Expediram o envio ontem.

Expediram is the 3rd person plural form of the verb expedir in the pretérito perfeito (simple past).

In this kind of sentence, expedir usually means to dispatch, to ship, or to send out, especially in a formal, administrative, or logistics context.

So it is a bit more specific and formal than a general verb like enviar.

It is the pretérito perfeito do indicativo, which is the normal tense for a completed action in the past.

Because the sentence includes ontem (yesterday), Portuguese naturally uses this tense to show that the dispatch happened at a specific finished moment in the past.

So expediram means something like they dispatched / they shipped.

Portuguese often leaves out the subject pronoun when the verb ending already makes it clear.

Here, expediram tells us the subject is 3rd person plural, so it can mean:

• they
• sometimes you (plural), if the context is using vocês

Without more context, the most natural reading is they.

O is the definite article, meaning the.

So o envio means the shipment, the dispatch, or the sending of something specific that the speaker and listener already know about.

In Portuguese, articles are used more often than in English, so where English might sometimes say just shipping or dispatch, Portuguese often prefers o envio in a full sentence.

Here, envio is a noun, not a verb.

It comes from the verb enviar (to send), but in this sentence it means something like:

• shipment
• dispatch
• sending

So the structure is:

• Expediram = verb
• o envio = direct object noun phrase
• ontem = time expression

It is grammatically correct, but it can sound a bit bureaucratic or logistics-oriented.

That is because expedir and envio belong to a similar semantic area, so to an English speaker it may feel a bit like saying they dispatched the dispatch. In real usage, though, this type of wording can appear in formal business, shipping, or warehouse language.

In more everyday Portuguese, people might more often say:

• Expediram a encomenda ontem.
• Enviaram a encomenda ontem.

Those sound more natural if you are talking about a parcel or package.

Both can relate to sending, but they are not identical.

Enviar

• broader and more common
• can be used for emails, messages, documents, packages, etc.
• often the most neutral choice for to send

Expedir

• more formal
• often used for goods, orders, shipments, official documents, or things being sent out through a system
• has a stronger sense of dispatching or shipping out

So in logistics or administration, expedir is often the better fit.

Yes, ontem can move around.

Expediram o envio ontem is completely normal and probably the most neutral order.

You could also say:

• Ontem, expediram o envio.
• Expediram ontem o envio.

All of these are possible, but the version with ontem at the end sounds very natural and unmarked.

Portuguese word order is fairly flexible, especially with time expressions.

Yes, it could.

In European Portuguese, if the subject is vocês, the verb also takes the 3rd person plural form:

• vocês expediram

So expediram can mean either:

• they dispatched
• you (plural) dispatched

In a sentence without an explicit subject, context decides which one is intended. If there is no special context, learners usually interpret it as they.

Yes, very common, especially in formal or business Portuguese.

A likely passive version would be:

• O envio foi expedido ontem.

This often sounds more natural in notices, tracking updates, and administrative language, because the focus is on the shipment, not on who did the dispatching.

So if you see both versions, the difference is mainly one of focus:

• Expediram o envio ontem. → focuses more on the action/doer
• O envio foi expedido ontem. → focuses more on the shipment itself