Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Ontem, a rádio gravou uma entrevista com a minha vizinha. - Yesterday, the radio recorded an interview with my neighbour.

In Portuguese, when an adverbial time expression like Ontem (yesterday) appears at the beginning of a sentence, you can—and often do—put a comma after it to separate it from the main clause. It’s not mandatory, but it makes the sentence clearer and highlights the time frame.

What tense and person is gravou, and what does it mean?

Gravou is the third-person singular of the pretérito perfeito simples of gravar (to record). It means “(he/she/it) recorded.” In this context, “a rádio gravou” = “the radio station recorded.”

Why did they say gravou uma entrevista com instead of just entrevistou?

Portuguese has two different verbs/actions here:

Gravar uma entrevista com = to record an interview with someone (focus on the recording action).
Entrevistar = to interview someone (focus on the act of asking questions).
Both are correct, but the original sentence emphasizes that the radio station recorded an interview.

Why is it a rádio and not o rádio?

Here rádio means “radio station,” and in European Portuguese it’s feminine. The definite article a marks “the radio station.” If you meant the physical device (the radio set), you might also hear o rádio, but in Portugal stations are usually referred to as a rádio.

Why is entrevista preceded by uma instead of a?

Using the indefinite article uma (a/an) tells us it’s just one interview, unspecified. If you said a entrevista, you’d be talking about a specific interview already known to both speaker and listener.

Why is the sentence com a minha vizinha instead of just com minha vizinha?

In Portuguese, possessive adjectives (meu, tua, sua, etc.) are normally accompanied by a definite article. So you say a minha vizinha rather than minha vizinha. It’s the standard way to refer to “my neighbour.”

Could you use a different preposition, like entrevista a instead of entrevista com?

No—when you use entrevista as a noun, the person being interviewed is introduced with com: entrevista com alguém. If you use the verb entrevistar, you can do entrevistaram a minha vizinha, without com.

Can you change the word order, for example, put Ontem at the end?

Yes. Portuguese is flexible with adverb placement. You could say:

A rádio gravou uma entrevista com a minha vizinha ontem.
A rádio, ontem, gravou uma entrevista com a minha vizinha.
Each variation shifts the emphasis slightly (on time, on the subject, etc.), but all are grammatically correct.