Enchi o cantil e levei o bastão de caminhada.

Because Portuguese often leaves out the subject pronoun when the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

Here, enchi and levei are both first-person singular forms, so eu is understood automatically. The sentence means I filled the canteen and took the walking stick/pole even without saying eu.

You can still say Eu enchi o cantil e levei o bastão de caminhada, but that usually adds emphasis, contrast, or extra clarity.

They are in the pretérito perfeito simples, which is the normal tense for completed actions in the past.

So:

• enchi = I filled
• levei = I took / carried

This tense is used for actions seen as finished events, not ongoing or habitual ones.

Because the verb is encher, which is an -er verb.

In the first-person singular of the preterite:

• many -ar verbs end in -ei: levei, falei, cheguei
• many -er and -ir verbs end in -i: enchi, comi, parti

So:

• encher → enchi
• levar → levei

That is why the two verbs have different endings.

O is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

So:

• o cantil = the canteen
• o bastão = the stick/pole

Portuguese uses definite articles very naturally when the speaker has a specific object in mind, often one already known from the context.

If the meaning were a canteen or a walking stick, you would normally use:

• um cantil
• um bastão

Cantil usually means a portable container for water, especially in outdoor, hiking, camping, or military contexts.

Depending on context, English might translate it as:

• canteen
• flask
• sometimes water bottle

It is more specific than garrafa, which is a more general word for bottle.

Literally, it is something like walking stick/pole or stick/pole for walking.

The structure noun + de + noun is very common in Portuguese to show type, purpose, or association.

So:

• bastão de caminhada = a stick/pole used for walking or hiking

Similar patterns are:

• óculos de sol = sunglasses
• sapatos de corrida = running shoes

Here, de caminhada describes what kind of bastão it is.

Usually, levar means to take or to carry away / along.

In many contexts, levei is best translated as I took:

• Levei o bastão = I took the stick/pole

Sometimes English may choose brought depending on the point of view, but without extra context, took is the safest translation here.

The usual opposite verb is trazer:

• levar = take
• trazer = bring

Not with exactly the same meaning.

• peguei o bastão means I picked up / grabbed the stick
• levei o bastão means I took the stick with me / carried it along

So peguei focuses on the act of taking it in your hand, while levei focuses on bringing it along to another place or carrying it during the activity.

In this sentence, levei is the better choice if the idea is that you took the walking stick with you.

The sentence simply says that one walking stick or pole was taken.

If you want to say two poles, you would use the plural:

• Enchi o cantil e levei os bastões de caminhada.

If you want to make the pair explicit, you could also say:

• Enchi o cantil e levei o par de bastões de caminhada.

So the original sentence is singular because it refers to just one.