Acabei de alisar cerâmica e enfornar o púcaro.

Here acabei de tells you that the speaker has finished the following action or actions, with a strong sense of recent completion.

In natural English, it is often close to:

• I’ve just...
• I just finished...

So the sentence is presenting both actions as completed.

That is a very good learner question, because textbooks often teach acabar de + infinitive as the usual way to say have just done something, for example:

• Acabo de chegar = I’ve just arrived

With acabei de, the idea can sound a bit more like I finished doing..., with extra emphasis on completion. Depending on context, it can still refer to something very recent.

So, very roughly:

• acabo de = I’ve just done it
• acabei de = I finished doing it, possibly just now

In real life, the boundary is not always sharp, but acabei de makes the completed task feel more explicit.

Because after acabar de, Portuguese normally uses the infinitive to name the action that has just been completed.

So the structure is:

• acabar de + infinitive

Examples:

• acabei de alisar
• acabou de sair
• acabámos de comer

That is the standard grammar pattern.

Yes. In this sentence, acabei de applies to both alisar cerâmica and enfornar o púcaro.

So the meaning is that the speaker completed both actions.

You can also repeat de before the second infinitive:

• Acabei de alisar a cerâmica e de enfornar o púcaro.

Both versions are possible. Repeating de can make the structure a little clearer or slightly more careful in style.

Because the two nouns are being treated differently.

cerâmica here is being used in a more general or material-like sense, similar to ceramics or ceramic work. Portuguese often allows a bare noun in that kind of use.

o púcaro is a specific, identifiable object: the pot, the clay vessel.

So the contrast is roughly:

• cerâmica = ceramic material / pottery work in general
• o púcaro = one particular pot already known in the context

If you wanted to refer to one specific ceramic piece, you would often make that clearer, for example with a peça de cerâmica.

Cerâmica can mean several related things:

• ceramics as a material
• pottery / ceramic work
• the craft or field of ceramics
• sometimes a ceramic piece, depending on context

In this sentence, it most likely refers to the ceramic material or the pottery piece being worked on.

A learner should notice that cerâmica is broader than one single English word. Depending on context, a native speaker might also say:

• barro if they mean clay
• argila if they mean clay in a more material sense
• peça de cerâmica if they mean a ceramic object

Púcaro is a fairly specific word for a clay or earthenware vessel, something like a small jug, cup, or pot made of clay.

It is not the most basic everyday word for any container. Compared with more general words such as vaso, jarro, or caneca, púcaro feels more specific and traditional.

So a learner should treat it as a concrete pottery-related word, not as the default word for any pot or cup.

Enfornar literally means to put into the oven or to put into the kiln/furnace.

In a pottery context, it usually means to place the piece in the kiln for firing.

An important nuance: enfornar focuses on the act of putting it in, not necessarily on the whole firing process being completed.

So it is closer to:

• to put into the kiln
• to load into the oven/kiln

than to to finish baking/firing.

It is understandable, especially in a pottery or workshop context, but some native speakers might find alisar cerâmica a little broad or slightly technical by itself.

Depending on the exact meaning, more idiomatic versions might be:

• Acabei de alisar a peça de cerâmica e enfornar o púcaro.
• Acabei de alisar o barro e enfornar o púcaro.

That depends on what is actually being smoothed:

• the ceramic piece
• the clay
• ceramic material in general

So the original sentence works, but context matters.

A simple stress guide is:

• a-ca-BEI de a-li-ZAR ce-RÂ-mi-ca e en-for-NAR o PÚ-ca-ro

A rough English-friendly approximation is:

• uh-kuh-BAY d' uh-lee-ZAR suh-RAH-mi-kuh ee ehn-for-NAR oo POO-kuh-roo

A more technical approximation in IPA is:

• [ɐkɐˈβɐj dɨ ɐliˈzaɾ sɨˈɾɐmikɐ i ẽfuɾˈnaɾ u ˈpukaɾu]

A few pronunciation notes:

• acabei is stressed on the last syllable
• cerâmica is stressed on râ
• púcaro is stressed on pú
• in European Portuguese, unstressed vowels are often reduced, so the sentence sounds more compact than an English speaker might expect

Yes. This structure is very common and works with many subjects.

Examples:

• Acabo de chegar = I’ve just arrived
• Ela acabou de sair = She just left / She has just left
• Acabámos de comer = We’ve just eaten
• Eles acabaram de entrar = They’ve just come in

So once you know acabar de + infinitive, you can reuse it very widely.