O movimento mudou o país.

• O = the (masculine singular definite article)
• movimento = movement (the subject of the sentence)
• mudou = changed (the verb, past tense)
• o = the again
• país = country (the direct object)

So the structure is:

Subject + verb + direct object

→ O movimento + mudou + o país

Because Portuguese uses definite articles more often than English.

Here, both nouns are masculine singular, so they take o:

• o movimento
• o país

In English, you might sometimes say just movement changed the country or the movement changed the country depending on context. In Portuguese, using o here is completely natural and expected.

Mudou is the 3rd person singular of the preterite of mudar.

That means:

• infinitive: mudar = to change
• ele/ela/você mudou = he/she/you changed

In this sentence, the subject is o movimento, which is grammatically 3rd person singular, so the verb is mudou.

This tense is used for a completed action in the past:

• O movimento mudou o país.
• The movement changed the country.

Because mudar here is being used as a transitive verb: it directly affects something.

So:

• mudar algo = to change something
• mudar o país = to change the country

There is no need for a preposition between the verb and the object.

This is important because English speakers often know mudar can also relate to moving, but in this sentence it clearly means to change, not to move.

Yes. Movimento can mean:

• physical movement
• motion
• a movement in society, politics, art, religion, etc.

In a sentence like O movimento mudou o país, the most natural interpretation is often a political, social, or historical movement, not just literal physical motion.

So movimento is a broad word, just like movement in English.

The accent in país shows that the stress falls on -ís and that the vowels are pronounced separately:

• pa-ÍS

This is called a hiatus: the a and í belong to different syllables.

Without the accent, pais is a different word:

• pais = parents
• país = country

So the accent is very important here.

A rough European Portuguese pronunciation is:

u mu-vi-MEN-tu mu-DOU u pa-ÍSH

A few useful notes:

• O often sounds like a weak u in European Portuguese.
• movimento is stressed on men.
• mudou is stressed on the last syllable.
• país is stressed on ís.
• Final s in país sounds like sh in European Portuguese.

So país sounds roughly like pah-EESH.

Yes, mudar can sometimes be translated as to move, but not in the same structure.

Examples:

• Mudei de casa. = I moved house / I moved home.
• Mudaram-se para Lisboa. = They moved to Lisbon.

But:

• mudar o país = to change the country

So in O movimento mudou o país, the meaning is definitely changed, not moved.

Yes. O movimento mudou o país is the most normal, neutral word order in Portuguese:

subject + verb + object

You could change the word order in special contexts for emphasis or style, but this version is the standard one and the best one to learn first.

No. They are both past forms, but they do not mean the same thing.

• mudou = changed / did change
  → a completed action
• mudava = used to change / was changing
  → habitual, ongoing, or background action in the past

So:

• O movimento mudou o país. = the movement changed the country
• O movimento mudava o país. = the movement was changing the country / used to change the country

In your sentence, mudou presents the change as a completed fact.

You usually can translate it very directly as The movement changed the country.

The main thing to watch is the nuance of movimento:

• it may refer to a social or political movement
• it may also be understood more abstractly depending on context

But grammatically and semantically, the sentence is straightforward. There is no hidden structure here—just a simple past statement.