Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Tu deves pensar no risco antes de atravessar a ponte. - You should think about the risk before crossing the bridge.

In European Portuguese, tu is the informal second-person singular pronoun used with friends, family or peers. Você also exists but is more formal and less common in Portugal (it’s more typical in Brazilian Portuguese). If you want to be polite or formal in Portugal, you’d use o senhor or a senhora.

Can I drop the pronoun tu in this sentence?

Yes. Portuguese is a subject-pro-drop language, so the verb ending -es already tells you it’s second-person singular. You can simply say:
Deves pensar no risco antes de atravessar a ponte.

Why is the verb deves pensar used instead of something like precisas pensar?

Dever in Portuguese functions like English “must” or “should.” It expresses obligation or strong recommendation. Precisar means “to need” and gives a slightly different nuance: you would say precisas pensar if you want to emphasize “you need to think,” but here the emphasis is on duty or obligation.

Why don’t we say deves de pensar? In Spanish it’s debes de pensar.

In standard European Portuguese, dever is used directly with the infinitive (no extra de). Adding de (dever de) is regarded as non-standard or a calque from Spanish. So the correct form is deves pensar.

What is no in pensar no risco?

No is the contraction of the preposition em + the masculine definite article o. So pensar no risco literally means “to think in/on the risk,” i.e. “to think about the risk.”

Why do we use pensar em (no risco) instead of pensar sobre?

The most common collocation in Portuguese is pensar em + noun/infinitive, similar to English “think about.” Pensar sobre exists but sounds more formal or literary; learners will hear pensar em far more often.

Why is it antes de atravessar and not antes que atravessar?

Portuguese uses antes de + infinitive when the subject of both actions is the same. If the subject differs, you would use antes que + subjunctive. Here both are “tu,” so you say antes de atravessar.

Why is atravessar written with double s?

In Portuguese orthography, a single s between vowels is pronounced like a voiced /z/, so to keep the /s/ sound you need ss. That’s why “atravessar” has ss.

Why is there a definite article before ponte (atravessar a ponte)? Could we omit it?

In Portuguese you normally use the definite article before most singular, countable nouns when talking in general or about a known object: a ponte = “the bridge.” Omitting it (atravessar ponte) would sound unnatural unless you’re using a place name or title.

Can I change the word order to Antes de atravessar a ponte, tu deves pensar no risco?

Yes, that’s perfectly fine. Portuguese allows both orders. Starting with antes de atravessar a ponte simply emphasizes the timing (“before crossing the bridge”) and is a common way to structure a cautionary sentence.