Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Ele ganhou uma medalha de bronze no torneio de natação. - He won a bronze medal in the swimming tournament.

ganhou is the third-person-singular form of ganhar in the pretérito perfeito simples (simple past). It indicates a completed action in the past: “he won” or “he earned.”

Could I use vencer, obter, or conquistar instead of ganhar here? What are the differences?

Yes, but they carry different nuances: • vencer usually means “to defeat” or “to win” a contest or opponent (e.g. ele venceu o torneio, not a medal).
• ganhar is typically used for receiving prizes, awards or rewards (like a medal): ele ganhou uma medalha.
• obter (“to obtain”) and conquistar (“to conquer/achieve”) are more formal synonyms you can use for medals: ele obteve/conquistou uma medalha de bronze.

Why is it uma medalha de bronze and not just medalha de bronze or medalha bronze? Can I omit the article or the de?

In Portuguese, singular countable nouns generally require an article, so you need uma. Also, when indicating material or category, you link the noun with de: • uma: indefinite article for “a/one.”
• de: connects medalha (medal) to bronze (the material).
Dropping uma (as in medalha de bronze) sounds incomplete, and removing de (medalha bronze) is ungrammatical.

What is no in no torneio de natação? Why not em o torneio?

no is a contraction of the preposition em (“in”) + the masculine singular article o (“the”). Portuguese often contracts em + o into no, so no torneio means “in the tournament.”

Why do we say torneio de natação and not torneio de nadar or torneio nadando?

Portuguese uses the noun form of the sport, natação (“swimming”), not the verb nadar or the gerund nadando. To express “swimming tournament,” you link two nouns with de: • torneio (tournament) + de + natação (the sport as a noun).
Using nadar or nadando in that structure would be incorrect.

What does the tilde (~) in natação indicate, and how is it pronounced?

The tilde over ã marks a nasal vowel. natação is stressed on the last syllable: na-ta-ÇÃO. Phonetically it’s approximately [na-ta-’sɐ̃w], where ão sounds like a nasalized “ow.” You produce it by letting air flow through your nose while pronouncing “aw.”