could omit the article, but with a specific object like this, a faiança sounds very natural.

Vidrar means to glaze, to coat with a glassy surface, or sometimes more literally to make glass-like.

In a ceramics context, it means applying a glaze to pottery or earthenware.

So in this sentence, it is a specialised verb related to pottery, ceramics, or decorative finishing.

Be careful: in other contexts, related words can have different meanings, but here vidrar clearly refers to glazing ceramic material.

Faiança refers to faience, earthenware, or a type of glazed ceramic ware.

It is a fairly specific noun, often used in artistic, historical, decorative, or craft contexts.

A learner should understand it as a ceramics-related word, not as general pottery in every possible sense. Depending on context, English translations might include:

• faience
• earthenware
• ceramic ware

Formally, acabámos is a past form, but the whole expression acabámos de + infinitive usually expresses a recently completed action, which English often translates with the present perfect:

• Acabámos de vidrar a faiança.
• We have just glazed the earthenware.

So the best way to understand it is by the full expression, not by translating acabámos on its own.

Not usually in this exact structure.

If you say acabámos de vidrar a faiança, the normal meaning is we have just glazed the earthenware.

If you want to say we finished glazing the earthenware, Portuguese would more naturally use something like:

• Acabámos por vidrar a faiança. = different meaning, more like we ended up glazing the earthenware
• Terminámos de vidrar a faiança. = we finished glazing the earthenware
• Acabámos o trabalho de vidrar a faiança. = we finished the job of glazing the earthenware

So acabar de + infinitive is specifically the have just done pattern.

In European Portuguese, acabámos is stressed on the syllable -bá- because of the accent:

a-ca-BÁ-mos

The accent mark shows the stressed vowel and helps distinguish it from acabamos.

Also, in European Portuguese, unstressed vowels are often reduced, so the pronunciation may sound less fully vowel-by-vowel than an English speaker expects.

This word order is the most neutral and natural:

Acabámos de vidrar a faiança.

The basic structure is:

[verb] + de + [infinitive] + [object]

You can move things around in some contexts for emphasis, but that is not the normal beginner pattern. For example, with emphasis, Portuguese might front the object in a larger sentence, but the standard form is the one you see here.

The sentence works in Portuguese generally, but acabámos with the written accent is especially characteristic of European Portuguese spelling conventions for distinguishing the past from the present in the nós form.

A Brazilian learner might more often encounter acabamos de vidrar a faiança in writing, with context telling you whether it means we finish or we finished / have just finished.

Since you are learning Portuguese from Portugal, acabámos is exactly the form you should pay attention to.