Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): A polícia diz que a bicicleta foi perdida há apenas alguns segundos. - The police say that the bicycle was lost just a few seconds ago.

In European Portuguese polícia is a collective noun that takes singular agreement. You say a polícia diz (the police says) rather than a plural form. In English police behaves as a plural noun, so you say the police are.

Why is diz in the present tense, even though the bicycle was lost a few seconds ago?

Portuguese often uses the present tense to report what someone currently states. A polícia diz means “the police says (right now)” that something happened. If you wanted to emphasize that they already said it in the past, you could use disse, but the present is more immediate and common in news reports.

Why do we have foi perdida instead of está perdida?

foi perdida is the passive voice of perder, focusing on the moment the loss occurred (“was lost”).
está perdida uses estar + past participle to describe a current state (“is lost” or “missing”).
Here, the emphasis is on the action of losing the bicycle, not on its present condition.

Why is the past participle perdida feminine?

In Portuguese passive constructions with ser (here foi), the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject. Bicicleta is feminine singular, so the correct form is perdida.

What does há mean in há apenas alguns segundos?

Here há functions like the English “ago.” há alguns segundos literally means “a few seconds ago.” It’s a fixed way to talk about time elapsed.

Could we use faz instead of há to say “ago”?

Yes. You can say faz apenas alguns segundos and it will be understood as “it's been just a few seconds.”

há is more formal/written.
faz is common in speech, especially with hours, days, months.

What nuance does apenas add, and could we use só instead?

apenas means “only/just,” emphasizing the small time span.
só works too and is more colloquial: há só alguns segundos.
Both convey “just a few seconds ago,” but apenas sounds a bit more formal.

Why do we include alguns before segundos? Can we say há apenas segundos?

alguns means “a few.” It quantifies segundos.
Without it, há apenas segundos sounds incomplete—Portuguese prefers an explicit small quantity.
You could also say há poucos segundos for “a few seconds ago,” but you need a word indicating “few.”

Is perder normally transitive? How does the passive voice work here?

Perder is a transitive verb (you lose something). In this sentence the agent (the person who lost the bike) is unknown or irrelevant, so Portuguese uses the passive:
ser (foi) + past participle (perdida).
Hence a bicicleta foi perdida means “the bicycle was lost,” without naming who lost it.